Republic Bank Ltd in collaboration with Question Mark Entertainment will host its first DeciBel and Career Fair, Conference and Entertainment Expo in May.
The event aims to provide a forum for young people in the 16-25 age group who are involved in entertainment, to discover and develop their skills, talents and abilities.
Co-founder of Question Mark Entertainment and the man behind DeciBel, Simon Baptiste, said the idea of hosting such an event came from the realisation that not much was being done to push the envelope in the local entertainment industry.
"Roughly two years ago my team and I were having a discussion about the entertainment industry here in T&T. And what we found was that a lot was happening in the industry, but not enough movement to make things happen.
"So we found like-minded people who were also concerned about what was taking place within the entire entertainment diaspora, so to speak, and we came together and decided to invest our time into building an event for the future–something that will be beneficial not only to industry stakeholders but also to our young adults making career decisions and those in the sector who have dreams like everyone else," Baptiste said.
The event was relaunched last month at Republic Bank's Hospitality Suite at the Queen's Park Oval. The event was first held in 2001 and was produced by Question Mark Entertainment with the mission of fostering growth in the music and film sector.
Republic Bank's Michelle Palmer-Keizer, general manager of group marketing and communications, speaking at the launch said an initiative such as DeciBel was ingenious as it was giving local talent real exposure to the world of entertainment and production.
"Our investment means more to us than just a platinum sponsorship title. Our partnership with Question Mark Entertainment is, in fact another means of propelling our local talent," she said.
Palmer-Keizer added, such an event also allows for the shaping of the art and film industries in T&T and to provide a viable avenue for many of the nation's young people.
DeciBel is also supported by bmobile, the Chaguaramas Development Authority and CreativeTT, whose mandate is to commercialise T&T's creative talent internationally.
About the event
The three-day event will kick off on May 1 at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre.
May 1: Career fair, conference and expo
May 2: Workshops sessions
May 3: DeciBel Entertainment Festival featuring Kerwin Du Bois in concert, as well as nearly a dozen established and ground-breaking artistes.
Dream Big: Another important component of the event is the Dream Big initiative which will give a budding filmmaker the opportunity to fly to Hollywood to live his or her dream and meet celebrities and top executives, visit television and film sets, and pitch their scripts to those with the power to make movies.
That person will also receive a grant of TT$30,000 to create a short film–ten minutes or less–which will be shopped to various festivals overseas.
For more info visit www.decibelexpo.com