Libby Viera-Bland is the neighbourhood development project manager for Row House CDC, Project Row Houses, and PRH Preservation, where she oversees the planning and development of affordable housing across the Third Ward in Houston, Texas.

Professor Natalia Kucirkova has carried out funded research on children’s learning for national research agencies in the UK, USA, Spain, Norway, Malawi, and Japan and regularly advises international organisations about children’s digital learning. She has authored almost 100 research articles, eight books, and edited two handbooks on children’s literacy. She developed several software programmes for children, including the award-winning children’s app Our Story. She is the recipient of Future Leaders and Young Talent Awards from the UK and Norwegian governments, Emerald Global Impact Research Prize, and the Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Outstanding Research.

Laura Zimmermann is the founder and president of Tech Play Collaborative and a research fellow at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. She's a recognized expert in child development, playful learning, and learning from media, having published articles in both lay and peer-reviewed journals. Providing both formative and summative research, Zimmermann consults with organisations in the education and children’s media spaces. She conducts applied research with children and families in partnership with research organisations, children's media and toy companies, and edtech groups. Prior to founding Tech Play Collaborative, Zimmermann was a leading education expert at SRI International.

Shom Mabaquiao is a Junior Editor for APAC at Canvas8. He’s currently taking his master's in Social Psychology at the University of the Philippines, where he inspects universal human behaviour through the lenses of his local folkways. Outside Canvas8, he writes personal essays that have been published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Tint Journal, Rappahannock Review, and Katitikan: Literary Journal of the Philippine South, among others. When he’s not working, he’s busy doing stand-up comedy for his therapist after cry-dancing to Taylor Swift.