{"id":135249,"date":"2018-07-11T05:18:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T10:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=135249"},"modified":"2018-07-11T05:17:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T10:17:16","slug":"ictp-013-creating-safe-space-tech-entrepreneurship-jamaica-ingrid-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2018\/07\/ictp-013-creating-safe-space-tech-entrepreneurship-jamaica-ingrid-riley\/","title":{"rendered":"ICTP 013: Creating a safe space for tech entrepreneurship in Jamaica, with Ingrid Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>In Jamaica, and after 11 years, \u00a0the longstanding meet-up event, Kingston BETA, which was such a force in the Jamaica tech community and gave new and seasoned entrepreneurs a place to share, learn and network, had its last staging in June. In this podcast episode, we sit with Ingrid Riley, Founder and Host of Kingston BETA, to discuss her own journey, the legacy of Kingston BETA in Jamaica and even the wider Caribbean, and what might in the cards for the future.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/470053233&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>This episode is also available in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/ict-pulse-podcast\/id1373550291\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple iTunes<\/a>\u00a0and on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/ict-pulse-podcast?refid=stpr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stitcher<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Blurb\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\">A dozen years ago, the tech entrepreneurship space in the Caribbean is not like it is now. At that time, techies were considered outliers \u2013 an exotic and raggedly bunch who were trying to make their pipe dreams come true. Fast forward to today, technology and innovation are being actively encouraged in schools and by policymakers, and may even be considered mainstream. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here on the ICT Pulse Podcast and to date, many of the entrepreneurs and business leaders we have featured have tech backgrounds, be it through their studies or upbringing. However, this week\u2019s guest has had an interesting journey: from starting in communications and journalism, to being a tech entrepreneur, tech event organizer, tech ecosystem pioneer, and even being a digital media specialist!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_135268\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-135268\" data-attachment-id=\"135268\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2018\/07\/ictp-013-creating-safe-space-tech-entrepreneurship-jamaica-ingrid-riley\/ingridrileyheadshot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ingridrileyheadshot.jpg?fit=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"400,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"ingridrileyheadshot (Source: Ingrid Riley)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Ingrid Riley&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ingridrileyheadshot.jpg?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ingridrileyheadshot.jpg?fit=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-image-135268 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ingridrileyheadshot-300x300.jpg?resize=300%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ingridrileyheadshot.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ingridrileyheadshot.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ingridrileyheadshot.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-135268\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ingrid Riley<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Meet Ingrid Riley, the Founder of Silicon Caribe Media, which operates the platform <a href=\"http:\/\/www.siliconcaribe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Silicon Caribe<\/a>. Ingrid also organized and hosted Kingston BETA, the long-running tech community meet-up held in Kingston, Jamaica, which created a safe space for techies to share ideas, learn and network, and has been the model for similar events across the region.<\/p>\n<p>This past June, and after 11 years, over 100 stagings and over 10,000 attendees, Ingrid held the final Kingston BETA. As she contemplates her next move, we thought it opportune to have a chat with her, to reflect on the phenom that was Kingston BETA, some of the lessons learned, and her plans for the future. Some of topics we covered during out discussion included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How and why Ingrid changed paths from communications\/journalism to becoming a tech entrepreneur<\/li>\n<li>How, over the years, she has been able to make peace with pivoting or stepping away from ventures she worked hard to build, maintain, grow<\/li>\n<li>What Kingston BETA was about, and its impact on the Jamaican, and even Caribbean-wide, tech environment<\/li>\n<li>Why did she decide to end Kingston Beta<\/li>\n<li>Ingrid\u2019s thoughts on how has the Jamaican and regional tech landscape has changed over the past 10\u201412 years since she started Kingston BETA<\/li>\n<li>How the Caribbean countries can exponentially improve or transform their tech space<\/li>\n<li>As a woman in tech, what has been here experience navigating that space<\/li>\n<li>As an entrepreneur, and freelancer for a number of years, how she keeps excited and inspired when things are going slow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Select links<\/h3>\n<p>Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that were mentioned, or might be useful:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.siliconcaribe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Silicon Caribe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kingstonbeta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kingston BETA<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.top5jamaica.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Top 5 Jamaica<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamdeal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jam Deal.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dbankjm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bank of Jamaica<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dbankjm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Development Bank of Jamaica<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Jamaicans.com article,\u00a0 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/jamaicans.com\/kingston-beta-finale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>We kickstarted a community\u2026 \u2013 A Conversation with Ingrid Riley on the Kingston BETA Finale<\/em><\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mamachel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Adventures of Mamachel\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.myquickplate.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">QuickPlate<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/alcyoneanimation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alcyone Animation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Image credits:\u00a0 TheAngryTeddy (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pixabay.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pixabay<\/a>); Ingrid Riley<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Music credit:\u00a0 Ray Holman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Jamaica, and after 11 years, \u00a0the longstanding meet-up event, Kingston BETA, which was such a force in the Jamaica tech community and gave new and seasoned entrepreneurs a place [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[355],"tags":[71,205,204,86,15],"class_list":["post-135249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-businesses","tag-entrepreneurship-2","tag-innovation-2","tag-meetings","tag-trends","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/microphone-audio-computer-TheAngryTeddy-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C680&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-zbr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135249"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135301,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135249\/revisions\/135301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}