11 Novembre 2014 – Le Saint-Martin’s Day s’invite à Paris
In France, November 11th is the remembrance day of the armistice ending World War I. But for us Saint-Martiners, it is about celebrating our island and togetherness.
This week end (Nov 8th-9th), Pel’Icarus organized an event under the general theme of: “ Saint-Martin, an island of great potential” at the Maison the Saint-Martin in Paris (representative organ of the collectivity of Saint-Martin).
Unified St.Maarten Connection (USC) who is a non-profit organization engaged in assisting St.Maarten students and professionals in the Netherlands, and St.Maarten Student Support Services (S4) are both contributing and taking part in the event.
The objective is to gather St-Martiners living in France, as well as St-Maarteners living in the Netherlands to share bold and innovating ideas for the island through challenging think tanks and interventions of inspiring entrepreneurs from our island.
In fact, we discussed entrepreneurship with entrepreneurs from Saint-Martin/Sint-Maarten who gave us their testimony. Our speakers were John Sandiford who created Antonio Media, a Netherlands-based Web and Graphic design company, as well as Skelet from the Red Eye Crew, who also takes part in North Island Records, Kalaboom djs, Sxm Artists and much more.
The think tanks allowed us to brainstorm and open a discussion channel on the collaboration between the French and Dutch St-Martin on various themes. The themes of the think tanks were the island’s cultural identity, the development of tourism, French/Dutch cooperation, regional integration, and art and sport in the island’s development.
The participants were all very glad to have taken part of such an experience and loved sharing ideas with one another. They were all convinced that the island needs to go towards more unity to be prosperous.
Pel’icarus would like to thank all those who contributed to this day: the members of Pel’Icarus from othe cities who showed up, our Dutch side comrades, la Maison de Saint-Martin and the speakers.
The results of the brainstorming sessions will be shared with the public and private sectors of the French and Dutch sides of the island; maybe will it have a positive and concrete impact on the island, or at least bring new ideas to the table.
