She will miss her job and entertaining her staff at family days and Christmas, but as Allison Demas leaves the Copyright Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (Cott) to focus on the increasing demands of motherhood, she is satisfied with all that she has been able to accomplish over the last seven years.
The former Cott CEO demitted office recently, handing over the position to Colin Lucas, former Managing Director at TTPost.
Sitting in a boardroom at Cott's swanky Abercromby Street office in Port of Spain, Demas, decked in a mustard yellow pantsuit, looked relaxed. "I've been a working woman for most of my life, I am looking forward to it," she says of her decision to work from home as a consultant while looking after her 11-year-old daughter, Aisha, a special needs child suffering with Sotos Syndrome. A rare genetic disorder, Sotos Syndrome is often characterised by delayed motor, cognitive and social development, and rapid physical development.
Demas had the support of her husband Garvin Simonette and her family while she built her career but as her daughter enters the teenage years and is now being homeschooled, she feels the need to devote more time to her.
The slower pace may be a welcome respite for Demas, who has been a driving force at Cott. Since taking the reins as CEO, she has invested a lot of passion in helping the organisation fulfill its roll as a music licensee, advocate for music rights and copyright issues and, more importantly, a royalty collection agency that can allow singers and songwriters to financially reap the rewards of their hard work. The latter has been her greatest accomplishment, says Demas, reflecting on her six years, nine months in office.
"There has been a dramatic increase in royalty contributions. In 2007, over 60 per cent of the royalties were distributed to Cott In 2008, more than eight million dollars was distributed," she says.
Demas says the increase in royalties is the result of the use of more local music, particularly in advertising. "That is significant," she says, noting that local content still needs to be raised across the board, particularly in the broadcasting sector.
"Radio stations are still stuck in this mould that you can't tell them which music to play."
Demas' one regret is that she did not establish a medical insurance and pension fund for artistes and songwriters who, for age or medical reasons, cannot continue in their profession. "One of the main reasons I created the Cott Foundation was to meet the social welfare needs of our members," says Demas. The Cott Foundation, which Demas conceived, was established in 2003 to provide assistance to composers, lyricists and songwriters in the execution of their work, among other goals. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, this philanthropic arm of Cott is suffering financially, Demas revealed.
Demas is also the founding president of the Caribbean Copyright Link, an umbrella organisation comprising copyright associations from across the Caribbean, including Belize and Suriname. The group provides a unified approach to royalty collection and other shared issues such as piracy that are plaguing all Caribbean territories.
Demas' passion for protecting those in the creative industry is evident. She says she's always had a love for arts and music but having no skill in that area, she was very lucky in finding a profession that would allow her access to the industry.
It was while working in London in the area of commercial litigation, that she stumbled upon a copyright matter, found it interesting and taught herself. When she returned to Trinidad, Diana Derrick, the first administrator at Cott, appointed Demas as a representative for the UK-based Performing Rights Society on the Cott board.
"The board thought I was a spy," she recalled laughing. "They soon realised I was very pro-Caribbean."
When a vacancy for deputy chairman arose, Gypsy and Bill Trotman, then board members, asked Demas to fill the post. She left to pursue a Masters in Intellectual Property from the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire, USA.
Demas ended up lecturing in International Music Licensing there and when the CEO vacancy arose at Cott, she applied.
"I knew exactly what needed to be done," she says.
Despite the strides made under her stewardship, Demas says there is still a lot to be done especially in educating the public about copyright issues, which many still think has only to do with piracy.
"Most of the public education campaigns are geared toward piracy but copyright is about ensuring creators get paid for their creativity," she explains.
She says government should be driving this education campaign and investing in the music industry to develop it in the same way they are doing for the film industry. Until that happens, she says, piracy will remain an issue since many artistes see piracy as a way to promote their music.
"It has become so prevalent, it has become the main market for CDs and DVDs. I am told in their heyday Sparrow and Kitchener sold 30,000 albums, today a hit is 1000 CDs."
She says a study may need to be done to assess the contribution of the music industry to the country's GDP to show that investing in it would be worthwhile.
She is also very supportive of the role of technology in developing the industry.
In fact, Demas will continue to work with Cott via the Creator's Net, Cotts digital subsidiary. Through this subsidiary, Cott will be able to accurately monitor the songs played locally and internationally through a fingerprint system called Mediaguide. The system will initially monitor radio but later on will focus on online activity as well.
"I would really like to see Cott in the digital age; we could use technology to increase our collections."