The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) will hold its first Youth Entrepreneur Conference on September 12, targeting children aged 10 to 17 with workshops on business development, technology and creative industries.
The conference, themed “Igniting Guyana’s Next Generation of Entrepreneurs,” is scheduled for the Arthur Chung Conference Centre from 8.30 am to 1 pm. Between 100 and 150 participants are expected, the chamber said in a release yesterday.
Workshops will cover the orange, or creative economy; tourism and hospitality; agro-processing; entrepreneurship supported by artificial intelligence; and marketing and public relations.
The GCCI said the programme would introduce participants to identifying business opportunities and developing ideas, while helping them build confidence, financial literacy and problem-solving skills.
Chamber President Kathy Smith, who conceived the initiative, said exposure to entrepreneurship should begin before young people enter the workforce.
“Somewhere in a classroom in Guyana today is a 10-year-old with an idea. That idea may one day become a business, employ people, solve a problem in a community or even become one of the companies that helps to shape Guyana’s economy twenty years from now,” Smith said.
“But ideas need opportunity. If we want Guyana to have more entrepreneurs, innovators, creators and business leaders tomorrow, we have to begin exposing our young people to those possibilities today.”
According to the chamber, the workshop areas were selected to introduce participants to both established and emerging business opportunities.
“Our young people must know that their future is not limited to finding employment. They can create employment. They can build businesses. They can innovate. They can export. They can become employers and industry leaders,” Smith said.
The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Education are supporting the initiative, which the GCCI said would help it reach young people from a wider cross-section of the country. Businesses and other partners have also contributed funding, goods and services.
The chamber said it intends to make the conference a recurring event.
Eligible students can register through the [online registration form](https://forms.gle/YUYvbM6K4DLVi5vm6), with parents and guardians encouraged to complete it on their behalf. Participants are encouraged to attend in their school uniforms.
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