Bangkok Pre-Conference
Ethical AI, Brain Science, Storytelling & Human Connection for Resilient School Communities
Date: March 10, 2027
Time: 8:00AM – 3:00PM UTC
Cost: $250
About this Pre-Conference
Today’s schools, counselors are supporting students through rising anxiety, loneliness, uncertainty, rapid technological change, and increasing emotional complexity, while also navigating these pressures themselves. So how do we hold on to what matters most?
Inspired by the resilience of the lotus flower, this interactive pre-conference workshop explores how storytelling, practical brain science, ethical AI, and human connection can help school counselors stay grounded, strengthen belonging, and build more resilient communities.
This immersive, highly interactive pre-conference workshop combines film, facilitated dialogue, practical skill-building, peer collaboration, reflection, case studies, and action planning through a four-part framework.
Participants will learn practical, real-world strategies to help students feel seen, safe, and supported while also sustaining their own wellbeing in demanding environments. Together, we will explore how stories change behavior, why connection is one of the strongest protective factors for emotional wellness, and how ethical AI can thoughtfully support reflection, emotional literacy, and help-seeking, without replacing human relationships.
Attendees will leave with actionable tools, fresh perspectives, and practical frameworks they can immediately implement with students, families, educators, and school communities.
Participants will:
- Explore practical brain-science-based tools that strengthen emotional regulation, belonging, resilience, and help-seeking behaviors in globally mobile school communities.
- Learn how storytelling and film can increase empathy, reduce stigma, deepen connection, and create emotionally safe spaces for dialogue.
- Practice real-world strategies for navigating bullying, exclusion, loneliness, identity, cultural differences, dignity, belonging, and trust in diverse school settings.
- Explore how ethical AI can thoughtfully support emotional literacy, reflection, and student wellbeing while reinforcing the essential role of human connection.
- Develop an individualized action plan with immediately usable strategies to strengthen community, belonging, and emotional wellness within their school environments.
About Scilla Andreen
Scilla Andreen is an award-winning filmmaker, author, speaker, and founder of Impactful Networks and the science-based Creative Coping Toolkit, a film and evidence-based mental health education program used in schools, communities, and organizations internationally. Over the past decade, her work has focused on helping young people and adults build emotional literacy, resilience, and help-seeking behaviors through storytelling, practical brain science, and human connection. Scilla is the creator of the documentary films Angst, LIKE, The Upstanders, and Race to Be Human, and is currently developing GiGi, an ethical AI companion designed to support emotional wellness and connection. Her work bridges storytelling, behavioral health, education, and emerging technology to help communities stay grounded, connected, and resilient in a rapidly changing world.
