ICT Pulse Podcast

In the Caribbean region, small-scale farming is the backbone of our agriculture sector, but often, it is difficult for farmers to access funding that would be open to ventures in other sectors.  FarmCredibly has been working on addressing such challenges by providing simplified financial services to underbanked farmers in Jamaica. In a follow-up conversation with one of its Co-Founders, Danelia Do...

In our June 2024 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Aldin Crosdale, an IT Internal Auditor in Jamaica and the Community Manager for the Jamaican Developers Community/Caribbean Tech Connect , and Halle Johnson (Mr.), a Systems Administrator at the University of The West Indies Five Islands Campus in Antigua and Barbuda , the panel discusses:    *  How do we ready our...

Whether we realise it or not, the decisions C-suite executives are making are shaping our digital experiences: the way we live, work, and interact online and with technology. With Lisa-Maria Alexander, a Certified Chartered Director, and the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Strategist of The Leadership Xperience, and focusing on Caribbean organisations, Lisa-Maria gives a perspective from the boa...

Thanks to technology, especially generative artificial intelligence (AI), getting into the hands of consumers, the business landscape and our societies have been evolving faster than ever.   Lorenzo Hodges of Plain White Table is back again to continue the conversation we started in 2019 on innovation in organisations. Now five years later, Lorenzo shares his thoughts on, among other things:   * ...

Being part of the global marketplace has many benefits. Though we, in the Caribbean region , are innovative and culturally rich, doing business successfully with international customers is still challenging – especially for micro, small and medium enterprises. Kadion Preston, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Caribshopper, an e-commerce platform that allows Caribbean merchants to sell...

In our May 2024 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Allison James, a Certified Information Systems Auditor and   Certified Information Privacy Professional based at KPMG in Barbados , and Rojane Rose, a Product Owner at MC Systems in Jamaica, the panel discusses:    *  data and digital illiteracy in a world of data privacy and cybersecurity;   *  the digital challenge...

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) is a critical enabler of the digital transformation of countries by helping them to improve the delivery of public service at scale. Our guests, David Soutar and Matthew McNaughton of the SlashRoots Foundation, discuss, among other things:   *  what is DPI and why it is important;   *  how DPI can be designed to be inclusive and ensure equitable access for all c...

We celebrate our 300 th episode of the Podcast with a long-time friend of the show, Trevor Forrest, experienced IT expert and Founder of 876 Technology Solutions, in which we continue the discussion we started in January 2024 on the internet we should want in 2024 and beyond. In this conversation, Trevor shares his thoughts on:   *  how the internet has evolved over the past 30 years;   *  Artific...

In our April 2024 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Jordanne Elliott, a Project Manager in Jamaica, and Friend of the Show, Liselle Yorke, a Communications Strategist, originally from Tobago but based in the United States, the panel discusses:    •  Tech career insights, and the future of work in the Caribbean;   •  Content creation for persons with disabilities; an...

For the past few years, most Caribbean countries have been sitting on the sidelines of conversations on 5G, as there were no immediate plans for it to be deployed. However, within the past year, Paradise Mobile has launched operations in Bermuda, with the Cayman Islands next in line, and more Caribbean countries to come. Zlatko Zahirovic, the Chief Technical Officer and a Co-Founder of Paradise Mo...

Natural disasters and other emergencies are not situations that can be completely avoided, but like insurance, it is good to have access to the requisite support in times of need. As we approach the 2024 North Atlantic hurricane season, we thought it opportune to reshare a conversation we had with Sylvester Cadette, of the International Telecommunication Union, in 2021 on the Tampere Convention in...

In the second instalment in our Expert insights series on cyber threats and security for 2024, and with Obika Gellineau, the Cyber Services Manager of KPMG in Trinidad and Tobago, he discusses, among other things:    *  the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) data leak;   *  AI-related security risks of which we should be aware ;   *  the biggest cybersecurity challenges face...

In this our March 2024 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Telecommunications/ICT Consultant, Lendon Telesford and Perro Perry Holloway, of the Barbados National Organisation of the Disabled (BARNOD Inc.), the panel discusses:   *  the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities (generally) and the inclusion of persons with disability in the workplace with technolo...

Ultra-personalisation was identified as a trend to watch in the early 2010s and it has become increasingly evident and integral in the delivery of a broad range of services, including online education.   In our follow-up conversation with Ricardo Allen, the Founder and CEO of One on One Educational Services, he shares with us, among other things:   *  what has been happening at One on One since ou...

Innovation. Virtually everyone hopes they are considered innovative, and organisations and our societies at large also want to be seen as being innovative, but there are several myths surrounding innovation that ought to be debunked. We revisit our 2019 interview with Lorenzo Hodges, of innovation strategy firm, Plain White Table, in which he discusses, among other things:      *  the biggest misc...

A few years ago, blockchain technology was considered transformative – the best thing since sliced bread – but today, we have not been hearing much about it at all. With Cleve Mesidor of the Blockchain Foundation, we discuss:   *  the current state of blockchain technology,   *  how it can be leveraged in the Caribbean region, especially to improve the lives and livelihoods of ordinary citizens, a...

In the first instalment in our Expert insights series on cyber threats and security for 2024, and once again with Sean Slattery of Caribbean Solutions Lab, he discusses, among other things:    *  the changes in the threat landscape that occurred in 2023;   *  the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the security space;   *  ethical considerations surrounding cybersecurity, particularly in are...

In our February 2024 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Media and Business Strategist, Nerissa Golden, of Goldenmedia LLC, and ICT Consultant and head of PromoTIC in Haiti, Gregory Domond, the panel discusses:   *  Governments and their use of influencers and content marketing as part of their communications strategy;   *  telecommunications networks and infrastructu...

How long could our countries feed themselves if they were cut off from the rest of the world and could only depend on the resources currently within their domain? It is a question more countries are grappling with when addressing matters related to food security and sustainable agriculture. In this podcast episode, we circle back to Bevon Chadel Charles and Akata Farms in Grenada to find out, amon...

Without a doubt, many conversations are being had globally on artificial intelligence (AI), and one of the most important occurred during the recently held Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. Software Architect and Tech Entrepreneur, Joel Dean, who attended the meeting, joins us on this episode and shares with us:    *  the AI-related issues that were discuss...

The robotics programme in Saint Kitts and Nevis has been growing from strength to strength since we last spoke to Dr. Ricardo Neil in late 2018 and even has expanded to other Caribbean countries. Now the Chairman and Founder of the Saint Kitts and Nevis Robotics Association, Professor Neil discusses, among other things:   *  how the Saint Kitts and Nevis robotics space has evolved;   *  Caribbean-...

In our January 2024 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Esmeralda Levens of BearingPoint Caribbean in Curaçao, and Technology Architect and Digital Transformation Consultant , Garfield Gordon, of Jamaica , the panel discusses:     *  e-commerce in the Caribbean;   *  the resilience of our internet infrastructure; and   *  the Caribbean brain drain in the remote work e...

Is the internet we should want in 2024 different from the internet we wanted in 2014? The internet of 2014 has evolved considerably, but have our expectations of the internet and the ways we could be using it, kept up with the developments that have occurred? With Telecommunications/Internet Operations and Policy Strategist, Shernon Osepa, we discuss the current state of the internet in the Caribb...

Deep tech and impact innovation are not terms that are readily discussed in the Caribbean tech start-up space but are considered crucial and strategic if the region wants to level up and truly punch above its weight in tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Telly Valerie Onu, of Quintessence Consulting Inc., shares with us key insights on how Caribbean countries can increase the impact of technolog...

In this our final Community Chat and final episode for 2023, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Yacine Khelladi of the Caribbean ICT Stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC), and Matthew Cowen, of dgtlfutures, the panel discusses the ICT/technology trends and developments that were evident across the Caribbean region in 2023, and what might be in store in 2024. Questions answered duri...