WITH a number of connections being formed, and businesses receiving capacity building, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Kester Hutson, has described Guyana’s attendance at the 2023 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas as a “mind-blowing” experience.

Hutson highlighted the successes gained from the prestigious forum during a press conference at the entity’s Waterloo Street headquarters on Friday, where he was joined by representatives from some of the businesses that attended including Nations University, GTT, and Payroll Solutions Inc.

Measuring the success of the venture based on what was achieved by the participating Guyanese companies, Hutson said the attendance has gotten nothing but positive feedback.

“The feedback we got from our delegation was one that the attendance was welcoming, overwhelming, minding-blowing and it gave a new perspective on what we should do as local companies to build in our capacity and to cater for the advancement of our companies,” Hutson shared.

This year was the fourth time Guyana has attended the event which was held from May 1 to 4, 2023, at the NRG Centre in Houston. This year the event was held under the theme, “Delivering the Future of Offshore Energy.”

Held annually, OTC brings together offshore energy game-changers’ technical and scientific knowledge as they share best practices, technological innovations, energy transitions, and emerging trends. The conference has a strong reputation for a world-class technical programme.

“The level of exposure that we got, that I got, I really cannot quantify it,” commented Marlon George, a representative of Guyana Payroll Solutions Inc.
This was his company’s first year at the event.

“Being there has allowed us to observe our own local company and how they do things. It may seem simplistic so when you get out there it’s another level and we really did observe how they do things and learned a lot. We did make some solid connections in a way that we can now leverage back home. The plan is to definitely return next year with a strategic approach with how we will execute networking,” George said.

Chief Operations Officer of Nations Inc., Liam O’Toole, also indicated that their experience was positive.

“It gives you a very broad of grasp of how big the oil and gas sector is in the world,” O’Toole said.

“The GCCI did a phenomenal job. I just want to say thank you to Mr. Hutson, the GCCI team, they did a wonderful job. It was a great success for us. We have had ongoing discussions with OPITO, a worldwide leader in health and safety and oil and gas education. We are now in the first step of rolling out a fundamentals in oil and gas course with OPITO and rolling out training on the technical side,” he added.

Guyana fielded a joint delegation of private sector and government entities. Included were almost 40 private organisations of which 16 were from the GCCI. According to Hutson, this was a first-time attendance for over 90 per cent of the GCCI members.

The government’s delegation was led by Chief Investment Officer, and Head of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), Dr. Peter Ramsaroop.

A primary focus of attending the event is education, connection, and networking.

Energy professionals, engineers, executives, operators, scientists, and managers from around the globe and across all offshore energy sectors also attended the event.

Industry leaders discussed licensing, business opportunities, and recent advancements in technology.

“This is something we look forward to for the exposure and giving back to our membership. We continue to foster relationships via partnerships with international firms,” Hutson noted.

During the event, the GCCI was able to network with business chambers from Venezuela and Brazil and initiated discussions on developing a continuous relationship.

The GCCI also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the South Louisiana Economic Council in the US.

During the OTC, local telecommunications giant, GTT, also announced its collaboration with WANSAT to provide high-speed broadband internet to remote regions of Guyana after the successful launch of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite into a geostationary orbit.

Speaking at Friday’s press conference, GTT Chief Operations Officer, Orson Ferguson, noted that the OTC was a great opportunity for the company to gain exposure and reassure foreign company of the services it can offer.

“It was extremely important for us to have been able to attend this conference. It is easy for [foreign] companies not knowing much about Guyana to assume we don’t have world-class services here. As companies think about coming to Guyana, we want companies to know that they can depend on us to deliver reliable connectivity, and it was very important for us to be there to demonstrate that,” Ferguson noted.