Today, Jamaica’s Tourism Linkages Network hosted a speed networking session for small businesses that want to sell products and services to the island’s hotels, resorts and attractions.
Yes, the companies you’d expect were there – local suppliers of bedding and bleach – basics that the tourism sector needs in the volume and frequency that can change the trajectory of a small business.
The creative sector was also represented.
There were jewelry designers and craft makers, booksellers, candlemakers, fashion designers, all vying to sell an authentic piece of Jamaican culture to the millions of tourists who come here annually.
I was there to try to get my children’s books into hotel gift shops and to support my niece who was launching a line of Jamaican candles. This well-organized event seemed the perfect solution to a problem we didn’t have time to tackle –navigating the maze of potential vendors islandwide.
It also underscored a critical success factor for creative businesses – tapping into and maximizing relevant networks.
By participating in one event, we increased our contacts in a key market 10x.
“Creatives sometimes assume the opportunities they need are out of their reach,” says my niece, Sascha, happy with the response from her first trade show. “You have to find the right space and support system.”
Shani Duncan, another first-time attendee found the event initially intimidating, but discovered that “the hoteliers seemed for the most part to be genuinely welcoming… and it was a good opportunity to network with other suppliers.”
Those supplier partnerships – collaborative marketing, pop-up sales events, sharing shipping and transportation costs – can be as valuable as the sales opportunities.
In opening the event, Minister of Tourism Ed Bartlett indicated that since 2017, the Tourism Linkages Network has generated more than 700 million dollars for small businesses. It would be interesting to see how much of that has gone to the creative sector and how much more could be generated with sustained collaboration.