A two-day workshop geared at helping artistes and others on how to secure funding for the development of their businesses got underway on Thursday in Dominica
The workshop dubbed, ‘The Nuts & Bolt of crowdfunding’ is being hosted by the Caribbean Performing Arts Federation (C-PAF) in collaboration with Barbados-based VisionFunder and the Ministry of Trade, Energy and Employment.
VisionFunder is a crowdfunding platform where money can be raised through donation to assist in projects in need of cash.
Training Facilitator and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VisionFunder, Adrian Reid said the workshop’s opening ceremony that there is a lot of talent in the Caribbean but the issue of finance poses a problem.
“The issue many times is the issue of finance and access to finance,” he stated.
He noted that participants will be taught the art of crowdfunding and “to create campaigns that can attract persons who would catch your vision and will be willing to invest in what you are doing so you can take those funding and bring it into fruition.”
He said the workshop will be conducted in a series of sections.
He stated participants will look at crowdfunding and also how to plan and do research.
“All the marketing you will have to do before you actually go on platform,” he explained. “We will discuss the building phase, how to build your videos etc. we will also look at the launch days and post campaign.”
Director of Trade, Matthan Walter said the workshop is an example of the innovative and the forward thinking nature of the C-PAF membership.
He also noted that in recent years crowdfunding has become increasingly popular and has been raising the necessary finance to fund creative projects.
“These platforms have been reported to raise approximately $1.5-billion and funded over one million projects,” Walter revealed.
He said in Dominica there are institutions which cater for young entrepreneurs, but it is not the same where “the creatives” are concerned.
“They are seen to be high risk and this limits their chances of receiving adequate finance to take advantage of market opportunities and to harness and refine their creative product,” he stated. “Therefore this transparent and practical means of access to finance should be embraced as a lifesaver for Dominican creative minds since it allows the platform to raise needed resources without incurring debt.”
He urged participants to ingest the information dispensed and to take full advantage of the platform.
Attention..
Also assist the officials of the Ministry of Health on how to best raise funds to deal with the bedbug problem at the PMH…
Gracias…