Continuing in it’s mission of fostering Ideas Worth Spreading, the renewal of TEDx Jamaica, on Saturday October 1, at the Courtleign Auditorium in Kingston will feature a host of achievers in various fields.

Among them is Barrington Irving. Jamaican-born, Miami raised, Irving became the youngest person ever and the first Blackman to fly solo around the world, in 2007. Committed to inspiring youth (his aircraft was dubbed Inspiration), Barrington Irving has spearheaded many initiatives to broaden the career opportunities for young people, including the non-profit Experience Aviation. Also speaking at TEDxJamaica will be entrepreneur and author Dr Randall Pinkett. A winner of the hit NBC business reality show, The Apprentice, Dr Pinkett is Chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, a company he also founded.

Divya Narendara is the founder and CEO of Sum Zero, the largest amalgamation of buy side analysts, and is also one of the originators of the social networking idea that is now Facebook. Jamaican-born Simon Benjamin is a leading director and designer, recognized by industry source PRINT magazine as one of the Top 20 Talents Under 30. In addition to being Chief Operating Officer of CaseWare RCM, a subsidiary of global software company CaseWare International, Andrew Simpson is Chairman of Symptai, an IT audit and secure consulting firm with over 150 clients.

JJ Geewax is a co-founder of Invite Media, a platform that enables customers to buy online ads in real time. In 2010, Invite Media was acquired by Google, and JJ is currently a software engineer at Google, responsible for growing and managing the Invite Media engineering team in New York City and Philadelphia.

TEDx is but one of several outgrowths of the initial TED Conference. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. While the TED Conference serves as a guideline, the TEDx events are individually organized and feature TEDTalks video and live speakers to spark deep discussions and connection among a small group.

TED began in California 25 years ago as a four-day conference. Since that time, the annual TED Conference has featured the likes of Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Philippe Starck Sir Richard Branson and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, each speaking for 18 minutes. The annual TED Conference is held in Long Beach, California, with a simulcast in Palm Springs. TEDGlobal is held annually in Edinburgh, Scotland. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED talks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which in addition to subtitles and interactive transcripts, provides the ability for TED talks to be translated by volunteers worldwide.