Allison Demas, CEO of COTT will create history as the first West Indian collective management organisation executive to be a panellist at an International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) conference. The World Copyright Summit Conference is titled "New Frontiers for creators in the Marketplace". The panel discussion entitled "Promoting the values of copyright" will take place on Wednesday June 10 at the Ronald Reagan Centre in Washington DC.

Demas is an attorney-at-law specialising in intellectual property law.  She is also the Vice-Chairman of the Management Committee of Caribbean Copyright Link (a regional grouping of collecting societies). She was an Adjunct Lecturer in the Advanced Intellectual Property Law course of the LL.M in Corporate & Commercial Law programme in the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies. Ms. Demas has represented a wide cross section of the copyright and creative industries including creators, publishers, producers as well as industry associations.  She has written several articles and papers and made various presentations on copyright, the law and business of entertainment, and creative industries in the Caribbean and has sat on various committees dealing with policy and development of intellectual property rights and the creative industries in the region.

Other panellists will include Scott Bearby, Managing Director of Legal Affairs/ Associate General Counsel, NCAA - National Collegiate Athletic Association (USA), Serona Elton, Assistant Professor - Music Business and Entertainment Industries, Frost School of Music - University of Miami (USA), Marcus Johnson, Composer, Jazz Pianist & Producer / President & CEO, Three keys Music (USA) and Bruce Lehman, Chairman, IIPI - International Intellectual Property Institute (USA).

The COTT CEO sees this as a great opportunity to highlight to an international audience the importance of promoting the value of copyright in the Caribbean in general and the advances made in this regard by COTT in particular.