2011 Symposium Topics - The University of the West Indies - Open ...

Second Symposium in the Alphonsus “Arrow” Cassell Memorial Lecture SeriesTheme: “Creative Industries: Forces for Change, Innovation and Entrepreneurship”Thursday November 10, 20116.30pmCultural Centre Conference RoomTOPICS and PRESENTERSFEATURE ADDRESS: The Business of MusicIvan Berry, Manager, iB Entertainment and BeatFactory Record LabelA proud native of St. Kitts, Ivan Berry has been actively involved in the development ofthe music industry and infrastructure across the Caribbean. He began his career in 1982when he started BeatFactory brand with his partner Rupert Gayle. In 1996, he launchedthe BeatFactory record label and continues to work with artists who have sold millions ofrecords worldwide and have collected countless industry honours. As Head of A&R andInternational for Sony BMG Canada from 2000-2004, Berry was responsible for thedevelopment, recording and international marketing of Sony BMG Canada’s domesticroster. The community-at-large has recognized Berry for his many achievements. In2000, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Urban Music Association ofCanada (UMAC). In 2004, he received the Bob Marley Day Award for his continuedsuccess, his on-going role in the community and the projection of a positive image foryouth. In 2005, Berry was honoured with the Music, Arts & Entertainment Award fromthe St. Kitts Canadian Association.The Business of MusicThe Caribbean’s recorded music business has for some time now faced an imbalancebetween musical talent and a deficit of infrastructure and expertise REQUIRED to ensurethat artists reap maximum financial benefits from their talent. With this said, artistsroutinely relocate to foreign territories for better opportunities, taking huge multiplerevenue streams with them and misplacing the benefit of attendant taxes outside of theCaribbean.Even worse, the IP that attaches to this talent is generally controlled or owned abroad.The preservation and ownership of our intellectual property is an invaluable asset thatwill not only benefit the Region from economic gains for years to come, but will alsokeep our culture, poetry and the uniqueness of our “musical organized noise” with therightful owners for decades to come. As we approach a global, digital convergence, arange of opportunities exists for Caribbean music and culture to impact the world. Nowis the time for us to make our mark to capture our piece of the pie with minimal effort.The Caribbean has always had an entertainment industry, but never a recording industrydevised of all of the infrastructural components that lead to job creation, domestic &international revenue and the generation of intellectual property, all of which leads towealth creation and retention in the Region. Young people can be made to recognize the

options that are available to them in the music industry. They must first be taught to aligneducation, both practical and formal, with their talents as graphic designers, arbitrators,stylists, makeup artists, engineers, songwriters, producers, publicists, road managers,managers, choreographers, dancers, photographers and the scores of other roles that makeup a vibrant and perpetual recording industry.We have the expertise and experience, the contacts and the international partners, tobring a global perspective to the Caribbean marketplace. In doing so, young people willrecognize the plethora of options available to them, that the combination between talentand education is an indomitable fortress.WARREN CASSELL, LL.B, LL.MWarren M. Cassell is an Attorney at law specializing in Intellectual Property, Medialaw, Entertainment and Sports law and the founder of Cassell Law (now Cassell &Lewis) a full-serviced intellectual property law firm. He attended the University of theWest Indies where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1998. In 2003, hegraduated from the Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California with a Mastersof Law (LL.M) in Intellectual Property focusing on entertainment and sports law. Hepractices in the Eastern Caribbean in the areas of Copyright, Media Law, Sports Law,Internet Law Trademarks, Entertainment Law and other aspects of Intellectual Property.He has conducted Intellectual Property Audits for several companies in the region andhas worked for several individuals and organizations including the Government ofAntigua & Barbuda. He has recently published a book entitled O’HABITS: 40 SuccessHabits of Oprah Winfrey and the One Bad Habit She Needs to Stop! which is nowavailable as an e-book. The book has also been recently translated into a secondlanguage for the Asian market.Is This Arrow’s Second Death?: A Look at Arrow’s Music one Year LaterUpon the death of an author or songwriter, copyright laws provide protection of creationsfor a limited time – 50 years after death. The Estates of Elvis Presley, Bob Marley andMichael Jackson have all exploited this limited time with Michael Jackson’s Estateamassing nearly a billion dollars within one year of his death. While the music of thesethree King’s (King of Rock & Roll, King of Reggae and King of Pop) remained alive andbecame increasingly popular after their death, it seems as if the King of Soca’s music isdying. Entertainment Attorney Warren Cassell examines the action of the Estates of thethree Kings and compares them to that of the King of Soca. Are we seeing the seconddeath of Arrow and can his “after life” be spared?LOWELL FIET, PhDUniversity of Puerto RicoLowell Fiet holds MA and PhD degrees and has over thirty years of experience as aProfessor of theater history and performance in the US and especially in Puerto Rico. Hisnumerous articles and books focus on Caribbean and Puerto Rican dramatic expression,

and he directed the Taller de Imágenes theater collective (1988-1995). His workfrequently focuses on masked rituals, celebrations, and cultural performances.Also active as a critic, he has written theater reviews for the weekly Puerto Ricannewspaper Claridad since 1992. He teaches at the University of Puerto Rico in RíoPiedras and currently directs the Interdisciplinary Studies Program of the College ofHumanities.“Arts in Education: Bringing School Directors into the Performance”The fundamental premise of the mask-making workshops offered by másTaller is to offerstudents (including teachers and school directors) the experience of cutting, painting, andfinally acting and playing mas’ in their masks. The emphasis of the workshops fallsdirectly on visual, plastic, sonorous, and corporeal expression as important not only ininforming learning processes in art, music, and drama classes --classes that are now beingoffered with less frequency-- but, as empirical evidence now indicates, transversally inlanguages, math, history, and science. The use of a Caribbean “cultural performance”process proposes to reinforce the need, first, to transform the normative learningenvironment --its form, structure, and perspective-- to insure that the classroom assumesa new identity and dimension as an open space of creative expression. Second, theprocess urges the teachers to take advantage of materials and resources that already formpart the students’ everyday life and the immediate social conditions that surround them.Even at elementary and middle school levels, through research and fieldwork, students,teachers, and key members of the community become living textbooks and activelyparticipate in the writing or re-writing of curricula that evolve by integrating theirpersonal and collective archives of images and experiences.SAMUEL JOSEPH PhDDirector of Lavabits (Montserrat’s First Software Company)Samuel Joseph completed his high school education in Montserrat and after one year ofteaching at the Montserrat Secondary School (MSS) enrolled at the University of theWest Indies to study Mathematics and Physics. He graduated three years later with firstclass Honors in Mathematics and went on to complete the M.Phil in ComputationalPhysics at UWI. In pursuit of his dream to become a Physicist, he applied to and wasaccepted to the Abdus Salam Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste Italy. When thisprogram was completed he returned to Montserrat and spent two years teachingMathematics and Physics at the MSS. He left Montserrat in 2004 to pursue the Ph.D inPhysics at Baylor University but returned after graduation and taught for a year at theMontserrat Community College (MCC). He currently runs the island’s first softwareCompany, Lavabits and also teaches part time at the MCC.Education for Participating in Creative IndustriesIn order to prepare our citizens for the creative industries of the present and the unknownfuture we do not need an evolution in our education system but a revolution.

Our world is dynamic, dramatic and unpredictable. Technological revolution, humanpopulation growth, economic upheaval and climate change make predicting what willhappen in the near future an impossibility. Our education system has the challenge toprepare our citizens for this uncertain future. Due to the uncertain nature of the future thenumber one skill that must be imparted to our learners is creativity. Unfortunately ourpresent education system does the exact opposite. We educate the creativity out of ourstudents. This paper will discuss the current state of education in Montserrat and theCaribbean, with special emphasis on Mathematics and Science.It will be argued that the in order to prepare our citizens for the creative industries of thepresent and the unknown future we do not need an evolution in our education system buta revolution. Our current education system was conceived during the enlightenment erato produce workers for the industrial revolution. With some minor tweaks this is the samesystem that we have today. This system is inadequate to prepare the innovative andcreative thinkers that we require and will be required in greater numbers in the future.We need a system that produces creative thinkers and not algorithm followers.DEIRDRE O. LABASSIEREAttorney-at-Law (New York), LL.M (International Human Rights), LL.B (Hons),LaBassiere Sawyers LLP – PartnerDeirdre LaBassiere has 9 years experience as a lawyer. She gained her LL.B (Hons)degree from the University of Buckingham in 2000 and also holds an LL.M inInternational Human Rights from Birmingham City University. She qualified in 2002 asa New York Attorney-at-Law. Deirdre trained with Mills & Reeve in Birmingham UKand then ran a legal consultancy, Nedd LaBassiere from 2002. From 2006-2008 Deirdreworked for a large care organisation as their in-house legal advisor. In 2008, Deirdre cofoundedSocial Care Solicitors, focussing on Company/Commercial Law, Immigrationand Offshore incorporation. She is Corporate Counsel to Globagroup International plcand her clients include Best for Business UK, and Caribbean4Life. Deirdre is one of thefounding members of the Caribbean Regional Development Foundation and is currentlypartner with LaBassiere Sawyers LLP, a Group which operates to provide legal, wealthmanagement, project finance and investment services worldwide.The Cultural Entrepreneur in the Caribbean and the Creative IndustriesThe Caribbean is the natural home of the cultural entrepreneur, a place where culturalvalues, economic wealth and self-determination can comfortably walk hand-in-hand.Indeed, many of the organisations that I work with in the UK, are headed by persons ofCaribbean origin who utilise these same cultural values to create economic wealth forthemselves, their families and their communities. Examples include the BirminghamInternational Film Festival Community Interest Company and the Pelican Craft Centre inBarbados. The latter helped revitalize the traditional arts, crafts, and music of theCaribbean. The Pelican Centre, the largest of its kind in the Caribbean, is a cluster ofworkshops near downtown Bridgetown, where craftspeople create and sell "100%Barbadian-made" leather goods, batik, basketry, carvings, jewelry, glass art, paintings,pottery, and other items. The retail section comprises 25 retail shops, a gallery and annex,

a wine bar & bistro, a restaurant, and an artist wall. In the Pelican Workshops, visitorscan see firsthand the creativity of Barbadian craftsmen while they create pottery,woodcarving, basketry, straw work, fine art, glass blowing, weaving, moulded figuremaking,sewing and cigar making. The Centre is also the home of the Pelican Dooflicky,a festive carnival event replete with pageantry and culture, staged weekly during thetourist season and visitors are encouraged to join the revelers in the carnival parade andshow.Several lessons have emerged from over 10 years of involvement setting up companieswithin the cultural industries sector in the UK. Extremely passionate individuals set uplegal structures in order to house the culmination of their passions and their arts only tolose substantial amounts of money, whether in terms of lost intellectual property or lostprofits. Many of these individuals and organisations operate as voluntary organisations,not realising that they must operate their businesses as private sector concerns with themain aim to make a profit. There is also obviously a need for access to finance, whetherfrom investors, grants and/or loans. The more successful organisations are the ones thatcan show a return on the investment, whether it be a financial return or a socio-economicreturn. In order to access effective finance, the organisation must have robust and clearstrategic planning, business development and financial analysis attached to their businessexecutive summary and plans. Through the LaBassiere Sawyers Group, we can sourcefinance for various projects and organisations in the Caribbean, working closely with theCaribbean Regional Development Foundation to weigh the legitimacy of the projects andviability of the organisations.CLAIRE DE RIGGS JONES, MSc.Mrs. Claire de Riggs Jones is Trinidadian and possesses a Masters Degree in OrganizationalLeadership with a research concentration in Entrepreneurship Success and Failure. Mrs. deRiggs Jones as is a lecturer with the University of the West Indies and the College ofScience, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT). Also, she iscurrently pursing a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Sociological Integration of Society witha Research Dissertation entitled Societal Change Promoting Entrepreneurship as a means ofSurvival in a Pluralistic Society. Her major interest is in education.Creative Potential of Developing Regions: Charting a Course for Economic ProsperityLeaders of developing countries in the Caribbean region came together for the formationof the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). However, the average Caribbeancitizen seems not to be buying into the concept of CSME in a holistic way.Communication links appear to be distorted and there seems to be no widespreadunderstanding of the functionalities and principles behind the CSME.The world is on a technological highway and Caribbean countries need to revise theconfiguration of the development strategies in place for building Caribbean economies.This process would involve a trajectory for which development programs which must bewidespread not only to the urban regions but to the rural areas in an effort for greatersensitization of Caribbean populations. In turn, the creative potential of the skilled can be

stimulated with a positive direction. Also, for the unskilled there will be a much neededwindow of opportunity to learn and develop a meaningful survival skill. The benefits tobe derived from the augmentation of the creative potential in individuals will have aneverlasting effect. Nation building will be on the forefront and the effects over time willbe reflected in the economic growth which will be reflected in the GDP of the countries.Additionally, the citizenry will be in a position to realize an improved quality of life.Caribbean leaders must take the initiative and be conscientious in the eradication of theignorance that is stifling Caribbean regions. A sure way to achieve economic prosperityis through business endeavor channels. Entrepreneurial thoughts usually touch and evenpenetrate most individuals at some time. The crystallization of ideas can be promoted bytraining programs which speak directly to the balancing of risk and returns that points tothe importance of knowing the “how and why” of the entrepreneurial process. Economicprosperity can be harnessed through the development of the creative potential that isembedded in Caribbean people.