Dragonfly Media Curacao

A few weeks ago Theo Reichgelt started a discussion on the LinkedIn group Curacao ICT about people’s expectations for ICT on Curacao in 2009. A surprising amount of people responded to this with their expectations and their votes for organizing a get-together.

The thread was then picked up by Tom Bielsma who called for setting up a brainstorm session with drinks afterwards. The discussion was flooded by people suggesting subjects as well as commitments to coming to a session like this. The first of (hopefully more of) these sessions will be held on Wednesday February 4th, 2009 at 6 PM.

The location is the office of IMD at Julianaplein 26, next to Intermezzo . The subjects will be VMware (Virtualization) and Open Source. At the next session the subjects will most probably be Web 2.0 (of particular interest to us of course) and Education.

More information can be found on the Curacao ICT Network’s website.

Last tuesday we were one of the speakers at the lunch seminar “myths, facts and vision concerning the internet on Curacao” for the Curacao Women’s Network. We took care of the final presentation before lunch about the (near) future of the internet on Curacao. You can see the slides of the presentation (in Dutch) here.

In related news: one of the things we said at the presentation was that there are hardly any cross-medial websites on Curacao. The same day we said this, we heard about a new news site for young people in Curacao and Holland. This site uses a cross-medial approach to inform people about what’s happening on Curacao and appears to be pretty interesting.

The reporters are interns from Fontys Hogeschool in Tilburg (The Netherlands) and the website is set up with the help of Radio Netherlands Worldwide and local radio station Dolfijn FM. When the interns leave again to Holland their jobs are taken over by new interns from the same school so it should remain fresh and forward thinking.

On September 23rd, 2008 the Curacao Women’s Network will launch their lunch seminar about the myths, facts and vision concerning the internet on Curacao (link is to Dutch website).

The last couple of years there have been many changes in the way the businesses on Curacao handle their representation on the internet. We’re seeing all these changes up close and personal of course and we think that Curacao is on the right track. However, we’re definitely not there yet. The train has just started and is getting up to speed, but is still a long way from the last station (assuming there is one).

Some of the reasons for this late adoption of the internet on Curacao are the late implementation of high speed internet, the difficulty with getting an internet merchant bank account at the local banks (for online shopping) and, most of all, the general lack of knowledge about how the internet can help a business succeed.

With this seminar the Curacao Women’s Network aims to defuse some of the myths concerning the internet, give people the facts about how the internet is helping other people and businesses and to present some of the things that are possible with the help of the internet.

For this last part of the pitch (the ‘vision’ part) they have asked us to do a presentation about what is possible online and, more specifically, what might be reality on Curacao in the near future. Regretfully we only have about 15 minutes for our presentation (we could fill a few hours on this subject), but in the time we have we want to talk as much as possible about what we think is reachable within a few years. With a bit of luck we can set some wheels in motion and help at least one person with his/her business.

An extra reason to come: the seminar will be held in the auditorium of the Bank of the Netherlands Antilles so we will need to shave (Oscar and Joost that is) and we will have to wear a suit and tie. Not a lot of people get to see us like this….

Isn’t she lovely? A Dragonfly baby!

She was born on Sunday May 25 at 3:22 AM and is a healthy and beautiful girl!
Dad Oscar and mom Morela are proud parents.

Of course Joost and myself consider ourselves a bit of family to Oscar and decided to become Uncle Joost en Auntie Bo.

Welcome Sofia!!!!

 

If you compare the speed at which the world has changed in the previous century to the speed at which it has changed this past decade, you can easily compare the first to a slug that had a few beers too many and the second to an antelope with ADD on speed. It’s no secret that the world is becoming smaller and faster by the minute.

When people look at trends, we can see what is going on at that moment and can think about how we can - and have to - use these trends in our business. However, people usually don’t look much further than that nor do they take the time to look beyond what’s in front of their noses. That’s where trend analysts like Michael Tchong come in. (more…)

As we mentioned earlier in this blog, we have moved in with Bas Kok Creatieve Communicatie. This week we sent out a mailing to our clients and a press release to the press.

(more…)

Update June 2008: We have found several very able people for this position and have chosen one to join the team in July. She will most likely introduce herself here at that time.

We are currently looking for a content editor (or two part-time content editors) who will become responsible for the content of a large tourism website. We posted an ad in the Amigoe (local newspaper) of today and have reproduced the ad below.

If you’re interested you should read the ad below. The gist of the requirements is that you need to be good at writing English texts and you need to have a ‘feel’ for the tourism industry as well as a lot of experience with the internet. We would like you to start May 5, 2008, but this also depends on the client and yourself; we’re pretty flexible in this. If this sounds like you and you’re looking for a great job in the internet business, you should apply. (more…)

As of April 7, 2008 we have a new address; Gosieweg 33.
Our new telephone number will be: +5999 737-1233!

Since about 6 months we’ve been working together a lot with Bas Kok Creatieve Communicatie and several future projects are planned with them. So, to keep the lines of communication short, we’ve moved in with them in their new office.

The setup in the new office will be relatively similar to the old one and an added bonus is that we share a conference room with Bas’s people for contact with clients and presentations. This will look a lot better to clients than having to sit with us in the work room.

Note: Dragonfly and BKCC have not merged. The two companies will remain as two separate entities but we will be cooperating more in the future.

We are firm believers in doing something back for the community in which we live. For this reason we allocate time, resources and money to community projects and sometimes sponsor a website with a worthwhile goal. Currently we are engaged in two such projects; the Princess Willhelmina Fund Curacao (local cancer society) and the Academy Hotel Curacao.

The Princess Wilhelmina Fund is the Curacao cancer foundation. Its American counterpart is the American Cancer Society. The PWF helps cancer sufferers on Curacao with financial aid, treatments, prostheses and information. Their work is very worthwhile and we want to help them improve their information distribution and their ability to raise funds. We think that a new and improved website can help them reach these goals.

The Academy Hotel Curacao is an initiative of CHATA and the Curacao Hospitality Training Foundation (CHTF). The idea of this new hotel (which will open in September 2008) is that it is run entirely by hospitality students. Curacao has a lot of students studying for jobs in the hospitality industry but it can be very difficult for them to get intern positions for the shorter internships (1 to 3 months).
Therefore this new hotel will be set up so they can get on-the-job training and we’re not just talking room attendants, waiters and cooks here. All positions (except for General Manager) will be filled by students. As our main niche is the hospitality industry we want to contribute to this great idea which we believe will help the people of Curacao to fill as many jobs as possible in the booming tourism and hospitality industry on Curacao.