PHASE, Asia Pacific 2019

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This November for the first time I will be presenting at the PHASE conference in Hong Kong. I will run a one-hour presentation on ‘The Key, A Social Emotional Toolkit for Teens’ on 16th and 17th November and a 90-minute workshop on the 16th.

For more information on my presentations/workshops, head to PHASE website.

PHASE Asia Pacific is a conference for all educators focussed on physical education, health, athletics, sports, and experiential learning.  The conference allows participants to learn from leading authorities in their respective fields as well as from practitioner presenters, to network with fellow educators, and to access good practice and resources in multiple formats.

PHASE is an acronym based on the core areas that the community aims to bring together: Physical Education, Health & Wellness, Athletics, Sports, and Experiential Learning.

 

Asia Pacific Writers’ Conference, Macau.

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Guest panelist – ‘When on the road and the superhighway is your writing life.’

Nov 5th at the Asia Pacific Writers conference in Macau.

Surfing tours, road trips, exotic and not so exotic postings, ex-pat bunkers, bribery for wi-fi, our panellists have done it all and will share with you their hilarious and often heartbreaking stories of a writing life lived on the road – in a globalised 21st century world where the digital nomad reigns supreme they will examine how the internet has changed the writing landscape – for better or worse.

Chair: Pia Mutsamaski

Panelists: Romi Grossberg, Tim Baker, Kiran Bhat

Asia Pacific Writers Conference, Macau.

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Panel: Expats Unleashed @ The Asia Pacific Writers Conference, Macau in November.

Nov 6th, 1.30pm.

Writers often seek to venture far from their country of origin – whether that’s out of curiosity, on assignment or sometimes for good. What happens when they do? Three Western writers discuss the interweaving of their writing with their expatriate lives and experiences in Asia particularly in Korea, Shanghai, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia – tackling head-on perceptions of their white western privilege alongside their strong desires for cultural exchange and new experience.

Chair: Shelley Kenigsberg

Panelists: Kevin Maher, Adam Narnst, Romi Grossberg

Podcast Interview on ‘Social emotional tools for Teens’

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In the six days I was in Melbourne this week launching my new book ‘THE KEY, A Social Emotional Toolkit for Teens’ at the Cultures of Thinking conference, I was approached by Lisa Entwisle from Wellthy Living; Guiding you to Live a Wealthy Life, through Connection to Self, Others and the World around you to do a podcast interview.

Here is the interview we held.

PODCAST

The 7th Annual Cultures of Thinking Conference.

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I will be presenting at the Cultures of Thinking conference on Monday 19th August in Melbourne. At 1.50pm I will run a 90-minute workshop from my latest book THE KEY, A Social Emotional Toolkit for Teens to teachers and educators from all around Australia and the world. I have chosen two main topics from my book and in this workshop I plan to break down the theme of ‘success and failure’ and ‘tone of voice’ (with ourselves and with others). My aim is two-fold, to have the group experience learning, brainstorming, collaborating and sharing their thoughts, fears and ideas on these topics as well as have them realise that the topics are easily teachable to teenagers in their own class settings.

Go to my blog to see how it went.

Federal Writers’ Festival, Australia

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What an amazing experience to be invited as a guest speaker to the inaugural Federal Writers Festival amongst so many known published authors from around Australia, Asia, the Pacific, Canada and the U.S.

The opening speaker was Kerry O’Brien with his latest memoir. He is one of Australia’s most respected journalists, having been awarded six Walkley Awards during his career.

On stage I was able to talk about the different aspects of my life and my writing. I had free range to talk about my first book ‘The 5-Minute Guide to Emotional Intelligence’ (and then sold 10 copies), about my latest book ‘The Key’ on emotional intelligence for teenagers and my memoir ‘Hip Hop & Hope’ that I had just finished writing and handed over to my editor Laurel Cohn who was in the audience.

What a fantastic festival. The hall was packed, the people were friendly and interested and the ‘in betweens’ and ‘afters’ full of delicious food and wine. Thank you to Philip McLaren for the foresight to put this together in such a gorgeous location up in the hills.

 

Asia Pacific Writers Conference, Australia

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This was the first year that the AP Writers Conference was held on Australian soil.

Funnily enough for me it was a pain in the butt because I live in South East Asia and thoroughly enjoy each year meeting up with this amazing group of people in a different part of Asia. It was fun too though to be introducing Australia to everyone else from all around Asia, the Pacific, Canada and the U.S.

I would have liked to have had my memoir published by this point and be presenting it here but alas… next week I will meet up with my editor Laurel Cohn at the Federal Writers’ Festival and hand her my way-too-long manuscript to deal with before I move on the next stage of editing my memoir Hip Hop & Hope, from the slums of Phnom Penh.

 

So no reading for me this year at the conference but I was asked to MC instead which was fun too.

I had the honour of MCing the book launch of indigenous writer Philip McLaren’s book Innocent Abroad, Emmanuela Shinta’s book Me, Modernism and my Indigenous Roots and John Dale’s book Sydney Noir. What a fantastic group of authors. Lots of juicy questions and juicy answers.

 

 

‘Wellthy Living’ Podcast Interview, Australia

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Improving Communications & Connections in Relationships

Listen to my latest episode where I chat with Author and Therapist Romi Grossberg about improving communication and connection in relationships.

Lisa Entwistle, host

Explore The Welthy Living Podcast

Asia Pacific Writers Conference, Indonesia.

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On Tue 24th Oct at Ganesha University, a 3 hour (or more realistically, 4 or 5 hour) drive from Denpasar airport in Bali (through stunning mountains I might add), I was on a panel as part of the 3-day Asia Pacific Writers and Translators 10th anniversary conference.

This was my 5th one.

The topic of this 90 minute panel was:

Belonging and Writing:
Exile, Homecoming and Return Narratives.

Just a small topic!

I was one of three on the panel and last minute became the moderator also as ours had to head back home south to Sanur. I was worried that being both moderator and panelist would be a little tricky with Osamah Sami on the panel – an award-winning actor, writer, director and stand-up comedian, with a memoir Good Muslim Boy and movie Ali’s Wedding. A lively and confident personality as you might expect, but also a humble young man born in Iran to Iraqi parents who moved to Australia as a teenager. The panel was rounded off with writer and PhD candidate from Queensland Australia, Sophie MacNeill.

What unfolded quite naturally was a juicy discussion on ‘home’, ‘exile’, ‘belonging’ and ‘identity’ from a Muslim Iranian, Iraqi Aussie, a born and bred Australian Aussie of Irish decent, and a Jewish Australian expat living in Asia. As you can well imagine then, questions of belonging and identity were about as straight forward as our panel’s participant’s stories. ​The audience seemed to really enjoy the discussion and had plenty of questions for us. Thanks to everyone for coming down and thanks to the panel for their honesty and courage in their stories. The 3-day conference was as always, full of incredible authors, editors, translators and publishers. Northern Indonesia was such an incredible place to host such an event, most of us having never adventured to this area before. Here is (some of) the 200-strong gang from over 23 countries.

Every year I take a photo of me with the AP banner, so here is this year’s….

There are many workshops on offer throughout the conference. I feel so fortunate to be meeting with such experienced people in the industry. I went to ‘Editing: An Insider’s Guide’, hosted by Cate Blake from Penguin Random House and Ian See from University of Queensland Press in a small group where we had the opportunity to listen, learn, share and ask questions.

​Monash University, Australia.

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The Monash University staff have been following my career since I graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor Social Work in their Caulfield Campus.

I also graduated from LaTrobe University in 1996 with a Bachelor of Social Science (Major: Law, and Minor: Sociology). Members of the Social Work department decided I would be a great mentor and invited me to speak to post grad students and final year students on the work I have done since university and the opportunities available.

Come and hear me talk about my experiences in working in homelessness, drug and alcohol and mental health in Australia, volunteer work in Vietnam and India, my life in Cambodia and my world now as an author, writing therapist and yes, still a social worker. The sky is the limit.

If you are a uni student and want to join, message me. It is almost at full capacity with over 30 signed up to date.

​Monash University, Social Work department, 24th May, 5pm 2017