THE Civic Centre became a cauldron of energy and ideas yesterday when Gympie hosted the first TEDx event in Queensland outside of Brisbane.

In a significant coup for licensee Dr Geoff Walden, founder of Gympie's Country Music School of Excellence and the AICM, the event drew speakers from all over south-east Queensland and Australia and a crowd of 100, which is the maximum Gympie was allowed under strict TED rules.

TED is a non-profit organisation devoted to "ideas worth spreading".

It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: technology, entertainment and design.

Since then its scope has become increasingly broader and some of its speakers throughout the world have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Sir Richard Branson and Gordon Brown.

In Gympie yesterday, participants heard from visionaries like stayathomemum blogger Jody Allen, engineering academic Dr Helen Fairweather, researcher Dr Prue Millear, renowned international facilitator Dr Ernesto Sirolli and landscape architect Robert Pres-tipino.

Opening speaker Mr Prestipino is based near Toowoomba and consults throughout regional and rural Queensland on how to make towns better places.

Some of his work can be seen in the community art space in Gympie's CBD.

He said yesterday's Gympie TEDx event was his first and he was very excited to be there and deliver his talk on Age, Sex and the Internet.

"The whole idea of this event is to generate a conversation," he said.

"And the mix of topics we are hearing about today will definitely generate that conversation."

Dr Walden said the whole idea of the event was to get people in the Gympie region thinking "differently" and "creatively".

"If we don't start thinking creatively we will be left behind," he said.

"We hope people will come away from this with some different and new ideas on how to do things in Gympie."

Gympie Regional Council economic development manager Lynne Wilbraham said the event had put Gympie on the world stage.

"It's indescribable," she said.

"To be able to run an event like this, the talent we have attracted and the support has been absolutely overwhelming."