The Global Meeting on Equinox
Relating
to people, planet, past, present, and future
What it means to be human
Meet the speakers
See the program and sign up here:
https://www.globalbildung.net/what-it-means-to-be-human-2025-march-22/
In order of appearance
Melissa Newton-Turner
Australia
Melissa is a drama educator and consultant based in South Australia. She delights in teaching drama across all education sectors and takes great joy in collaborating with theatre companies and artists in the development and implementation of their schools’ programs. Melissa is completing her Doctor of Education thesis, which investigates the influence of live theatre on generalist primary school teachers’ drama pedagogy
Beyond the school gate: The value of fostering relationships between schools and theatre companies
Melissa will address the importance of relationships between schools and theatre companies to enable teachers and students to engage in authentic theatre experiences. She will also highlight the necessity of these experiences to foster students’ understanding of their relationship to themselves and to their world.
Pindar Wong
Hong Kong
Pindar is an internet pioneer and will be speaking about how digital technologies can help us create new kinds of money that allow us to regenerate healthier economies.
Relational Money: Regenerating money through relations
Pindar will illustrate E-Guanxi (EG), the value extraction of data flows, in its most obvious and natural educational setting by introducing the ”Bildung Architecture’ that is needed to incentivize re-industrialization and retooling in the era of sustainable, scalable sharing and mass customization.
Note Well: To fully understand the elements of the Bildung Architecture, please download and experiment with Arizona State University’s ‘ASU Pocket’ before the talk.
https://pocket.asu.edu
Sanchita Shekhar
India
Sanchita Shekhar is a passionate advocate with extensive experience in peace, conflict resolution, and research. She has worked with refugees, prisoners of war, and tribal communities, conducting impactful research on health systems and policy analysis. Currently, she works with Jan Swasthya Sahyog to shape healthcare policy in India.
K for Knowledge
Knowledge and how we relate to and integrate different forms of knowledge. The people who possess each type of knowledge (i.e. indegenous, traditional, modern and post-modern) have very different ways of seeing the world and different structres they adhere to. This makes communicating across knowledge systems difficult. Let’s deconstruct this during this talk.
Sahil Jha
India
Hi, I’m Sahil, and I’m just 19 years old.
My journey began when I was 16, inspired by the global crisis of land degradation and the Save Soil movement, I embarked on a solo cycling campaign across India in 2022. I cycled 15,000 km across 15 states, advocating for policy reforms to save our soil.
K for Knowledge
What if I told you that one day, 20 years from now, when you and your family sit down for breakfast, you will have nothing but empty plates in front of you?
Yes, this may sound shocking, but this is the reality we may face if we don’t act now.
Sahil will share his journey around the globe with us.
Barun Mitra
India
More info on its way…
Gandhi’s conception of Basic Education: Is it relevant in the 21st century?
More info on its way…
Eliane Metni
Lebanon
Eliane Metni is the Director of the International Education Association in Lebanon and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto.
Eliane Metni contributed with at chapter to the book What it Means to Be Human and spoke at the Global Bildung Day in March 2024.
L for Life Experience
We all make mistakes and we would never learn anything if we didn’t. So why are we so afraid of talking about mistakes and the life experience that comes with it?
Please bring a life lesson and the mistake leading up to it that you will be willing to share with the world. It may be big or small; what you learned from it is what is important.
Hela Nafti
Tunisia
More info on its way…
Relating
More info on its way…
Nargis Zadran
Afghanistan & the US
Nargis Zadran, an experienced education practitioner who has advocated for marginalized communities in Afghanistan for 15 years. She has held leadership roles in national and international organizations and contributed to the development of Afghanistan’s national curriculum.
After evacuating, Nargis supported Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy, helping establish learning centers. She now serves as Education Director for Educate Girls Now, working to provide schooling for Afghan girls who are banned from education. She also teaches ESL at Columbia College and is an active member of the Rappahannock Rotary Club.
Beyond her work in education, Nargis has been actively supporting Afghan refugee families and children in Stafford County Schools. She has brought much-needed attention to their unique needs, shaped by the trauma of displacement and war, promoted cultural awareness, and helped these children find a sense of belonging both in the school system and in their new country.
From Education to Empowerment: How We Relate and Rise Together
More info soon…
Folarin Gbadebo-Smith
Nigeria
Folarin Gadebo Smith is Director General at the Nigerian Institute for social and economic research, he is also trained as a surgeon and has spent a number of years as a politician in Nigeria.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/folarin-gbadebo-smith-58668569/.
M for Mental Moddels
Mental models allow us to make sense of the world–except when they don’t. How do mental models help us and how do they inhibit our opportunities for improvements?.
Christopher Mbanefo
Nigeria & Switzerland
Christopher, a seasoned innovator and aerospace engineer with a multicultural (Nigerian / Swiss) background, leads YASAVA Solutions SA and OXÏ-ZEN Solutions LLC. His expertise spans 30+ years in aviation, IT, and renewable energy, pioneering sustainable solutions like blockchain-enabled Carbon Balance. He advocates for global collaboration in science and sustainability, residing in Switzerland with his family.
What do we have in common with a Fish?
My father asked me the above question when I was a cocky teenager. The question confirmed in my mind that my Dad and his generation had certainly lost it, as my science-driven ‘knowledge’ clearly sees so many differences, that make any commonality between a fish and myself a fraction of the differences. He then proceeded to light up the infinite depth and beauty of the question.
Lene Rachel Andersen
Denmark
Lene is an economist, author, and futurist. She is a member of the Club of Rome, initiator of the Global Bildung Network, the author of The Nordic Secret, and the editor of the book What it Means to Be Human.
Lene’s website: https://www.lenerachelandersen.com/
N for Nutrition
We live in an absurd world where many of the poorest people in the richest parts of the world are overwheight because our economic system has become so efficient at producing calories. Instead of producing healthier food, the same part of the world is now producing Wegowy and Ozempic to bring the weight down.
How do we actually relate to food and nutrition these days?
Mark Aink
The Netherlands
A climate advocate, brand activist, and founder of NATIVE circles and Decade Of Action, Mark is leading a movement that merges science, indigenous wisdom, and creative innovation to accelerate regeneration. Through his work, he’s building a cultural shift—where farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries inspire action and drive change, towards an ecology economy.
We Are The ReGeneration. Resolving the connection crisis.
More info on its way
Nadja Pass
Denmark
Nadja Pass is the co-creator of Concopia and an acclaimed civic designer, writer and salonnière.She has worked with a wide array of museums rethinking the way visitor engagement, various state departments in rethinking politics and the Danish Government in reevoking rhetorical citizenship.
Concopia – Reconnecting Humanity through Conversations
An introduction to Concopia – a card deck of curiosities and questions that encourage us to rethink and reenchant the world. Nadja will share her call to get together, have vibrant conversations and respond to the challenges of our time with zeal and ingenuity. And share some key questions.
Nafeez Ahmed
United Kingdom
Nafeez Ahmed is a globally-renowned systems theorist, change strategist, an investigative journalist, and a member of the Club of Rome. He is the founder of the Age of Transformation, the world’s only newsletter exploring ‘the planetary phase-shift’, and Director of the System Shift Lab, a systems transformation consultancy based in London.
You’ll find him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nafeezahmed/
Preparing for the Next System as the Old Order Collapses
We are embedded in systems. How do they relate and why are some of the breaking down right now?
More info on its way…
Silvia Zimmermann del Castillo
Argentina
Silvia Zimmermann del Castillo is the co-president of the Club of Rome, and she is an Argentinean writer, philosopher and international lecturer. She was a disciple and collaborator of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges with whom she studied ancient Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic literatures. She studied Social and Cultural Anthropology at the École Pratiques des Hautes Études, La Sorbonne, Paris and Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires.
Relating
More info on its way…
Sally Adnams Jones
Canada
Sally is a teacher, an author, an expressive arts therapist, a creativity coach, and an artist.
From Polarization to Polarity – the relational synthesis of Yin and Yang, as personal and political value sets
Sally honours the ancient teachings of the Tao as a contemporary understanding of the current fragmentation of personal and political dynamics; from dating difficulties, to the gender wars, to political tensions between nanny-state, social democracies, and the right wing rise of fascism.