Barbados’ creative and entrepreneurial communities have been called to step forward as the fourth annual Marcus Garvey Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition officially opened its application window on Friday, offering a total of $30 000 in cash prizes to emerging innovators looking to turn cultural talent into scalable commercial ventures. Jointly organized by the island’s Division of Culture and the Office of Pan-African Affairs and Heritage, the competition aims to boost business development across Barbados’ cultural industries while growing its participant base for the fourth consecutive year. Applications from eligible creators will remain open until midnight on July 31.
Organizers have set an ambitious target to double entry numbers this year, building on the rapid growth the competition has seen since its launch. Entries jumped from just 15 in 2023 to more than 60 in 2024, a trajectory event leaders hope to continue as they raise awareness of the opportunity across the island’s creative community. The core mission of the event remains bridging the long-standing gap between raw creative talent and sustainable, revenue-generating commercial enterprise, a gap that has limited growth for many cultural workers across the Caribbean.
Program advisor Rodney Grant from the Division of Culture framed the current moment of global economic uncertainty as a unique catalyst for innovation, drawing on decades of observation of creative activity across the Caribbean region. “When societies face particular challenges is when you see innovation at its best,” Grant explained. “I spent a lot of time in Trinidad in the 1980s, and I saw firsthand that when Trinidad and other Caribbean societies went through their most difficult economic periods, that was exactly when we saw the most creativity from ordinary people. This contemporary global economic climate creates the right opportunity for innovation and creativity to flourish.”
Grant made a specific appeal to young Barbadians to take ownership of the future of the island’s cultural sector, noting that young creators are already leading shifting trends in global cultural industries. “We’re specifically encouraging young people to take part. This is your time. This is the moment for the cultural and creative sectors to thrive, and young people are the ones who have their fingers on the pulse of what audiences want right now,” he said.
The competition’s prize structure rewards top performers with substantial seed funding to grow their ideas: first place takes home $20 000, second place receives $7 000, and third place is awarded $3 000, making the total available cash pool $30 000. In a change to the 2025 format, the event will move away from its previous public final round. Instead, applicants will go through a private preliminary elimination round, after which five shortlisted finalists will deliver closed pitch sessions to a panel of industry specialists.
A key theme emphasized at the competition’s launch was the need for Barbadian creative founders to scale their concepts beyond the island’s small domestic market to reach global audiences. Minister of Pan-African Affairs and Heritage Trevor Prescod highlighted the untapped global demand for Barbadian cultural products, ranging from fine art to traditional culinary goods. He pointed to the example of a Barbadian expatriate who was able to pay for property in New York entirely through revenue from sales of her traditional Barbadian sweet bread, proving the global market potential of even the most traditional cultural offerings.
To ease anxiety among prospective applicants who may worry their business ideas are not fully developed, Grant sought to reassure potential participants that incomplete business plans are no barrier to entering. “We don’t expect that you’re gonna have every T crossed, every I dotted,” he said. “If you wait for perfection, we will never start or we will never do anything. Nothing in this world requires perfection, but it requires you to start and to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Our panel meets every entrant where they are, and we will work to understand what you are trying to pitch and accomplish.”
Prescod positioned the competition within the wider framework of Barbados’ annual Season of Emancipation, challenging long-held harmful stereotypes about entrepreneurship in Caribbean society. “We have internalized the myth that an entrepreneur is someone born with special, almost divine endowments, that only a tiny handful of us have what it takes to build a business,” Prescod said. “If you look back at our history before slavery, you would know that is not true. We successfully built many empires, many businesses, and there is endless creativity within our people.”
Drawing on the legacy of the competition’s namesake, Marcus Garvey, Prescod recalled that the iconic Jamaican Pan-African leader built international shipping lines, printing houses, and global publications in the 1920s without any formal advanced academic training. “He didn’t say you had to be an economist, he didn’t say you had to study law,” Prescod noted. “What Garvey taught us is that the most important things are discipline and a commitment to seeking knowledge. A person with those qualities can achieve anything they set out to do by exploring the world of knowledge.”
The minister also tied the competition to a broader national goal of economic transformation and Black economic enfranchisement, arguing that widespread business ownership is a core tool for addressing systemic inequality. “I don’t want to hide the core of what this is about: Black economic empowerment,” he said. “We live in a country where over 96 percent of the population is of African descent, and yet we are still struggling just to gain control of our own Black businesses — and worst of all, we only have small Black businesses. I want to see all of our creators excel to the greatest heights, competing on the global stage.”
To support potential applicants in understanding what kinds of projects qualify, the Division of Culture is publishing a detailed outline of the cultural and creative sectors, encouraging entrants to think beyond traditional definitions of creative work and submit a wide range of concepts. Applications can be submitted either individually or as a team via the official Google Sheet link posted to the social media channels of the Division of Culture and the Barbados Government Information Service. Applicants facing digital access barriers can request alternative submission arrangements by emailing culture.coe@barbados.gov.bb before the July 31 deadline.