SiliconCaribe is the leading producer of events and experiences for the most remarkable Caribbean tech entrepreneurs, digital creatives, digital business owners, and investors.
We produce and curate events and experiences for them – all designed to help them connect, share knowledge, collaborate, do business, and have fun.
We’ve produced over 300 events across 12 countries- from Jamaica, Bahamas, to Trinidad and Tobago, New York, Miami, to Nairobi, and written over 3000 stories about it all.
From Kingston BETA to Caribbean BETA conference, Startup Weekend Jamaica, AgriHack Caribbean, Caribbean Bloggers Week, Fintech FWD, Future of Caribbean Money Conference, Beyond the Beach Summit, and Invite-only Private Dinners. Coworking Popups, Impact Tours. Tech Happy Hours. Workshops. Bootcamps, SiliconCaribe has consistently built spaces where knowledge is shared, talent discovered, deals are made, and innovation thrives.
We’ve helped entrepreneurs meet up with their peers, find co-founders, upskill, hire talent, connect to investors, get ecosystem player support, be accepted into global accelerators, and get millions of dollars in investment deals.
After working in the trenches since 2007, SiliconCaribe is an events, media, and marketplaces brand.
SiliconCaribe’s founder and event host is entrepreneur Ingrid Riley.
“We’re in an era of unparalleled economic opportunity driven by technology. Anyone, anywhere, can use the Internet, creativity, and time to create something transformative. For the Caribbean and the Diaspora, this is a unique chance to innovate, disrupt industries, influence culture, and build lasting wealth for many and grow the Caribbean Digital Economy.
I like the kind of level playing field it presents to us here in the Caribbean and the Diaspora. It’s a fantastic opportunity for stunning innovations we can create when paired with what we do best in the world. It can create significant and lasting success in individual Caribbean countries and our Region and position us better in the Global Digital Economy.“
– Ingrid Riley
SiliconCaribe: To Future-Proof the Caribbean. We’ve been at it since 2007.
IT STARTED AS A PASSION PROJECT AND A BLOG
SiliconCaribe started as a blog, founded in 2005 as a passion project by Founder Ingrid Riley. It was initially named CaribbeanTechNews, which became SiliconCaribe in 2007. Then it went on to kickstart a movement and continues to grow an ecosystem of Media, Events, and Communities focused on Entrepreneurship, Investing, and Digital Culture. #DigitalCaribbean.
We KICKSTARTED A Tech Startup Community and Movement, KINGSTON BETA
As a tech entrepreneur who had both a media and marketing brand at the time, it certainly wasn’t our intention to kickstart a tech startup community or champion a Caribbean Tech Entrepreneurship Movement, we just wanted to bring together people who loved the Internet and Technology like we did, in a single place and regularly so we could share our stories to inspire and learn from each other. That spawned the Kingston BETA event series, and our vision and mission for SiliconCaribe evolved from doing that.
We wanted to continue to connect people and information from disparate parts of the tech industry, creative and business community – to build a community and make a difference — there were zero technology industry meetups, blogs, tech resources, and publications— we had to start somewhere — something had to change. We became passionate about catalyzing this change. We saw how important it was to have more individuals in technology and in business as entrepreneurs, developers, creatives, corporate executives, mentors, and investors talking to each other, sharing their stories, and encouraging others to take advantage of the opportunities of the Digital Age.
So it started as a passion project- my then business partner, Susan LeeQuee and I, started by hosting our first networking meetup called Kingston BETA in January 2007, which had 90 attendees, from 4 Caribbean countries. After a few years, mostly operating as a passion project, being pulled by the momentum of the growing community, partnerships, and connections, and the rise of Digital Caribbean, Kingston BETA became the first and longest-running and highly impactful tech startup community event in the Caribbean.
- – Ingrid Riley, Founder of SiliconCaribe
