FOR Princess Baboolall, a Year One Mechanical Engineering student at the Government Technical Institute (GTI), the 2023 International Energy Conference and Expo has been nothing short of a delight, since it has stirred and heightened her desire ever more to become a mechanical engineer.

The professionals that she was able to interact with, along with the practical demonstrations of things that are familiar and fascinating to her, made her visits to the Marriott venue well worth it.

Thanks to the arrangements that GTI had put in place, students from various departments were allowed to visit the ‘expo’, and Princess was among them.

“My father is a mechanic, and I grew up in the workshop; running about, getting injured,” she laughed. “It became a norm, and I just like the job. I fix cars with my father.”

Princess, whose dad operates Navin and Company in Grove, East Bank Demerara, is hoping to one day be able to work on an oil rig.

“The country is moving so fast, and a lot more will be developed, so I am sure that more will be on the scene by the next expo,” she shared.

Her friend, Adrianna Edghilo, who is studying Electrical Engineering, also at GTI, offered that it was nice to have a first-hand look at the things that she’d only read in books so far.

“I’m looking forward to the next ‘expo’, so that I can do a bit more in-depth exploring,” Adrianna said.

As for Nia Conway, a Fifth Form student at Queen’s College who doesn’t yet know what career she wants to pursue, she went to the ‘expo’ in the hope of finding some guidance on what may be available.

“I found some things I think are interesting that I will go home and look up,” she told this publication. Her experience at the ‘expo’ has definitely helped her determine a way forward.

Meanwhile, Melissa Jacobus, a cardiac nurse at the Caribbean Heart Institute who works in the Outpatient Department, shared that most persons who visited the booth had never heard of the services that they provide. As such, they were able to gather names and phone numbers for possible follow-ups.

Almost 200 exhibitors and over 800 delegates were scheduled to be part of the second edition of the annual event, which opened on Tuesday and concluded on Friday. The event had about 30 sponsors with 188 booths, comprising 70 international entities and 83 local businesses.

Some 60 speakers delivered presentations under the theme, “Harnessing Energy for Development”. The event was organised and entirely privately funded by the newly formed company, International Energy Conference and Expo Inc., which is headed by Chairman Anthony Whyte.

The ‘expo’ assembled Heads of State, government officials, policymakers, academics, industry professionals, and global energy thought leaders. Some of the onboard partners were CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited (CPGL), Hess Corporation, and GTT.

NEW SERVICE
Also speaking with this publication was Head of the Health and Safety Department at Puran Brothers Disposal Services, Jason Carter, who noted that the networking afforded by the event has been amazing.

“We have gotten jobs; companies that are interested in our services. This has been extremely well for us. With this amount of networking that we did over the past three days, I think that’s a boom for business,” Carter said.

He used the opportunity to highlight a new service that will be offered by the end of March that will particularly benefit the oil companies.

“The totes that they bring their chemicals in are hard to get rid of; they try to destroy them. Doing so has been a challenge for the oil companies, but now we are bringing in shredders,” he explained.

This new service will also be used to shred tyres.

“I know that the country has a lot of tyres; the landfill is usually packed up on one side,” Carter observed.

POTENTIAL CLIENTS
Techlify, a local software company located in Queenstown, has been around for some time but is still virtually unknown. It has been building software for companies to use and has done significant work with auto sales companies, helping them to manage their entire operations.

This software, and the many others available at Techlify, has been designed “from scratch” by local personnel. The company is headed by Joshua Kissoon who studied Computer Science, and went on to do his Master’s in India.

Manager and Network Engineer Darren Isardin shared how the ‘expo’ has helped Techlify to network with other businesses. “Many business owners came, and were interested in our services; they saw how it can save them a lot of time and money, especially the payroll software.”

The fact that other businesses were made aware of the services the company provides and the tremendous benefits that persons can gain from them, was perhaps one of the biggest advantages of participating in the expo. In the past few days, the company’s potential clientele has surpassed the 100 mark.

“And we haven’t even showed them the full features of our company; just some demo videos and they were pretty excited about it,” Isardin shared.