THE Ministry of Tourism, Heritage and Creative Industries in collaboration with The Carnival Planning and Management Agency (CPMA), has organized the first in the series of annual Soca seminars, dubbed SOCAMEX.
The exercise will bring together major players in the regional soca industry thus providing a much needed boost to the artform in St. Lucia and making the island a hub for the exchange of expertise in a bid to ensure the growth and development of the soca genre.
The inaugural event will take place today at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort at The Dolphins Conference Centre. There will also be an official closing ceremony and reception from 7:00 p.m. at the same venue at which there will be special recognition of some of the outstanding St. Lucian achievers in the soca industry.
The seminar will be facilitated by a panel of industry experts from Trinidad, St Lucia and St Vincent. The guest presenters will be the prolific producer and song writer Jason “Shaft” Bishop of Trinidad and renowned soca artiste Skinny Fabulous from St Vincent. The rotating panel of St Lucian experts will comprise accomplished engineers, producers and performers. The main areas of focus will be song writing, performance, production, marketing, and industry dynamics.