Sometimes all it takes is an idea to change the world. Electricity, the telephone, the internet, were born as ideas. And now, we cannot imagine existence without them.
The Economist John Maynard Keynes noted that “The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but escaping from the old ones.”
In the 1960s when poverty enveloped the Territory, Lawrence Rockefeller sailed in and decided on Virgin Gorda for the iconic Little Dix Bay.
That single idea changed our fortunes and the BVIs star began its ascent into a limitless sky bounded only by our ideas in abstract thought that we labeled as dreams.
Then, we escaped or were thrown from an old idea in the 1980s; The double taxation treaty with the United States.
And the new idea was born that resulted in the Financial Services Industry that still serves us well. But we must engender other ideas, otherwise, our progress ends.
Russell Harrigan is determined that BVI will be a place where ideas continue to be born and to flourish.
Of course, he didn’t know that in 1987 when he worked in San Francisco for the BVI Tourist Board. But when H Lavity Stoutt summoned him home in 1989 to be the Board’s Director, his success required ideas and vision.
Ivy O’Neal lent her authoritarian approach to order and decency in managing his reception and with his focus, tourism soared.
But he left that position in 1997 and created Oyster Global Marketing Group; A BVI based full-service marketing agency. He also consulted in the tourism space.
Later, he was appointed Chairman of the Tourist Board and, in all, served there for 12 years.
In 2006 an idea crystallized in his head and when it came to fruition, he called it Business BVI. He doubled down in 2009 in acquiring the BVI Beacon.
Now his Oyster Global Marketing group was fully equipped to bring significant changes to the Territory.
“Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). ‘René Descartes.’
When in 2012, Russell launch the Business BVI Conference here followed by a BVI Business Outlook Conference in 2014 in Hong Kong, both running up to 2017, it was a watershed moment for the Territory.
Suddenly, BVI had another big global stage upon which to operate. So, apart from the incorporation of companies, we were fluently speaking the language of business to those so disposed.
And government was being helped to enact policies that supported investors to grow the economy and the tax base.
What’s in a name?
Recently, the BVI Business Conference emerged from the doldrums where it was bound by the chain of catastrophic events that included the 2017 August deluge, hurricanes Irma and Maria followed by the Covid19 pandemic in 2020.
It was rebranded ‘The BVI Ideas Festival’ with the first installment taking place on Peter Island from 11-12 November 2025.
The line up of speakers and the various discussions were impressive; The attendees, equally so.
They represented, amongst others, the business community, government, non-profits, youth, entertainers. There was also input from the subregion and from international organizations.
The Premier of the BVI and the Premier of Nevis spoke credibly about collaboration in the fields of tourism and financial services. Energy surfaced. Both would like to make their jurisdictions the first fully green economy in the subregion.
Nevis has great possibilities with the harnessing and use of thermal energy and if the Anegada experience can be replicated throughout the Virgins, solar energy will do it for us.
There were important discussions on governance, philanthropy, an economic driver for our service industries ( air travel), construction, AI, the pillars of the economy, the growing scourge of sargassum and more.
Someone from the Cato Institute gave a succinct economic presentation that teased aspects of the political malfeasance sweeping the world.
And we wondered again whether the current war on drugs being fought in the basin will negatively impact our breadbasket, tourism.
How do we steady our economy, guide the younger generation, increase our market share in the existing industries and forge boldly forward in new uncharted waters in the modern era?
How do we harness the chaos and global rumblings to the benefit of our economy? What impact will AI have on this new paradigm?
The Ideas Festival took all those and more into account and stretched our imagination even to places of discomfort.
We are hungry for more of that mental stimulation.
So, we are with Alan Kay. “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” And, as Russell showed us, we can do that one idea at a time.
We congratulate Russell. We applaud Portia. They are making a sterling contribution to these Virgin Islands.
And Fridays give us the opportunity to contemplate these things.
Happy Friday!