Dr. Miriam Kirmayer is a clinical psychologist, leading friendship expert, and one of the most influential speakers on human connection. With over a decade of research on the science of friendship, she has developed a unique approach to building, strengthening, and celebrating connections as a way to invest in our mental fitness, professional development, and collective social health. Dr. Miriam is a key advisor and consultant to organisations like Wondermind and the Foundation for Social Connection. Dr. Miriam helps people and organisations around the world harness the power of human connection to create meaningful relationships, collaborative workplaces, and fulfilling lives.

Dr. Philip N. Cohen is a sociologist and demographer at the University of Maryland whose research focuses on families, social demography, and social inequality. He has written dozens of academic articles, many essays and op-eds, and two books, including The Family: Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change (2021).

Professor Sun Sun Lim is Vice President and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology at Singapore Management University. She researches technology's social impact, focusing on families and young people, and has over 100 academic publications, including Digital Parenting Burdens in China (2024) and Transcendent Parenting (2020). A Fellow of the International Communication Association, she serves on multiple editorial boards and advisory panels.

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.