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Keynote Speakers
Ed Kirwin
Empathy as a superskill
Empathy is more than a soft skill - it’s the superskill that education needs most. This dynamic, film-infused keynote redefines empathy as a vital, future-ready capacity that strengthens student wellbeing, teacher effectiveness, and school culture. By challenging common myths and misconceptions, it shows how empathy enhances leadership, collaboration, and adaptability in today’s fast-changing world. Attendees will leave inspired to see empathy not as an optional extra, but as a powerful, teachable skill at the heart of thriving schools.
Nikki Scavolo
Inventing Tomorrow: The Courage to Hold Your Ground
We talk a lot about preparing children for the future. But the future arrives in classrooms the same way pressure always does - in increments, in small compliances, in the slow narrowing of what feels permitted.
This keynote doesn't offer a framework or a fix. It offers something rarer: honesty about what courage costs when you're trying to protect the thing that made you want to teach in the first place - and seven concrete acts you can take tomorrow that don't require permission from anyone.
Because the children who will invent tomorrow are sitting in your classroom right now. And they are watching everything you do
Laura Williamson
Belonging First: Building the Foundation for Learning and Wellbeing
Belonging is not a luxury in education - it’s a necessity. This keynote explores how a deep sense of belonging underpins pupils’ wellbeing, engagement, and achievement. Drawing on research and lived school experience, it reveals that belonging is built through consistent values, strong relationships, cultural responsiveness, and the power of everyday interactions. When pupils feel accepted, respected, known, and valued, they don’t just participate - they thrive. Attendees will leave with practical levers for change and a renewed conviction that every educator has the power to shape a culture of belonging, one intentional act at a time.
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