Percy Boyce was the main force behind the successful staging of GuyExpo for many years
I recently received a call from a friend living in Guyana, questioning if I will be assisting in organizing GuyExpo this year. I took pains in explaining the following to my goodly friend that I was happy that the current administration has recommenced the staging of this event and I’m sure that it will be immensely successful.
Notwithstanding, I could not help but reflect on my late friend Mr. Percival Boyce, GuyExpo’s Coordinator during the years I’d served as co-Chairman of this national exposition, and the yeoman service given towards the success of this initiative. I would like to take this opportunity to express how deeply sad I was upon learning of his death. As former chairman of the Organizing Committee, I would say without fear of contradiction, that my late friend was the main force behind the successful staging of this event for many years. He effectively implemented the decisions of the Organizing Committee and never failed in carrying out these responsibilities. The late Mr. Boyce was the consummate professional, extremely dedicated and committed to his work. In fact, this was reflected in his organization of GuyExpo’s cultural programme (supported by the late dynamic committee member Mr. Cultural himself- Lennox Canterbury), which promoted local entertainers and was arguably one of his most successful and memorable contributions.
I could write a book on the experiences I’ve had as coChairman; however, I will focus on a few memorable ones. For context of this first instance, during one of the stagings of this major trade exposition, I had learned that the Ministry responsible for organizing this annual event did not have the financial resources to stage the event that year. This was brought to my attention by the late coordinator who indicated that the financial resources generated from this event was managed by the subject ministry and not the Secretariat. As then co-Chairman, I had successfully lobbied the former President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo to advance the committee $20M with a commitment that we will make a profit of over $50M. You see Editor, I could have given that commitment because the late Coordinator