All attendees!

Outdoor education

World Cafe Conversations

Imagine stepping into a buzzing, relaxed coffee shop where every table is hosting an inspiring conversation about the future of outdoor learning. That is a World Café!

Rob Carmichael

Director of Sustainability and Global Citizenship, Education in Motion (EiM)

Risk Literacy: Preparing Young People for a World of Uncertainty

How do we prepare young people to navigate an uncertain world while fulfilling our responsibility to keep them safe?

Meaningful engagement with risk plays an important role in developing judgement, independence and personal responsibility. Yet opportunities to experience uncertainty, make decisions and learn from consequences can be limited by well-intentioned approaches to safety and risk management.

Through facilitated discussion, participants will consider how to advocate for risk literacy within their organisations, engage school leaders and parent communities, and build confidence in research-informed approaches to managing risk.

The session aims to equip educators with a stronger understanding of why risk literacy matters, alongside practical approaches and a shared language for helping young people develop the capabilities needed to navigate an uncertain world.

Dr Stephanie Ng-Cusi

Project Manager of Mental Health Promotion and Prevention, Mind HK

Mental Health Matters

Outdoor environments offer powerful spaces for healing, yet conversations around mental health remain in the shadows. This interactive session tackles the stigma head-on, providing leaders and colleagues with actionable strategies to build a culture of genuine care. Learn to recognize early indicators of mental health struggles, and gain practical, real-world tools for initiating empathetic, supportive conversations. Walk away with the confidence to support your team's well-being so they can thrive both on and off the trail.

Mark Lovett

Head of Outdoor Education, Dulwich College Seoul

From Vision to Reality: Understanding and Reducing Friction in Outdoor Learning

This interactive workshop explores the idea of friction: the things that make outdoor learning harder than it needs to be, whether that is approvals, communication, workload, confidence, systems, resources or relationships.

But not all friction is bad. Some friction provides important value, while other friction simply exists because of the way a process has evolved. 

Using real-world scenarios and a practical Friction Audit, participants will explore where friction occurs, who experiences it, who has the power to change it, why it exists and what value it provides. We’ll then consider whether to remove it, reduce it, design around it — or accept it.

Mike Thomas

Director, Outside-In and HKOLA

Walking the Walk, Talking the Talk: Intention or Filler?

Everything we do on a programme has a purpose. But do we always know what it is?

This interactive session takes a choose-your-own-adventure approach to a multi-day programme. Participants choose the route through a series of days: prep day, first day, big day, first aid day, bad weather day and final day. Along the way we unpack the choices facilitators often make on autopilot. What are ice breakers actually for? When does kit get checked, and by whom? When is the right time to debrief? Who makes the call when the weather turns? What are incident forms and reviews really there to do?

Throughout, the facilitation is made visible. Participants will leave with a sharper eye for the difference between intention and filler in their own practice.

Michael Hoskins

Outdoor Learning Lead, Dalton School Hong Kong

Launch Your Expedition: How a "Basecamp" Classroom Can Build a Better Future

How can we transform the traditional classroom into a dynamic "Basecamp" that prepares students for the ultimate expedition of life? 

We will explore practical frameworks to turn physical and conceptual learning spaces into collaborative hubs of inquiry, resilience, and action. 

Rooted in experiential practice, this session will guide educators through hands-on mapping activities, collaborative brainstorming, and a brief outdoor simulation. Attendees will walk away with a concrete "Basecamp Blueprint" to foster student agency, environmental connection, and real-world impact back in their own schools.

Fabio Di Salvo

STEM Educator

Designing Outdoor Learning That Lasts

Outdoor learning is often praised for being engaging, memorable and exciting—yet a powerful experience doesn’t automatically become lasting learning.  This interactive session shows outdoor educators how to move beyond creating memorable moments to deliberately designing powerful learning. 

Drawing on cognitive science, experiential education and real-world examples from international schools, fieldwork, expeditions and STEAM programmes, we’ll explore how prior knowledge, retrieval, spacing, elaboration and transfer can strengthen learning long after the experience ends.

Kitty Tam

Programme Lead, Civic Exchange

Outdoor Education in a Changing Climate: Policy, Nature and Opportunity

In this session led by Kitty Tam and her team at Civic Exchange, attendees are invited to explore how policy work on climate, nature and learning is shaping the future of outdoor education in Hong Kong.  

Civic Exchange will share its ongoing efforts to inform government policy in ways that affect the outdoor education sector today and over the next decade, from nature-based solutions and biodiversity strategies to eco‑tourism and environmental education.

Vito Tam

Senior Project Officer, OWLHK

Playing Board Games for Ecology

Participants will experience a locally-designed board games, "Law of the Forest" to learn more about the ecology of Hong Kong’s forest in a fun way. 

Through the game experience, participants will also be guided  to review our daily impact and explore ways to make changes in their daily lives accordingly.

Stuart Slay

Director, Slay Risk

Six Lessons from Camp Mystic for Outdoor Programs Amid Climate Change

On July 4, 2025, a flood in Texas killed 28 people at Camp Mystic, including 25 campers and two counselors. 

This session presents the case from the official investigation, alongside a 2024 study on the impacts of climate change on outdoor programs. Attendees connect the lessons to recent severe weather in Hong Kong and their own programs.