Kyle Beache

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Youth­pre­neur­ship Con­fer­ence 2025: Youth in Tech was an ex­tra­or­di­nary ex­pe­ri­ence. As some­one who has al­ways found pub­lic speak­ing chal­leng­ing, step­ping on­to a pan­el in front of a live au­di­ence was both daunt­ing and ex­hil­a­rat­ing. Yet, this event proved to be more than a dis­cus­sion—it was a cel­e­bra­tion of in­no­va­tion, courage, and the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of youth.

From the mo­ment I en­tered the venue, the at­mos­phere was elec­tric. The room buzzed with young in­no­va­tors, en­tre­pre­neurs, ed­u­ca­tors, and pol­i­cy­mak­ers, all unit­ed by a shared vi­sion: lever­ag­ing tech­nol­o­gy and en­tre­pre­neur­ship to shape Trinidad and To­ba­go’s fu­ture. This was not just an­oth­er con­fer­ence; it was a plat­form for bold, tech-dri­ven minds de­ter­mined to make a dif­fer­ence.

The event un­der­scored a crit­i­cal mes­sage—our youth are not mere­ly the fu­ture; they are the present. They are al­ready con­tribut­ing to in­dus­tries, re­shap­ing com­mu­ni­ties, and dri­ving the dig­i­tal econ­o­my. For too long, young peo­ple have been la­belled “to­mor­row’s lead­ers.” The truth is, they are lead­ing to­day.

The role of tech­nol­o­gy and AI

A re­cur­ring theme through­out the con­fer­ence was the piv­otal role of tech­nol­o­gy and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence (AI) in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. The keynote ad­dress by Dr The Ho­n­ourable Kennedy Swarats­ingh was par­tic­u­lar­ly in­spir­ing. He em­pha­sised that AI is not about re­plac­ing hu­man ef­fort but aug­ment­ing hu­man po­ten­tial—em­pow­er­ing in­di­vid­u­als to work smarter, in­no­vate, and un­lock new in­dus­tries. His call to em­brace life­long learn­ing and view tech­nol­o­gy as an al­ly res­onat­ed deeply. In a rapid­ly evolv­ing world, adapt­abil­i­ty and in­no­va­tion are no longer op­tion­al; they are es­sen­tial.

Dr Swarats­ingh’s mes­sage was clear: the fu­ture be­longs to those will­ing to learn, adapt, and in­no­vate. These qual­i­ties de­fine the next gen­er­a­tion of en­tre­pre­neurs and pro­fes­sion­als nav­i­gat­ing to­day’s dig­i­tal land­scape. His words re­mind­ed us that tech­nol­o­gy, when em­braced thought­ful­ly, can dri­ve in­clu­sive growth and glob­al com­pet­i­tive­ness.

Col­lab­o­ra­tion as a cat­a­lyst

One of the most pow­er­ful in­sights from the con­fer­ence was the im­por­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion. In­no­va­tion thrives when we bridge gaps—be­tween gen­er­a­tions, sec­tors, and dis­ci­plines. The old­er gen­er­a­tion brings ex­pe­ri­ence and in­sti­tu­tion­al knowl­edge, while younger voic­es con­tribute en­er­gy, cre­ativ­i­ty, and dig­i­tal flu­en­cy. To­geth­er, these strengths can pro­pel Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to a new era of sus­tain­able progress.

This col­lab­o­ra­tive spir­it is es­sen­tial as we con­front long-stand­ing eco­nom­ic chal­lenges, such as for­eign ex­change short­ages, and po­si­tion small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es (SMEs) as en­gines of growth. By fos­ter­ing part­ner­ships across sec­tors, we can cre­ate an ecosys­tem where ideas flour­ish and op­por­tu­ni­ties mul­ti­ply.

Per­son­al growth and au­then­tic­i­ty

For me, the con­fer­ence was al­so a per­son­al mile­stone. De­spite my ini­tial ner­vous­ness and speech chal­lenges, I learned that con­fi­dence is not about per­fec­tion—it is about au­then­tic­i­ty. Shar­ing my per­spec­tive on the pan­el re­in­forced that gen­uine voic­es, even im­per­fect ones, can in­spire and con­nect. Step­ping be­yond fear of­ten leads to the most mean­ing­ful growth, and this ex­pe­ri­ence reaf­firmed that truth.

HR’s strate­gic role in the dig­i­tal fu­ture

As Trinidad and To­ba­go em­braces in­no­va­tion, Hu­man Re­source Man­age­ment (HRM) will play a crit­i­cal role in shap­ing the fu­ture of work. HR pro­fes­sion­als are unique­ly po­si­tioned to bridge the gap be­tween peo­ple and tech­nol­o­gy by de­vel­op­ing tal­ent, fos­ter­ing adapt­abil­i­ty, and align­ing strate­gies with na­tion­al and or­gan­i­sa­tion­al goals.

The fu­ture de­mands a work­force that is tech­ni­cal­ly skilled, emo­tion­al­ly in­tel­li­gent, cre­ative, and re­silient. By pri­ori­tis­ing learn­ing and de­vel­op­ment, men­tor­ship, and in­clu­sion, HR can cul­ti­vate pro­fes­sion­als equipped to lead in an AI-dri­ven econ­o­my. When done right, HR be­comes a strate­gic part­ner in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment—en­sur­ing that in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions thrive in a dig­i­tal-first world.

A call to ac­tion

The Youth­pre­neur­ship Con­fer­ence was more than an event; it was a cat­a­lyst for trans­for­ma­tion. It re­mind­ed us that every young per­son has some­thing valu­able to con­tribute—whether through tech­nol­o­gy, en­tre­pre­neur­ship, or cre­ative in­no­va­tion. Our col­lec­tive ideas, en­er­gy, and re­silience can turn chal­lenges in­to op­por­tu­ni­ties and lay the foun­da­tion for a stronger, more adapt­able econ­o­my.

As we move for­ward, we must con­tin­ue cre­at­ing plat­forms that em­pow­er youth to dream, in­no­vate, and act. These op­por­tu­ni­ties are es­sen­tial for build­ing a fu­ture ground­ed in cre­ativ­i­ty, in­clu­siv­i­ty, and for­ward-think­ing lead­er­ship. With em­pow­ered youth, vi­sion­ary en­tre­pre­neurs, sup­port­ive in­sti­tu­tions, and strong HR lead­er­ship, Trinidad and To­ba­go can build a re­silient and pros­per­ous dig­i­tal econ­o­my.

The jour­ney to­wards a tech-dri­ven fu­ture has al­ready be­gun. It calls for courage, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and an un­wa­ver­ing be­lief that our na­tion’s best days lie ahead.

The Hu­man Re­source Man­age­ment As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad & To­ba­go (HRMATT) is the lead­ing voice of the Hu­man Re­source pro­fes­sion lo­cal­ly. HRMATT Says is a col­umn de­signed to ad­dress is­sues and con­cerns rel­e­vant to pro­fes­sion­als and the gen­er­al pub­lic, with a fo­cus on Hu­man Cap­i­tal De­vel­op­ment. To­day’s ar­ti­cle is writ­ten by HRMATT mem­ber Kyle Beache.

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