VIRTUAL ARENA
Explore from fireside chats, panel discussions to podcasts and more, from our community of curators and brands.
Access on-demand sessions at our Virtual Arena now.
A Conversational Series On Food Sustainability
Nithiya Laila on a planetary diet for the developing world
A planetary diet for the developing world - From Farm to Table to Fork - conversational series curated by Nithiya Laila, Culinary Anthropologist and advocate for accessible sustainable nutrition.
In a time of most “superfoods” coming from the traditional knowledge/medicines/native plants of the developing world - how can we meet nutritional requirements and dietary aspirations of the global south by intersecting with culturally and geographically sustainable ingredients, regenerative agriculture practices? How can we balance accessibility to nutrition, and the preservation of biodiversity for the longevity of our planet's resources when coping with mass migration to cities and changing livelihoods?
Nithiya Laila has dedicated almost a decade to educating people of all ages on the importance of accessible nutrition while preserving biodiversity and ensuring longevity of the planet's resources. She was an award-winning TV presenter on Channel News Asia Singapore for 'Edible Wild' a traveling docu-series featuring how locals grow, forage and cook with indigenous ingredients to keep healthy. Her current focus is on the Global South and creating mindshifts in the value and aspiration for food with a localised lens.
Fireside Chat Uncovering Digital Wellness Insights
Moom discuss the role of digital education in wellness
How do you navigate through today's digital noise to make better-informed decisions when it comes to wellness? Founders of women's health platform, Moom - Maya and Mili Kale, along with their naturopathic advisor, Lucy Wilcher, discuss their journey in starting Moom, the importance of asking and understanding the 'why's in the wellness and health space and the role of tech in making traditional healing modalities accessible.
Moom is a women's health platform providing daily rituals that combine ancient Ayurvedic traditions and modern science, personalised for every woman’s unique needs and phase of life. The founders grew up as competitive swimmers for their schools. Both attended university in the US, where Mili studied Urban Policy and Education and Maya studied International Relations with a focus on women’s health policy.
A Deeper Dive into Sustainability & AR
Climate activist, Qiyun chats Kay from The MeshMinds Foundation on sustainability through AR
Augmented and virtual reality provide new mediums and spaces to learn and experience new worlds. In this climate crisis, how will AR cut through the deluge of information to work towards advocating the message and ideals of a greener future?
In this panel will address the intersection of culture, sustainability and tech through AR with practitioners in this field led by environmental activist Woo Qiyun of @theweirdandwild and Kay Vasey, founder of The MeshMinds Foundation - a non-profit arts organisation that empowers artists in Asia to focus on sustainable development of people and our planet.
Panel Discussions Championing Social Change Through Technology
How can tech-enabled empathy create a more positive future for humanity?
Jan from Project Flourish of AUDACITY holds space with three unique individuals, whose paths have merged on a common journey to unleash human potential through the power of empathy. They will discuss the role of tech in human connection and self-discovery in a healthy and ethical environment.
Project Flourish is a seed project promoting the future of wellbeing, supported by AUDACITY - a ground-up community platform for innovators testbedding moonshot ideas to leapfrog the current technology paradigms.
Guests in conversation:
Dr. Tetania (Tania) Kodliuk is Dathena’s Chief Science Officer, leading the company’s global AI team in the design and development of innovative Data Security and Privacy technology. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and has over 10 years’ experience in data analytics and artificial intelligence (ML/DL/NLP/CV). A data science leader, Tania has been recognized as Top 100 Women in Tech in Singapore. One of the key principles Tania works on is AI Ethics, which aims to bring trust to the "magical black box". As a Mental Wellbeing enthusiast, she invests her time into research on how AI can make people happier through self-awareness and self-development. She is also a mentor and advisor on projects that explore the mesh between science and wellbeing.
Edric Subur is the Founder of Warmspace, a platform that scales deep human connection through guided video conversations. His mission is to make every single person feel seen and create a world that is filled with love, belonging, and authenticity. He's passionate about mindfulness, human potential and the use of technology for the flourishing of humanity. In his personal life, Edric's a self-development junkie, often found doing self-experiments such as reading 50 books in a year, doing a 5-day water fast, and completing twelve 30-day challenges in 2020. He recently launched a podcast, Beyond The Matrix to help people live in their highest power.
Andamon is a multi-media artist, scientist, mathematician, inventor and co-founder of biofeedback and AI-driven multi-sensory immersion technology that assists humans to reach sustained states of wellbeing (Sistrum). He worked with Dr. Fritz-Albert Popp in the discovery of biophoton emissions. Andamon’s scientific background combined with his passion for art and inner experience has led him to create many innovative technologies and products. His light-in-sound encoding protocol - AudioStrobe - is used in most of the Mind Machines released in the last 20 years, and by a global network of trainers and therapists in various industries from military, clinical, athletic, and professional sectors.
Alternative Universal Design of A City
Project leaders of Audacity seed projects discuss the alternative design of future cities, looking into the basic building blocks for a new norm, and the symbiosis between various resource systems and urban living.
AUDACITY is a movement to catalyse a humanity-centric future supported by innovative technologies. They orchestrate amidst chaos and seek aufheben moments with their philosophy of Unlearning conventions, Unlocking innovation and Unleashing transformation. Audacity welcomes innovators who can look beyond the current technology paradigm and test hypotheses across their agenda focus areas. With inclusivity as a core value, their initiatives are guided by a values-based culture to solve issues in communities, food, energy, work, education, healthcare and urbanisation.
Project SHEA : Rithika Thomas is a Sustainability Strategist working with integrating multidisciplinary experts and resources to provide innovative solutions to build sustainable communities. She strives to ensure that all her projects have a positive impact on the built environment, workspaces and the communities that we live in. Currently, she leads Project SHEA and her focus is on designing and deploying a prototype of a self-sustaining civilization kit for the future, through co-creation collaborations with start-ups, SMEs and educational institutes. Her research focus is on multidisciplinary sustainable design, passive design strategies and designing zero energy buildings in the tropics through testing and deploying these innovative solutions for smart building technologies, applications and solutions. Before joining Project SHEA, she practised architecture in India and completed her Masters in Integrated Sustainable Design from NUS, School of Design, Singapore. She is a registered LEED Green Associate and has obtained her Green Mark Manager certification.
V+ : Nihal Tamang is an Architectural Designer and Creative Director of SAMPO SG, with an ambition to democratise the production of architecture with a ground up approach. Across South East Asia and the UK, his projects explore mobile architecture as an alternative solution towards tackling issues of urban flexibility and building resilience to disaster responsive architecture. In Singapore, he explores how large groups of people can be more effective collectively, than as individual experts, when it comes to problem-solving, decision-making, innovating and prototyping the future.
SLICE : Yang En is the co-lead of SLICE and AUDACITY, a playground for innovators to reimagine and develop solutions for more sustainable and humanity-centric civilisations. He is also an ecosystem builder at JTC where he helps grow the deep-tech startup community at JID through collaborations with private and public ecosystem players. With a keen interest in food, he is determined to drive positive change towards a more resilient and sustainable food system to support future generations.
Moderator - Shurui Leo: A design Strategist at AUDACITY and co-lead for V+, Shurui is constantly searching for answers, looking for ways to make life better through design and innovation. She leads Audacity’s Project V+, an experiment in alternative modes of living enabled by communal sensibilities and technology. Growing up, she loved problem solving and took a keen interest in understanding the way the world works. That led her to complete her Master of Architecture at the National University of Singapore. Shurui identifies herself as a polymath, a creature of the Renaissance, with a heart for learning and synthesising strategic solutions from any and all fields. As a designer, Shurui has involved herself with a wide spectrum of design, from graphic to product design, architectural to communications, and is venturing into the realm of generative coding art. Shurui has a special love for the culinary arts, and hopes to run a tea house one day.
Arts & Social Impact
Phi Ta Khon festival is a traditional “ghost festival” unique to the Dan Sai district in Loei Province and reflects the local Isan belief. Well known for the colourful parade of mischievous “ghosts”, its popularity as a tourist attraction also raises questions about the corresponding impact on the local Dan Sai community.
With the Phi Ta Khon festival as a starting point of discussion, catch this fireside chat moderated by Clara Yee, from design and culture consultancy agency in the wild. From zoom consultations with the spiritual leader of Dan Sai, to participatory sculpture in a community hospital, join artist Gerald Leow and LAF Director Wayla shares more about their process at LAF which seeks to give a voice to the experience and cultural identity of the local community through contemporary art.
