After presenting an electrifying experience to attendees of his workshop last November, media futurist Gerd Leonhard once again graced our shores upon invitation by COTT to be the feature speaker at a workshop entitled "Embracing Business Opportunities in a Digital Age".

Attendees were given the opportunity to learn more about cutting edge modes of communication and networking strategies via the internet. Thus exposing themselves to the wider population by creating attention to themselves with business prospects being their major focus.

Leonhard expressed that even advertisers are deserting radio and newspapers as their means of generating revenue. He advised COTT members that they need to get people addicted to what they do and ‘pull them in'.  He indicated that "the new wave is music on the internet and it offers a chance to earn more money."

Some of the social networks in which Leonhard encouraged the audience to explore included MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. He also sited search engines such as Google who he described as ‘happy to pay for music as they see it as adding value'. For the music industry, Leonhard stated that if downloads on the internet were made legal through a license system this would lead to greater usage of the internet for this purpose thus generating greater income for music creators.

The significance of Mr Leonhard's visit to Trinidad was to assist in making indigenous music creators more ready to embrace the myriad of business opportunities that abound in the international music/entertainment industry.