After two years of mostly virtual facilitation, the N.C.B. ICON Lab held a hybrid event to announce the reopening of its facilities. This event recognized the successful implementation and achievements of 2021, and took the opportunity to celebrate the graduation of a group of 92 innovative Jamaican young minds, who recently completed the Lab’s 40-hour training program.
In partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Belmopan, The Trust for The Americas, an NGO affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS), will launch an Innovation Lab for youth in Belize City. The Democratizing Innovation in the Americas (DIA) program will train and empower over 300 Belizeans, foster multi-stakeholder collaboration, and support a long-term process to spur innovative ideas.
To foster an entrepreneurial mindset and advance economic opportunities for Jamaican youth, the NCB I.C.O.N. Lab held its first Pitch Tank Competition. This space provided 19 innovative minds with the opportunity to present their creative ideas to a panel of judges, in the hope of receiving up to USD 1,000 in seed funding to take their ventures to the next level.
The Trust for the Americas, through its Democratizing Innovation in the Americas (DIA) Program, and in partnership with the Citi Foundation, has selected ADASEC Dominicana as the organization that will implement the new DIA Innovation Lab in the Dominican Republic. This will be the third lab launched in the Caribbean, thanks to this collaboration.
The Trust for the Americas has partnered with Fortinet®, a global leader in comprehensive, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, to reduce the gap of trained professionals in the cybersecurity industry in Latin America and the Caribbean, by offering Fortinet Network Security Expert (NSE) courses at The Trust’s DIA Innovation Labs. The alliance will provide DIA Lab participants with training in four key areas: AI-Driven Security Operations, Dynamic Cloud Security, Security Driven Networking, and Zero Trust Network Access.
The DIA Lab in Trinidad and Tobago celebrated its first graduation ceremony, in which 46 young Trinbagonians were recognized for completing the DIA training program, focused on digital and entrepreneurial courses.
The “Shaping the post pandemic Jamaica” Ideathon created a collaborative space to generate innovative solutions to address challenges that affect communities in the Caribbean country after COVID-19.
The Trust for the Americas financiará con hasta $80,000 dólares a una institución que capacite y fomente la innovación y emprendedurismo en 200 jóvenes dominicanos.
The Pitch Tank Competition is one of the main components of the project "Urban Labs for Youth Innovation in Jamaica”, implemented by The Trust for the Americas, through the DIA program (Democratizing Innovation in the Americas) and the financial support of Citi Foundation.
The virtual competition invited tech-savvy innovators from Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago to develop new ideas that support the COVID-19 recovery response.
