On July 11, 2025, the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator team (Nathan Rousseau, Expertise France) organised an informational session and stakeholder roundtable in Fort-de-France, Martinique. The event brought together entrepreneurs, public officials, and innovation enablers to discuss digital transformation opportunities between Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. After presenting the EU-LAC program, a roundtable explored concrete collaboration ideas – focusing on climate resilience, digital health, and circular economy – and helped identify potential candidates for future EU-LAC matchmaking and acceleration calls. This meetup was both a networking session and a testbed for a new workshop format in the French Caribbean, leveraging local networks to catalyse open innovation. In a region facing economic and productivity challenges, our approach is seen as a viable approach to driving innovation and revitalising the region’s economy.
Engaging Local Ecosystem – How It Worked: The roundtable was co-organised with the Chambers of Commerce (CCI) of Martinique and Guadeloupe, providing a neutral and credible forum for corporates, startups, clusters, and institutions to meet. Unlike a typical seminar, the format was highly interactive – moving beyond presentations into hands-on collaboration:
- Interactive Workshop: After an initial networking and needs-discussion segment, corporate representatives were guided through a co-creation workshop to articulate concrete digital challenges they face (in domains like renewable energy, agri-tech, mobility, digital inclusion, logistics). Immediately after, local startups and tech solution providers brainstormed potential fixes, fostering direct matchmaking between challenge owners and solution providers on the spot.
- Immediate Outcomes: This dynamic workshop approach yielded tangible results. By the end of the session, 2–3 corporate “challenges” had been clearly defined (with interest from organisations such as Orange, PIRAC (Disaster Preparedness & Response centre), and SARA (energy sector)), and a pool of 5–10 promising startups from Martinique and Guadeloupe were identified as ready to offer solutions. Participants responded with enthusiasm – many noted that the challenge-based method turned the event into a real ecosystem activator, not just a talk shop.
Long-Term Vision – What’s Next: Building on this momentum, the EU-LAC Accelerator is shaping a longer-term strategy for EU-Caribbean collaboration. The goal is to turn these one-off sessions into sustainable innovation bridges linking European territories in the Caribbean with independent Caribbean states:
- Caribbean Export (the region’s trade and investment agency) co-implements the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator and has been instrumental in extending its reach. They have helped organise “Digital Connectors” innovation events in places like Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, mobilising Caribbean startups and corporates.
- Scaling a Regional Innovation Ecosystem: Over the next year, the project team aims to institutionalise the challenge-workshop format as a repeatable tool for ecosystem activation. Plans are underway to replicate this model in other Euro-Caribbean territories, thereby knitting a transatlantic innovation network. The vision is a bidirectional flow of innovation: Caribbean corporates sourcing cutting-edge solutions from European or Latin American startups, and Caribbean startups accessing new markets and corporate partners abroad.
- Key Message – Sustainable Innovation Bridge: These efforts underscore the idea of the European Caribbean as an innovation gateway. The French Antilles, in particular, can act as a hub linking Europe, the wider Caribbean, and Latin America. By leveraging EU support and local initiative, Martinique’s roundtable and similar events are paving the way for sustainable development through digital innovation and international cooperation.
In summary, the Martinique event demonstrated how a well-designed, locally anchored workshop can spark real opportunities. It energised the island’s tech ecosystem around the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator and set the stage for deeper cross-regional partnerships. Going forward, the enthusiasm and lessons from this roundtable will inform the Accelerator’s Caribbean activities – ensuring that digital transformation challenges identified on these islands find innovative solutions through our collaboration.
