Mobile technology has rapidly diffused during the new millennium with mobile phones used by approximately 4.55 billion people globally, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This growing access to portable devices, which allow people to communicate and receive information in real-time, provides an opportunity for businesses in developing countries to use innovation to address critical needs, a topic which a F1RST.com executive will discuss today at the VIII Americas Competitiveness Forum 2014.
Kyle Maloney, co-founder and director of F1RST.com and Novus Tech Limited, will join other business leaders and innovative thinkers at the forum themed The Human Imagination at Work: Driving Competitiveness, Powering Innovation. Maloney is participating on the panel Services Industry as a Driver of Innovation. The panel will explore new innovations within the services industry, the socio-economic importance of the services industry regionally, the potential for a global services industry in Latin America and the Caribbean and how to create the conditions for such.
"In developing countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, we need to create a space for new ideas where innovators can work and experiment. It's important that we develop an ecosystem that supports this new services economy, built on a new type of natural resource, the intellect of people. This is the only way we can begin to provide solutions that can scale globally," Maloney said.
Three years ago, Maloney co-founded Novus Tech and earlier this year he and his business partners launched F1RST.com. Novus Tech provides technology solutions that help businesses reduce their environmental impact, conserve energy and minimise operational costs. F1RST.com however is an online and mobile app, which uses online technology, to solve everyday problems for people in the Caribbean. Since February when it launched, F1RST.com has developed a growing base of over 100,000 people downloading the app.