JAMPRO, in partnership with Kingston Creative, will be hosting the “Best Pitch Forward” elevator pitch competition that will give ten creative entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their business concepts to potential investors with the hopes of raising much-needed funds to kick-start their projects.
This event will be held virtually on Friday, November 27, 2020 at 5pm and forms part of Kingston Creative’s goal of establishing an art district and business hub for creative entrepreneurs in the Caribbean – based in Downtown Kingston. Since the recent establishment of the hub, Kingston Creative has been providing support to the creative community through workshops and other networking initiatives that will help to generate economic benefit for creatives. Most recently, the team hosted two virtual workshops – facilitated by Graft Ventures CEO, Dmitri Dawkins – that helped local creative entrepreneurs learn how to make their projects investment ready as well as taught them how they can make their business pitches more effective. The creative entrepreneurs who participated in the workshops come from a wide cross-section of disciplines; including music, film, animation, software, and gaming to name a few.
Kingston Creative Director, Andrea Dempster-Chung had this to say: “Best Pitch Forward Is an exciting opportunity for creative entrepreneurs to learn how to package and pitch creative projects so that they can grow. We’re happy to be partnering with JAMPRO on this project as they are more than capable of providing creatives with the requisite knowledge and guidance to navigate the business side of the creative industry and help them be successful.”
Renee Robinson, Film Commissioner at Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) said: “It is crucial for us to find more ways to mobilize private capital and business resources to entrepreneurs in the creative economy. In many ways, the creative economy demonstrates raw resilience and the opportunity to ‘future-proof’ the way we do business. There is always a global demand for content and always uses creative tech to find solutions to real business problems. We are thrilled to partner with Kingston Creative to discover and catalyse entrepreneurship within the creative economy. Our ‘sweet spot’ is for projects that are investment-ready and commercially viable. The upskilling received through Graft Ventures has prepared the participants for that, and I wish them all lots of success in the pitch and their business meetings.”
The three judges for ‘Best Pitch Forward’ will be Wayne Sutherland, Managing Director Jamaica Venture Fund, Opal Levy from Alpha Angels and Judith Alberga from the Content and Monetization Unit, Television Jamaica. The ten entrepreneurs will vie for an investment award, the judges will choose a winner who will win a cash prize and at the virtual event, and the public will also be able to vote for their favourite pitch winner, who will receive the People’s Choice Award.
In addition to the pitch event, the participants will be selected to attend private virtual B2B meetings with a wider group of JAMPRO-recommended investors throughout December. These private “match-making” sessions are an essential opportunity for creatives to really talk about their ideas and for interested investors to ask probing questions. The meetings are intended to advance investment opportunities for their projects and move some of these creative businesses to the next level.
ABOUT KINGSTON CREATIVE
Kingston Creative is a movement that believes that Kingston is the Creative Capital of the Caribbean. Kingston Creative has engaged key stakeholders in the community, government, academia and the private sector to support the vision of creating an art district and hub for creative entrepreneurs in Downtown Kingston over the next five to ten years.
