13 Pics: Best of KB 2013!

Kimroy Bailey 2013 year in review, below is a list of accomplishments, not ranked in order of importance with a few exceptions. Now let’s get it started.

13. Prime Minister Youth Award

Sunday March 24, 2013 marked the pinnacle of my personal achievements when I shared the stage with the seventh Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Most Honorable Portia Simpson-Miller, ON, MP. My walk to the platform as one of the recipients of the Prime Minister Youth Award in the category of International Achievement was welcomed by applause from the audience and resounding shouts of ‘That’s my boy!’, ‘That’s my boy!’, That is MY boy!’ echoed by my mom like she did at my graduation ceremony a few months ago. Mrs. Simpson-Miller acknowledged my mom’s shouts of  joy when she said, “She is very proud of you Kimroy and she has all rights to be”. She continued her hand shake while handing me the prestigious award for representing our beautiful island at numerous international engineering competitions while attending The University of Technology, Jamaica.

12. Meet the minister of industry trade and commerce

My Facebook Fan Page shares daily posts on how Wind, Solar, Hydro and other renewable sources can exponentially impact Jamaica’s growth potential. Through the publicity from our Page we secured an appointment with Minister Anthony Hylton where we demonstrated how Offshore Wind Turbines (placing turbines in the sea) along with a water reservoir used store excess renewable energy could supply over 60% of Jamaica’s energy demand and significantly reduce our oil importation bill. More importantly our electricity cost can be cut in half through the implementation of this project. The model in the photo shows 3 of the turbines our project would require and also the water reservoir along the coastline which would store our wind energy to store the wind energy.

11. Guest Speaker at Junior Achievement Jamaica

I got to live my passion of public speaking an motivating young trail blazers on a number of platforms but I particularly enjoyed my session with over 100 young talented innovators at the Awards Banquet and Closing Ceremony for Junior Achievement Company of Entrepreneurs. These students were all from the Secondary level but all had powerful business ideas incubated by Junior Achievement Jamaica.  Manufacturing is imperative to move our country forward and what better way to get that message across than to uplift future entrepreneurs that in today’s society anything can be made anywhere by anyone  and sold to everyone. We can’t sit back and say leave manufacturing to China or Asia, we can too, we must. Jamaica is a big brand and we can use that to market locally made products.

 10. Development Bank of Jamaica Guest Panelist

As a Renewable Energy and Robotics Consultant a number speaking engagements have presented themselves. The Development of Jamaica invite me to be apart of a panel of young experts to talk about growth in my industry. My talk was short and to the point “Cheaper Energy prices through Renewable Energy and Let’s Manufacture local product”. It might not be as easy as I make it out to be but its definitely not as hard as we think it is. This talk changed the dialog of when’s best to manufacture and what to manufacture. Let’s do it here, let’s do it NOW!

09. Moving back to Trelawny

After graduating from the University of Technology, Jamaica I worked in the US for a brief period, came back and started making plans for the Kimroy Bailey Foundation while based in Kingston. Things were fitting itself together nevertheless I decided to move back to Trelawny and take my business ventures there. My tiny bedroom and mom’s dining table soon became my office where I worked up business plans, Facebook posts and grand ideas and business ventures between it all biweekly trips to my dad’s farm kept me sane. While I ran up the electricity, internet, food bill my dad reminded me that “Planting your own food is like printing your own money”

 08. Faithful Four

My dogs have been a big part of my development. They help to free my mind from random thoughts and things that bothers an entrepreneur especially during the no money making periods, they make me young again, laugh again and better yet protect the crops. Roxy and Blade both Rottweiler-mixed, Biggs and Thunder, Pit and German-mixed are my every thing. We need to win back our Agriculture sector, win back local production, win back Jamaica!  The best part though is touring the hills adjacent to the Cockpit Country with these four, its breath taking, truly my favorite thing to do.

 07. Robots and STEM in School Program, El Instituto de Mandevilla

Some months after moving to Trelawny operations around my moms dining table led to the creation of Kimroy Bailey Robotics Limited a registered company created to bring hands-on technology to students across Jamaica and accelerate interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Kimroy Bailey Robotics’ very first evening camp took place at El Instituto de Mandevilla in partnership with the Digital Yard Foundation. We entertained 23 students and employed 4 instructors, the kids had the grand opportunity to build simple robots and see science come to life. Like Gordon Swaby‘s Edufocal we aim to change the learning landscape.

06. May Day 1st place with KB Robotics Mentorship

 

Mom’s dining table seemed to be the formula for success and moving to Trelawny should be credited for the number 6th item on the countdown. The now newly found Kimroy Bailey Robotics Limited mentorship program with the May Day High School reaped real rewards when the school’s automated home project was placed first in the all island Ideas, Innovation, Ingenuity Competition in partnership with the Scientific Research Counsel and the Business Lab and under the aupices of Kimroy Bailey Robotics.

05. Owen James “The Achievers”

It was all up hill from there and my mom’s dining table strike again. One day, business as usual table filled with paper to paint the image of “I’m doing work” when really I was just wondering what’s next. I recieved a call from the producers of Owen James’ program On a Personal Note and they asked if I would be interested in being featured in “The Achievers” segment hosted by Tamara McKayle. Growing up watching the program and knowing the caliber of persons they engage I almost asked “why” but to play it cool and professional I accepted. The featured turned out really well, so well that they decided to do a part 1 and 2 which was just awesome and earn its place at number 5 on the list.

04. All Angles 

Dionne Jackson-Miller and the All Angles team has earned a name for themselves with a superb prime time program which informs Jamaicans on the trending topics of the day.  I was feeding the dogs in mid-December when I got a call from Vashan Brown a program producer at the RJR Group inviting me to be a guest for a special edition of All Angles to be aired on Christmas Day 2013, this time I had to ask “why”. He laughed and continued with the details of the engagement. The program feature highlighted outstanding young Jamaicans in various disciplines and included the genius himself  Timar Jackson recipient of the Prime Minister Youth Award, 2014 Rhode Scholar other featured guest included a sensational dancer Chantelle Biersay and talented athletes.

03. Kimroy Bailey Robotics Ltd First Employees

 Number 3 could easily be number 1 but only number 1 can be number 1 and you’ll soon see why when we get there. My company activities have grown beyond the point where I can efficiently do everything all by myself, I consequently handed over some of the rains to three super competent and ultra talented individuals namely Alesha McLean who sustains everything on the Administrative side of our operations, Raymond Ferguson our lead technical expert responsible for programing robots and preparing syllabus for our STEM education programs and Finally there is Marlon Hutchinson (not in photo) who’ll make anything I can think up as long as he has the resources and even when he doesn’t have all the resources (90% of the time) he’ll utilize his creativity to cook up something awesomer. Number 3 belongs to these three a dedicated and committed staff piloting Kimroy Bailey Robotics Limited into a new dimension.

02. KB Office

My business activities have grown beyond the walls of my mom’s dining table, keeping up with the Kimroy Bailey Foundation and kicking off Kimroy Bailey Robotics Limited were a bit too much for the living room. My dad, Raymond, Alesha and I decided to renovate the basement which once was the kennel for the ‘Faithful Four’, they still jump around whenever they get the chance as if its still there territory but they’ll get the message soon. Small and neat is now the 9-5 home of Alesha, Raymond and Marlon, this is number 2 for two main reasons. 1) My mom is now happy she has her dining table to eat around once again and 2) It officially furnished and open on New Years Day 2014 which marks a pivitol point for the great year ahead.

1. The Kimroy Bailey Foundation Tag Drive

The creme de la creme of this countdown definitely had to be topped off with the Kimroy Bailey Foundation Grand Gospel Concert and Fun Day but more importantly the events leading up to that big day. About mid-Summer over 40 volunteers joined our team eager and willing to play their part to see the KB Foundation complete construction of the 100% Renewable Community Center, future home of a internet access facility, homework center, training to accelerate rural manufacturing and agriculture production among others. Yes that incomplete building in the background will change the dialogue of job creation in Trelawny forever. This sustainable social enterprise will be packaged after completion and implemented in other parishes. One of the many thing we did to raise funds for our Gospel Concert was a series of tag drives where we traveled to Mandeville, Ocho Rios, Browns Town, Junction, Black River, Montego-Bay, Westmoreland among other locations educating persons about our project while receiving their generous contributions.

Ahh we are here already,  this is merely a highlight of my year and does not seem to undervalue my other engagements by any means, a number of monumental events that didn’t make the list such as over 5 radio interviews, 4 news paper features including a cover page article on the Kimroy Bailey Foundation, trottbaileyfamily.com winning 3 awards including Jamaica’s Blog of the Year and so so much more. Thank you for taking the time out to read be sure to tweet, like and share this via the links on your right. Do stay tune for a weekly updates on a GRAND 2014 .