The world’s first Black republic is reminding the tech industry that Haiti is a powerful force to be reckoned with.
The third annual Haiti Tech Summit is a 13-year initiative to transform Haiti into an international tech hub by 2030, according to the summit’s site.
The two-day event, which runs June 20—22, is targeted at locals and international tech leaders, celebrities and creatives. The summit brings together more than 100 speakers to “address humanity’s greatest challenges via tech and entrepreneurship,” according to the site.
Founded by Forbes 30 under 30 Entrepreneur Christine Souffrant Ntim, the 2019 Haiti Summit will be welcoming speakers from tech giants such as Facebook, Forbes, Airbnb, Google and more.
“Hosting an event of this magnitude in Haiti not only aims to revitalize economic activity in the country but to also provide a new narrative for emerging markets,” Ntim told ESSENCE in an exclusive interview.
“That’s my mantra to get people to understand that solutions for Haiti’s economic development can’t be approached with the same mindset that caused it to stagnate within the century.”
Even in the summit’s short history, it has managed to make a considerable strides for the island. The Haitian government launched a national incubator space for entrepreneurs called Alpha Haiti in April 2018.
A number of other startup accelerator programs have sprung up in recent years such as Startup Grind powered by Google, Banj, a private coworking space and StartupHaiti.org, a digital accelerator platform for centralizing Haiti’s startup ecosystem.
“Haiti is not open for business. Haiti is open for disruption,” Ntim said.