The Business of Carnival

Mission

Vision

To be the go-to online educational services company in entertainment and intellectual property law for creatives across the Caribbean, through the development of web series, master classes, individualized workshops and online courses.

To raise the standard of business operations within the Carnival Industry via education so that our Caribbean creatives and entrepreneurs can truly maximize their business potential via the protection and monetization of their intellectual property.

Who is Carla Parris?

Carla Parris is an Entertainment and Sports Lawyer with a Master’s degree in Entertainment Law. She is a TEDX 2018 Speaker, Web and TV Producer & CEO of an online educational services company Parris Productions Ltd.

She operates the first boutique law practice in Trinidad & Tobago whose focus is in the area of Entertainment, Intellectual Property (IP)& Sports Law where she provides specialist legal advice to persons in the music, carnival, sports, film, fashion, events, and broadcast sector. Some of her clients past and present include world renowned cricketer Dwayne Bravo, the government of Trinidad & Tobago, the OECS Commission, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee.

Parris has also been a guest lecturer in the Film department of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus (UWI) and taught Intellectual Property Law in over thirty conferences in T & T and across the Caribbean for organisations such as the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and the St Lucia Coalition of Services Industry (SLCSI). In 2020 she took part in Covid 19 creative industries related webinars with the Organisation of American (OAS) featuring speakers such as the Prime Minister of St Vincent & the Grenadines and the Attorney General of Barbados.

Her career has been quite untraditional as after being called to the bar in Trinidad and Tobago in 2003 she made the decision to move to London, UK to explore her ambitions in the creative industry. There she worked in the magazine publishing industry as an Editor and Features Writer to various magazines within the cultural and entertainment sectors. After returning to T & T she worked briefly as an Entertainment News journalist where she appeared on the nightly news with features about the local entertainment sector.

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WHAT IS THE BUSINESS OF CARNIVAL?

Our Caribbean region has become known for its rich culture and creative capital. This creative capital is found in dance, music, film, design and other creative industries. Our carnival is its most unique and innovative product as it encapsulates all of the aforementioned creative arms and brings significant foreign exchange to the region through the plethora of magnificent events that the festival generates.

Carnival is a globally lucrative industry with Caribbean-styled carnivals taking place in nearly every Caribbean island and across the diaspora in the United States, Europe and even expanding to countries in Africa and Dubai!

What is disturbing, however, is the fact that despite the obvious economic strength of the festival, there are still significant income sources not being understood and not being tapped into by many of the main stakeholders. Our musical artists, carnival costume designers, bandleaders and government agencies are still unable to effectively translate this creativity into sustainable economic gains inside and outside the festival period.

On the outside, it can appear as though this thriving industry is financially viable in its current form, but the reality is every year, Caribbean entrepreneurs around the globe leave money on the table because they are ignoring some of the finer legal and business principles surrounding the strategic growth of their businesses.

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OUR JOURNEY

The idea for creating the YouTube series came to Carla Parris after running her boutique law practice for six years and realizing that very few creatives or corporate agencies understood the legal and business aspects of the creative industry and carnival.

The Business of Carnival Series:
It was launched on YouTube Channel: Carla Parris LLB, LLM as a free educational web series which could be used as a resource for entertainment industry stakeholders and provide access to a wide database of business issues and solutions. To date, carnival content typically broadcasts the festival element, however, this is the first educational show of its kind, targeted to creatives, carnival goers, commercial entities, government agencies and internationally based entities. It is designed to educate on the value of our creative products, the legal and business aspects to be considered and to position our well-known musicians, designers, event producers and creative practitioners as business persons.

It consists of four seasons filmed in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Los Angeles (Hollywood)
Two years later, it was streamed on Caribbean Airlines, it next became a show on Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) and is now featured on The Roku Channel.

The birth of The Business of Carnival Academy

In 2020 while producing the show, we realized that entrepreneurs required educational resources, which solved the pain points discussed in the shows. We took some of the insights gained from talking with some of the top entrepreneurs and celebrities across the Caribbean and compiled them into our first Master Class.

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The Business of Carnival

Who is Carla Parris?

WHAT IS THE BUSINESS OF CARNIVAL?

OUR JOURNEY

Welcome back!