The Tribune

The Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) is supporting the Government's plan to make this nation the "Silicon Valley of the Caribbean" by hosting a seminar to enhance small businesses' Internet presence.

The technology workshop was held at BAIC's headquarters this Tuesday, with its chairman, Michael Foulkes, saying: "As the Government of The Bahamas embarks on a mission to establish The Bahamas as the Silicon Valley of the Caribbean, the prime minister envisions using smart technology to establish the archipelago as a smart country, beginning with the island of New Providence."

The workshop, Mr Foulkes explained, was created as a result of business owners wanting to develop new markets in which to sell their products.

He added: "We see the need to work directly with small businesses by assisting them with setting-up on the worldwide web as well as social media platforms, so that the world will know that they exist and expose them to greater potential international trade."

Kristie Powell, chief executive and co-founder of Coral Software development company, conducted the workshop. Ms Powell is also technical advisor to the Government in the Ministry of Finance, and is overseeing its digital transformation initiative. She serves on the board of the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC).

"Ms Powell is a result-driven technologist, strong in design, integration techniques with experience in software design process, rapid prototyping, implementation, testing and support," said Mr Foulkes.

"Before start-up life, Ms Powell, was a senior technical solutions consultant at Google in New York. Ms Powell joined Google in 2014 and was responsible for providing technical solutions to Google's top partners in the advertising online arena. She began her career at Goldman Sachs in 2008 as an analyst in the technology division, and spent her time developing technology infrastructure solutions for the firm."