Winners announced in C’bean Innovation Challenge

Grenada’s Tambran by Tamara was among the six winners of the Caribbean Innovation Challenge competition, which was held in Barbados at the Hilton Hotel.

The competition, which saw 20 finalists from 11 countries around the region, was broken down into three categories – Social, Economic and Environmental Entrepreneurship – and two winners were awarded per category.

CONGRATS TAMARA!: Here, Tamara Prosper from Grenada
accepts the Best Environmental Entrepreneurship Award.
Her company, Tambran by Tamara, was one of the six winners
of the Caribbean Innovation Challenge competition, which was
held at the Hilton Hotel in Barbados. 

The winners of the Best Economic Entrepreneurship award went to Wesley Gervais’ Hivesource, a new company out of Trinidad and Tobago, which is an online outsourcing marketplace that creates a space for freelancers to bid on projects as well as showcase their work.

The second winner was LCP Industries, an agricultural company based in Antigua and Barbuda with the aim to establish a fully automated and mechanical commercial crop production site to effectively manage the production of various sites. Their team members were Winston Laville, Jermaine Paul and Dominic Chastanet.

In the Social Category, the Barbadian team comprising Kevin Bishop, Rochelle Walrond, Ivan Cox and Chenika Moore won the award for Best Social Entrepreneurship Award with their company Book Line, which allows the customer to rent and buy textbooks at a reduced price as well as course materials and calculators for tertiary students.

The team of Christopher Eli Parris and Jonelle René Jones, from Trinidad and Tobago, won the second Social Entrepreneurship Award with their company, Mr. Tallyman’s Sun Dried Bananas, which produces delicious all-natural dehydrated banana strips, free of added sugars and preservatives.

It was all smiles for Tamara Prosper from Grenada when her company, Tambran by Tamara, won the Best Environmental Entrepreneurship Award. The basis of her company involved using certain waste materials from companies to create contemporary and wearable fashion accessories.

Kamara Jerome from St. Vincent and the Grenadines was the second winner to receive the Environmental Entrepreneurship Award for his company called Emerald Energy. His business develops boat prototypes powered using green energy, such as solar and wind energy.

As noted by Roy Thomasson, Chair, BOD, Young Americas Business Trust, as he addressed the audience and the finalists, “It is time to administer the next stage! The next stage is carrying on, persisting, keeping at it, don’t give up and learning from your mistakes.

“It’s not about winning or losing, but about carrying on with your plan of action. Now is the time for action,” he said.

These six teams will now have the opportunity to compete at the hemispheric level in the TIC Americas and Eco-Challenge Caribbean 2013, which will be held from June 2 to 3 in Guatemala. (AC)