The Bahamas and
Belize have collaboratively made history by winning the Compete Caribbean
Mediathon held recently in Barbados, November 22nd-23rd,
2016. It was the Caribbean’s first mediathon.
The winning
proposal came from a team comprising University of The Bahamas Director of
Communication Mrs. Tameka Lundy and UB Media Journalism student Deanya Knowles
and Belize television personalities Courtney Weatherburne and Marleni Cuellar.
The winning
proposal, called “STEM-tastic”, aims to leverage traditional and new media to
increase the participation of Caribbean nationals in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math (STEM) careers. The proposal involves producing a whimsical
book series for 8-11 year olds in the Caribbean region which showcases success
stories of individuals whose STEM careers have made them icons. The compelling
feature of the book series would be the use of augmented reality technology to
reinforce interest in books and reading and encourage young children to aspire
to careers in the STEM field.
Each team pitched
ideas to a judging panel of experts which included Executive Director of Compete
Caribbean, Sylvia Dohnert; IDB Communications Consultant, Pamala Proverbs;
Secretary General of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, Sonia Gill;
Editor-in-Chief of MIT Technology Review, Marta del Amo and Rudy Hogan, Second
Secretary Development, Government of Canada.
The Bahamas-Belize
team will be funded to participate in an overseas science, technology and
innovation communications event and will receive three mentoring sessions with
OPINNO, a global innovation firm that helps large corporations to transform
through the innovative methodologies used by start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Compete Caribbean
hosted the media challenge to engage media and communication professionals in
the production of content to support science, technology and innovation in the
Caribbean region. Compete Caribbean is a private sector development programme
that provides technical assistance grants and investment funding to support
productive development policies, business climate reforms, clustering
initiatives and Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) development activities
in the Caribbean region. The programme, jointly funded by the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB), the United Kingdom Department for International
Development (DFID) and the Government of Canada, supports projects in 15
countries.
