Kubiyashi Productions brings intern one step closer to goal

Providing assistance and guidance to the youth of today is very important for the future and that is exactly what Alex “Kubiyashi” Barnwell and Sulani Roberts of Kubiyashi Productions hoped to achieve when 17-year-old college student Lina Dornieden joined the company as an administrative intern at the beginning of Carnival.

Most of us have seen her face before, either as she strutted down a runway or serving smiles as she worked at various parties and events throughout SVG.{{more}} However, there is more to Lina than a pretty face and a strut. Instead of working in these events, Lina’s goal is to eventually work on these events – planning and putting them together, an event planner, and Kubiyashi productions was the perfect place for her to learn.

Kubiyashi Productions is a tiny team of two, producer Alex “Kubiyashi” Barnwell and executive assistant Sulani Roberts, but it is one of the most active production houses in the Caribbean, one that successfully handles local, regional and international projects, with work from young, start-up artistes, such as Reka Gaymes, to world renowned artistes and producers, the likes of Major Lazer. Along with all this, this tiny team is responsible for the event management/production of the biggest shows of Vincy Mas, such as Black Rave and H2O. Over the duration of the Carnival season, Lina received wide hands-on experience in event management from working at these two big shows. She assisted in planning the events, met with artistes and their managers, oversaw band practices, assisted in backstage management, assisted in stage management, assisted with marketing the event and also had the opportunity to meet and secure contacts that would be instrumental to her future in event planning.

Now equipped with this knowledge and experience from a long tumultuous Carnival season and having handled herself with maturity, Lina proved that she was ready for the next step, so when Sulani found out that the Cave Hill campus of the Unversity of the West Indies was hosting an Events Management programme, she quickly brought it up for discussion. It was a great opportunity for Lina and Kubiyashi Productions was only happy to help.

Currently, Lina is at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus and has completed Day 1 of the Events Management workshop, fully funded by the team at Kubiyashi Productions. She will do intensive studies in effective approaches to successfully managing events such as: The Event Planning Process; Skills Required for Successful Events Management; Event Team Dynamics; Contingency Planning.

The programme ends next Saturday and Lina returns home with a more rounded education on Events Management, a certificate to qualify her achievements and will move on to complete the second year of her college education at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College.