Private Sector on board for ‘Jamaica 50’

The ‘Jamaica 50’ Secretariat will be receiving valuable support from private sector marketers as it begins ramping up publicity on celebratory activities.

Director of the Secretariat, Robert Bryan, told a JIS Think Tank on Tuesday (May 1) that efforts to co-opt support from private sector professionals and companies for the activities is far advanced and the public should soon see a roll out of this effort. 

“We are working with quite a few persons already and in fact, some of them are engaged in the delivery of key components of the programme. A lot of companies have volunteered their marketing departments to assist us in doing quite a bit of this.  We’ve made use of some of those offers and as we go along we’ll involve others,” he said.

Support is also coming from the organisers of already established activities, which will be held in the summer, such as Sumfest, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) Military Tattoo, the National Athletics trials and the ‘Fun in the Son’ gospel concert.

“The idea is that we want to ramp up the whole marketing and positioning for the celebration,” Mr. Bryan told JIS News.  

He informed that “there are some corporate bodies that will be doing specific activities to mark and celebrate Jamaica 50 and there are some companies that their history is part and parcel of Jamaica’s history and they intend to position and make sure that the whole world knows. Those elements will be tied together, published on websites and become part of the roll-out of information we feel comfortable with.”

He said that the Social Development Commission (SDC) has been asked to utilise its vast and intricate island-wide network to spearhead and coordinate a volunteer programme for Jamaica 50 and coming out of that effort, the Secretariat has been receiving numerous e-mails from persons and organisations offering their services.

Mr. Bryan said that most of the fundamental elements of the programme have been finalised and while requests have been coming in “we’re not going to be able to do everything”.

“We have to focus on a few things and try to do them well, that’s the reality of it.  The job is to get to the point where everybody realises and accepts that that is where we are given the time."

By O. Rodger Hutchinson, JIS PRO