TEMPO is the heart and soul of a new musical approach that seeks to capture the essence and salience of music from a Pan-Caribbean perspective and deliver that music, culture and artistic expressions to nationals and others in the Caribbean, the Diaspora and beyond.

TEMPO is a product that goes along with the promotion, production and institutionalization of music on a grandiose stage. It is music and culture that goes from a mere one-day playing of music to a platform whereby promoters, artistes, security managers and personnel, handcrafters, and a multitude of other economic and social entrepreneurs are equipped to package  and market the musical resonance of the Caribbean.

St. Croix, USVI, the home of the first Jazz Festival in the Caribbean is well poised to continue to play a key role in TEMPO going forward. TEMPO has come forward as a private sector initiate as demonstrated in its free concert in Frederiksted and its TEMPO TURNS One concert. It has gone on to promote St. Croix and the Virgin Islands in a series of shows pulsed around the Caribbean and into North America. From the TEMPO Turns One major concert and VIP extravaganza, it is very evident that participants and businesses alike are particularly pleased with TEMPO. In discussion with one of the Vice-Presidents of a major Caribbean Transport/Shipping company, the VP informed me how extremely happy they were with what TEMPO has done in such a short period of time.

Partial estimates suggest that TEMPO’s first major event on St. Croix, namely TEMPO TURNS ONE, contributed an estimated 0.02% of the GDP of the USVI. St. Croix has a strong industrial base, a strong cultural base and an enviable eco-tourism base. These added to what the entire Caribbean has to offer suggest that TEMPO as a cultural and musical product is fully primed to be a major agent for cultural, economic and social transformation in the entire Caribbean. Thus, from a pragmatic point of view, TEMPO’s link to St. Croix and the VI generally could best be seen as a win-win factor for TEMPO, the product, and for St. Croix specifically and the USVI generally.  TEMPO has the ability to pulse programs around the Caribbean region and into North America; it has the ability to promote Caribbean musical festivals and carnivals that are not normally promoted internationally; Tempo also has the ability to promote artistes who are not normally promoted at all. This was the classic case when TEMPO held its first birthday bash on St. Croix, in November, 2006. TEMPO, therefore, is a musical and cultural product with high revenue enhancing capabilities.

The Caribbean is now changing in light of the new contemporary modes of globalization. TEMPO is uniquely contextured to be part of that globalization process. The Caribbean, by far, is the most global region in the world. The Caribbean’s multi-faceted, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual people make it possible for a business model like TEMPO to be successful in the first instance. In the second instance, any country that has links or develops links with TEMPO will be well situated to benefit from what is clearly a success model. By its very nature thus far, TEMPO has put in place a level of transparency and professionalism in the conduct of its business model. These enabling characteristics are the sine qua non for a continuous successful business model going forward. It follows, therefore, that a business or country or economic entity that links with TEMPO stand in a very positive way to benefit from the linkages. This is where the USVI, especially St. Croix, could benefit.

In a more fundamental sense, TEMPO is more than a mere musical display of regional talent and talent of the Caribbean nationals in the Diaspora. TEMPO, under is marketing imprimatur, institutionalizes a certain centrality of musical forms in the Caribbean. On a daily basis there are a variety of experiential staging of musical forms in the Caribbean islands and nations. TEMPO has a achieved a certain specificity and explicitness relative to the development of culture, the promotion of musical forms, and the enhancement of opportunities to new and established artistes around the Caribbean and in the Diaspora. At the same time, TEMPO’s focus on culture, sports, educational forms and other culturally enhancement features are designed to showcase the Caribbean, its people and the talent of the people in the Caribbean and the Diaspora.

TEMPO has penetrated 25 markets in the region. The patrons and the businesses associated with TEMPO speak in loud, clear and cogent terms about TEMPO and how they feel TEMPO should move on St. Croix, specifically, and in the Virgin Islands, generally.

TEMPO as it is currently contextured has the depth to bring to the fore the capacity, the ability, the technology, the capital to capitalize on the Caribbean talent such that it could be marketed beyond the confines of the set-specific space of the places where the carnivals and festivals are held on an annual basis.

While the USVI economy is showing some signs of growth, the specific economy of St. Croix is based on a wing and a prayer. There are may hotel related businesses in the works. We have to wait and see if they will come to fruition. Meanwhile, TEMPO, a private sector venture has demonstrated that it has the capacity and the ability to go forward in positive way.
WHAT DO THE PATRONS AND THE PEOPLE THINK OF TEMPO?

We surveyed 35 patrons of TEMPO and they were overwhelming in their support for TEMPO as a product and as an event, especially in terms of what it could do for St. Croix in the first instance, the Virgin Islands and the wider Caribbean in the second instance.

Likewise, we surveyed 35 businesses who either had a link with TEMPO TURNS ONE or who wants to have a link with TEMPO, the product and the organization. In clear and concise terms, the businesses, some of which have been in existence for over 30 years, contend that TEMPO the product and the event are of fundamental importance going forward for St. Croix, for the USVI and for the region. They applaud the professionalism of the TEMPO organization, and give their full support to the event going forward. In the view of patrons and businesses, TEMPO has brought a spotlight of difference to the USVI and the region. In that light, their long-term commitment to TEMPO the product and the event could be construed as solid as a rock.

• From TEMPO Turns ONE, TTO, bash on St. Croix, we estimated that it contributed about 0.02% of the Gross Territorial Product (GTP). Even allowing for a revised tourism multiplier of 1.5, this TEMPO event made a solid impact on the economy of the USVI.

• Ninety-five percent (95) of all of the businesses associated with TEMPO in its VIP and TEMPO Turns One were local businesses.

• The top ten businesses associated with TEMPO were hotels, gifts, stage lighting, meals, rentals, transport, taxes, security, sewage removal and photography.

• TEMPO has highlighted local artistes and local businesses and given them an international stage, that all things being equal they would not have been able to achieve.

• The same is true about St. Croix and the USVI, in terms of the international media coverage, that our Tourism budget would not have been able to cover.

• While others have talked about the possibilities of St. Croix, TEMPO has demonstrated that realities of St. Croix and the USVI.

• 77% of the patrons said that TEMPO met their expectations as an event and a product.

• 66% said that the artistes were professional.

• 74% said that Cramer’s Park was acceptable, but that efforts should made to have access and exit easier.

• Everybody (100%) indicated that TEMPO and St. Croix should work together, going forward.

• Everybody (100%) said that they were “pretty happy” (43%) to “very happy” (57%) with TEMPO.

• A total of 91% or 32 businesses said that TEMPO met their expectations.

• 94% said that TEMPO was good or better that other events held on St. Croix, and as such it should be encouraged.

• 86% of the businesses like the event at Cramer’s Park, but they, too, had some reservations about parking, entrance and exit.

• 33 or 94% of the businesses said that they would support TEMPO on St. Croix for what it would do for the economy.

• 33 or 94% of the businesses were over 10 years in operation in the USVI; this indicates some level of stability in the businesses.

• 29 or 71% said that the government should support TEMPO given what is does for Carnival, tourism and festival.

COMMENTS:

• TEMPO is putting the Caribbean, St. Croix and the USVI on the map.
• TEMPO was excellent in its organization and professionalism
• TEMPO’s security was tight, “there was no crime.”
• “TEMPO is good in the economic development of St. Croix.”
• TEMPO is viable for the VI.”
• “Government should make TEMPO a calendar event.”
• “It provides exposure.”
• “It is a good venture for St. Croix.”
•  “TEMPO is good for tourism.”
• “TEMPO promotes tourism.”

CONCLUSION:

• The Virgin Islands and the wider Caribbean are poised to move to higher heights as we segue into the era of globalization. TEMPO the product is pivotal in the going forward. For too long we have sat back and let others carve up the region and benefit from the nectar of the region’s flowers. Now an entrepreneur from the region has stamped his imprint on the region. It is to the region’s benefit that this venture has come at the time it has come. There are some growing pains, as the learning curve is mastered. But these growing pains are part and parcel of the structure of any new organization, operating as it were, across multicultural, multi-lingual, and multi-national borders in time and space.
• In a fundamental sense, TEMPO is more than a mere musical display of regional talent and talent of the Caribbean nationals in the Diaspora. TEMPO, under is marketing imprimatur, institutionalizes a certain centrality of musical forms in the Caribbean. On a daily basis there are a variety of experiential staging of musical forms in the Caribbean islands and nations. TEMPO has a achieved a certain specificity and explicitness relative to the development of culture, the promotion of musical forms, and the enhancement of opportunities to new and established artistes around the Caribbean and in the Diaspora. At the same time, TEMPO’s focus on culture, sports, educational forms and other culturally enhancement features are designed to showcase the Caribbean, its people and the talent of the people in the Caribbean and the Diaspora.

• From the surveys, TEMPO’s events and TEMPO the product have obtained high praises for professionalism and integrity. In this era of globalization, as we go forward, TEMPO has to be seen as a product and an event of our understanding the contemporary Caribbean. No longer can the region remain in the shadow of the plantation. Ours is a region that has moved mountains. And while at times we may all be children of Sisyphus, TEMPO has demonstrated that we can move mountains, and move boulders up mountains to reach pinnacles of success. The capacity for sustained development of a TEMPO product will be actively sourced in the Caribbean, in the St. Croix’s and Trinidads, the Jamaicas, in the Sparrows, the X-press bands, the quelbe, and all the other cultural, political and economic geniuses and characteristics of the region. At the core, however, will be the people. Today the era of globalization requires that we integrate or perish. TEMPO in a fine strategic manner is best positioned to be part of that integration process along the cultural, artistic, professional motif in a mosaic that we call the Caribbean.

• If the targets for economic growth are to be achieved in the US Virgin Islands, in St. Croix and in the wider Caribbean, the private sector and public sector must continue to be inextricably linked in success stories; TEMPO, to date, has shown that it is a growing success story. The patrons and the businesses have clearly demonstrated this point. Positive action should now dictate a positive relationship among all sectors of our economies