One of the most well-known influencers of the Kingdom, Bas van Teylingen, is to visit the island end of October. His address “Secrets of Influencer Marketing” will be one of the highlights of the Sint Maarten Innovations, Initiatives and Industries Link-up Event (SMILE) to be held in late October.  St. Maarten’s own Soca artist King Vers will also be giving van Teylingen a guided Recovery Tour of the island to share insights and ways that the island could better make use of YouTube to promote itself and its businesss.

Bas van Teylingen, along with 50 of the most well-known YouTube influencers of the Netherlands joined forces to help raise funds for St. Maarten in the immediate after math of Hurricane Irma. They composed the song “Ik Geef Om Jou” within 48 hours; which produced 1.2 million hits; providing extra kingdom wide exposure for the Red Cross fundraiser which raised 15 million Euro.

Van Teylingen is the author of the bestselling book “Help! My Child Is A YouTuber!”. Based on his experiences as an Influencer.  His presentation will advise SMILE attendees on how to make the most out of YouTube and other social media platforms to promote themselves or their cause.

The SMILE event was launched in 2018 with the goal of highlighting innovative and sustainable companies and projects; facilitating business to business networking on island; and providing an overall thought-provoking educational conference. Last year’s edition attracted over 300 visitors from 89 organizations representing 9 countries.

The event once again enjoys support from: 360 Innovation (Aruba), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (COCI), ORCO Bank, Global Resourcing and University of St Martin (USM). It is meant for entrepreneurs, managers, innovators, marketeers and HR professionals from companies both large and small.

The main theme of SMILE is Innovation and Sustainability; the 2019 Micromentor has organized an award ceremony for the Caribbean Innovation Contest during SMILE. This contest will provide grants to 15 fortunate innovative Sint Maarten companies with total prize purse valued at US$40.000.  Interested companies can still apply today at www.micromentor.org/blog/cic2019.

Promoting sustainability and reuse, Waste 2 Work will hold an award contest for the top three creative and innovative designs made out of reused materials. More information can be found at  waste2work.com/designcompetition .

Businesses and NGO’s interested in SMILE can obtain more information at 5420108 or via events@shta.com.  Information will be continuously updated at www.shta.com/SMILE.

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