Bahamas – Minister of State for Grand Bahama, Senator Kwasi Thompson, one of the pioneers of the Grand Bahama Technology Summit, said during the second such summit, focus will be on showcasing education programs and highlighting the efforts and achievements of government and the Grand Bahama Technology Hub Steering Committee over the last year.
“In particular, we will highlight the Ministry of Education’s ICT plans for our schools, which recently signed a deal for technology upgrade and provision of tablets for teachers and students across the nation,” said Minister Thompson.
“We will also highlight BTVI’s ICT courses and certificates, which are now offered to Bahamians free of charge. And we will see the first ICT trained high school students who completed the first phase of their summer certification course, and our new programme with the YMCA to provide coding certification to 100 young Grand Bahamians.”
The Minister’s remarks came during an official launch of the Second Annual Grand Bahama Technology Summit in a grand affair press conference at Pelican Bay resort on Wednesday, October 10, 2018. The Tech Summit is slated to take place in Freeport, Grand Bahama, November 14-16, 2018 at the Grand Lucayan.
During the press conference, Minister Thompson noted that one of the most exciting aspects will be the unique opportunity for registered participants to take part in certificate courses offered by high-level international technology companies.
Availability for these courses will be limited based on prerequisite training, as well as class size capacity.
“We will be hosting executives from tech giant CISCO Systems, which is another global technology company with over 70,000 employees,” said Minister Thompson. “We will have the benefit of CISCO Networks Academy Training Modules which will provide training in the area of Networks and Programming.
“In addition, we will also have a team from CompTIA which is the Computing Technology Industry Association, a non-profit trade association, issuing professional certifications for the information technology (IT) industry. It is considered one of the IT industry’s top trade associations. They will be providing Training modules in Corporate Digital Transformation and Cyber Security.
“We are further pleased to partner with local title sponsors ALIV and GIBC, Our special innovation partner sponsor Grand Bahama Power Company, and our gold sponsor the Grand Bahama Port Authority.”
Exhibitors expected to be at this year’s convention include FowlCo Logistics, Buckeye Bahamas Hub, Hutchinson Ports, Freeport Container Port, Grand Bahama Airport Company, Freeport Harbour Company, Seagrape Inc. (Nassau) and Unified Technologies (USA).
Minister Thompson said he was particularly pleased to note that during the summit, he, along with all Grand Bahamians, will get to hear from one of the summit’s innovation partners, GB Power Company, which will unveil its renewable energy plan for Grand Bahama and will highlight and showcase the use of electric vehicles on the island.
“We are also hoping to hear how Grand Bahama Power will bring down the cost of electricity on Grand Bahama,” quipped Minister Thompson. “So I’m sure that everyone in Grand Bahama will be attending the Second Annual Tech Summit.
In addition to the impressive line-up of international speakers expected at this year’s summit, Minister Thompson said, there will also be a lineup of well-versed, professional Bahamians in the field of technology from around the globe who will also be presenters.
Registration for the Second Annual Grand Bahama Technology Summit is now opened, and interested persons can log on to grandbahamatechsummit.com or visit the official Facebook Page, Grand Bahama Technology Summit, to register.
