By Antonio Dey | HGP Nightly News|
LILIENDAAL, GREATER GEORGETOWN — The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has officially launched its inaugural Youth Entrepreneur Conference, a dedicated developmental initiative designed to expose young Guyanese between the ages of 10 and 17 to modern commerce, technological innovation, and emerging economic sectors.
Scheduled for Saturday, September 12, 2026, from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), the conference will convene under the theme “Igniting Guyana’s Next Generation of Entrepreneurs.” The event aims to prepare school-aged youths to transition from future job seekers into innovative business owners and employers.
Equipping Youths for a Modern Economic Landscape
Addressing the launch, GCCI President Kathy Smith stressed that as Guyana’s economy undergoes unprecedented structural expansion, business development initiatives must start earlier to build long-term domestic capacity:
- Interactive Specialized Workshops: Participants will engage in hands-on sessions across five high-growth areas:
- The Orange Economy: Creative arts, digital media, music, and entertainment ventures.
- Tourism & Hospitality: Eco-tourism packaging, customer service excellence, and destination branding.
- Agro-Processing: Adding commercial value to local agricultural outputs.
- AI-Augmented Entrepreneurship & Technology: Leveraging artificial intelligence, coding, and software tools to solve real-world problems.
- Marketing, PR & Tech Commercialization: Practical strategies to pitch ideas, build brands, and monetize technology.
- Core Competency Building: The curriculum is structured to foster financial literacy, risk assessment, creative problem-solving, and public speaking confidence among adolescents.
“Participants will engage in interactive workshops on the Orange Economy, Tourism and Hospitality, Agro-Processing, AI-Augmented Entrepreneurship, and marketing and public relations and turning technology into business,” GCCI President Kathy Smith stated. “The conference is designed to build confidence… and give them the platform to present their own ideas.”
Shifting Mindsets from Job Seekers to Employers
Smith underscored that the upcoming generation will navigate a commercial marketplace profoundly transformed by digital automation and diversification:
- Evolving Business Realities: Tomorrow’s entrepreneurs must harness tools and market dynamics that did not exist a decade ago.
- Catalyst for National Transformation: By fostering an entrepreneurial mindset at the secondary school level, the GCCI aims to seed long-term local content development driven by indigenous innovation.
“The entrepreneurs of tomorrow will operate in a very different environment from the entrepreneurs of yesterday,” Smith emphasized. “Technology is changing businesses, creativity is shaping industry, and tourism and hospitality are expanding. This initiative prepares our youth to lead that transformation.”
The GCCI confirmed that registration will be open to students and young innovators across Region Three, Region Four, and surrounding areas ahead of the September 12 session.
