Premier Event Services - Barbados

March 25 - Jerry Ishmael, part owner of Premier Event Services was my favorite vocational visit on Barbados. This man knows events inside and out! I got to talk to him about 2 very exciting events that his business landed, “The Prime Minister’s Inaugural Ball” and the “Barbados Food & Wine Festival” sponsored by Travel and Leisure Magazine! During my visit, I got to meet the secretary to the Prime Minister as she was in the office to approve the event invitation for the Inaugural Ball, a 450 person plated meal affair. She was very happy to say the least.

The Barbados Food and Wine Festival takes place Nov. 19-22, 2010 and will have three top guest chefs: Chef Tim Love, a true Texan and pioneer of urban Western Cuisine, Chef Ming Tsai, a New York chef who focuses on East-West cooking, and last but not least, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, multi-award winning New Yorker famed as the chef at Obama’s first State White House dinner (the infamous crashed dinner we all know and talk about).

The most interesting part of the conversation was about the wine. Barbados does not produce wine, yet the titles is very explanatory, a Wine and Food Festival. They are importing wines and flying in wine experts from all over the world. Rum will be present at the event of course, as Barbados is very proud to say that Mount Gay is the first rum ever to be produced.

There will be cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, rum shop Safari’s, catamaran cruises hosted by the celebrity chefs, dinner banquets, tastings, music, and all kinds receptions throughout this fun 4 day event. On an international level, the event will promote Barbados as a top tourism destination. Given my culinary and hospitality experience on Barbados, they will have no problem with this!

I really wish I was a part of the Premier Event Services team working on this exciting event. Even more, I wish I had the vacation time to take off and go back to attend this event! I have great confidence that Jerry and his staff will do a fine job!

For more info on the event, pick up a copy of Travel and Leisure Magazine!

Shelly Kane

Barbados Legion

March 25 - The Barbados Legion is a semi-private veterans support organization patterned after the British Legion. It provides assistance to former members of the British forces from Barbados and former members of the Barbados Defence Force.

The Legion building - The Main Guard, in the Garrison, Saint Michaels

The BDF was formed after independence in 1966. Prior to that, Bajans served in units of the British Army, at one time constituting (with other islands) the West Indies Regiment. Some members supported by the Legion served in British Army, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. The first prime minister of Barbados, Errol Walton Barrow, was a WWII RAF veteran with 40 missions to his credit.

Over the past few years, the Barbados government has recognized that having a private organization look after its veterans was not living up to its commitment and now partially funds the organization with about US$100,000 per year. The Legion still sells the poppy reminiscent of the poppies sold on Veterans Day in the United States.

Following an excellent briefing and tour by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Florence Gettins, the Legion presented me with their organizational tie - I am wearing if in the photo.

Hazzard Engineering and Lime Grove - Barbados

My third vocational visit on Barbados was in two parts. First being a visit to Mahy, Ridley, Hazzard Engineering Ltd. I met with Gregory Hazzard (below), the director.


His company employs about 10-15 people and their offices are in a building (below)that was originally part of a large plantation.

Gregory was very nice and drove me all around Barbados showing me some of his projects. One was an impressive golf course club house with an amazing view of the ocean (but it was closed at the time, so I couldn't take a photo).

Another project in progress was a large office building that will house an insurance company that fellow GSE team member Lillah's host father, Keith, works for. It's interesting how everyone is pretty much connected to everyone else, since it is such a small island.

In fact, another project underway will be one of the largest retail centers in Barbados, and through my vocational visits I met the engineers, two construction companies, and the leasing office on the job. It's called Lime Grove (below) and is a large commercial and residential development on the west coast of Barbados in the affluent town of Holetown.


Lynne Williams (with me below) in residential sales gave me a hard hat tour of the three and four-story buildings, to be complete with a movie theater, underground parking, and retailers including Cartier, Ralph Lauren, and Louis Vuitton, to name a few.



Palm Grove includes more than 10 buildings, plus a second phase to consist of three-story town houses on an adjacent block. It will be a beautiful site complete with three courtyards and roof-top dining. Check out: http://www.limegrove.com/ for some great images and architectural renderings. The center opens December of this year, just in time for some Christmas shopping!

Heidi Ellis

Rotary Club of Barbados

March 25 - The GSE team attended the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Barbados, often called the "big club" or the "old club." The club, with about 80 members, is the largest in District 7030.

Monica - to her left is her host family member Ronnie Ramsey

It is also the home club of Past District Governor David Edwards (seated to Shelly's left), who has invited the team to spend our rest day on his yacht - we said yes.

Lillah presenting

Heidi presenting

The customary banner exchange:

Monica - Springfield Twin Rivers


Shelly - Springfield


Heidi - Eugene Airport

Lillah - Bend High Desert

Rick (wearing his Barbados Legion tie) - Port Orford

Rotary Club of Barbados South

March 24 – The team attended the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Barbados South. During the meeting, the club inducted a new member into its ranks.

Shelly making her presentation

Monica making her presentation

The club is involved in several community service projects, including the adoption of a school for children with special needs.

The team members presented banners from their sponsoring clubs:

Monica - Springfield Twin Rivers

Heidi - Eugene Airport

Lillah - Bend High Desert

Shelly - Springfield

Mark Thompson Group - Barbados

My second vocational visit in Barbados was to an architect's office, Mark Thompson of the Mark Thompson Group. We started with a driving tour to view some of his completed projects. The Mark Thompson Group has been very successful and has many beautiful projects throughout Barbados.

We ended up at his office, which is a historical building, the "Ronald Tree House." It's a beautiful two-story home, now converted to office spaces, which houses Mark's company, a massage therapist, and a quantity surveyor's office.

Keith Browne, me, Mark Thompson

Which leads me to my second vocational visit of the day: Keith Browne, quantity surveyor. This profession isn't practiced much in the states under that title, but he essentially is an estimator/budgeter/appraiser all in one.

Quantity surveying includes creating a large document of all the individual costs involved in a construction or remodel project. It can be time-consuming, but is very helpful for the contractors to tender (bid). This practice is more common in the UK as well. Keith's company does quantity surveying among other things.

They also specialize in project management, contract review, and valuations. To be a chartered quantity surveyor, there is a three-year program, then two years of training, and a final assessment test. Keith also completed his MBA, which has aided him in running his own business and managing a team.

Heidi Ellis

Barbados Coastal Zone Management Unit

March 23 – I spent my second vocational day in Barbados with Dr. Leo Brewster PhD, Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit.


Dr. Brewster showed me a boardwalk project the Coastal Zone Management Unit has been working on around the island to better serve the public and use the natural forces the geomorphology of the ocean exhibits to conserve and maintain the beaches on the island with the most public use. The wooden boards were brought into Barbados from Brazil for their tested longevity. The boulders had to be shipped in from Canada because the geology of Barbados is made up of coral entirely and it is not a favorable material to take the endless pounding of the surf year upon year.

Dr. Brewster and I on a section of the boardwalk on the south coast.

Monica Holzmer