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Grown-Up Keynote Speakers
Speaking up in support of children!
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While the Childhood Summit is all about amplifying children's voices, we also invite a select group of grown-up keynote speakers to share their insights. These speakers will address key issues raised by children, offering expert perspectives, solutions, and ways to create meaningful change. Their voices complement the powerful messages shared by young keynote speakers, helping to turn children's concerns into real action.
Our 2025 Grown Up Keynote Speakers
Jeff Horn
How to become a Champion
Former WBO World Welterweight Champion Jeff Horn made history with his 2017 victory over Manny Pacquiao. A 2012 Olympian and award-winning athlete, he is now a dedicated advocate for anti-bullying and mental health. As an ambassador for Bullyproof Australia, Jeff empowers young people with confidence and resilience. With a background in education, he inspires the next generation to overcome challenges and lead with strength.
Gabrielle Ivinson
Worlding & Wonderings in Joomunjie Land
Professor Gabrielle Ivinson is a leading researcher in education and community at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work explores knowledge as a lived, place-based experience, with nearly 70 publications and five co-authored books. She is also a series editor for Critical Childhood & Youth Studies, focusing on interventions in education and social development.
Angus Gorrie
I would rather sign a cast, because I cannot sign an anxiety disorder
Angus Gorrie is a passionate play advocate and experienced Playworker with a background in behavioural science, psychology and over 15 years of hands-on practice. His keynote challenges risk-averse attitudes in childhood by exploring how limiting physical risk can overlook more harmful impacts on mental and emotional wellbeing. Angus brings a balanced, experience-driven perspective on why real play — and real risk — matters.
Angie Casella & Kaycee Larney
Play is a Journey
Angie Casella and Kaycee Larney are passionate advocates for child-led, curiosity-driven play and co-founders of Curious Me, a play-based haven for children and families. Angie, with a background in business development, is dedicated to fostering inclusion and connection, while Kaycee, an experienced early childhood educator, champions nature-based, curiosity-led play with a strong focus on supporting neurodivergent children.
Prof Vanessa Cobham
Supporting Children with Anxiety
Vanessa Cobham is a Clinical Psychologist. She is a professor in Psychology at The University of Queensland as well as a practising clinical psychologist within Children’s Health Queensland’s Child and Youth Mental Health Service. Her particular areas of expertise and interest are anxiety and posttraumatic mental health in children and young people.
Andrew Barnes
Worlding & Wonderings in Joomunjie Land
Andrew Barnes has been the Principal of Eagleby South State School for 17 years, with a background in special education and autism support. A passionate advocate for play-based learning, he has contributed to research, writing, and international conferences to promote the importance of play in education.
Lily Moser
Life on Mars
Lily Moser is a senior student at Tamborine Mountain State High School. She grew up playing outdoors every day and was a member and creator of the Arrowhead Gang. A group of kids playing outdoors in their neighbourhood; taking risks, exploring and adventuring. She now sees her peers consumed by the dangerous pandemic of screens and more specifically social media, and she is here to talk about this very topic and her concerns, personal experiences and solutions.
Hyahno Moser
Children are Active Citizens
Hyahno Moser is the founder of the Childhood Summit and CEO of Australian Insitutte of Play. He is also a father of 4 children, a childhood advocate, community development worker, adventure therapist, youth worker and outdoor educator. He has worked in support of children for over 20 years, connecting them with nature, with each other, with freedom, friends, fun, challenge and mastery.
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Hyahno stands in support of children, their human rights for freedom, agency, self-expression and to be able to play outdoors where they live.
How to Become a Champion - Jeff Horn
My schooling life had its challenges, and bullying was certainly one of them. Social bullying and name-calling turned into physical bullying; Eventually, I ended up fighting back with little to no success. I was quite low at this point in my life. During high school, it got so bad, I had suicidal thoughts. Thankfully, through those difficult times, I had my friends and family to lean on and talk to when I needed them. After school, when I was an adult, I decided to learn some self-defence techniques, this included learning conflict resolution skills.
Students need to have the ability to differentiate between conflict and bullying. This can help students navigate their school years and foster a positive mindset that they can carry into adulthood. I used my negative experiences as hunger to be successful in sport.
Communication is the key in addressing issues like bullying and conflict in schools. By utilising the resources around us, including technology, we can open lines of communication between schools, parents, and students. New technology can play a key role in this, enabling real-time updates, monitoring, and resources, allowing parents and teachers to work together to support students effectively. This technological integration can ensure that students feel heard and supported, providing them with the necessary tools to overcome challenges both inside and outside the classroom.
Play is a Journey - Angie & Kasey
Rethink how we support children through play—starting from birth and right at home. As play advocates, we often focus on children, but grown-ups need space, time, and gentle mentorship too. Quality play begins with empowered parents, and we’ve seen the transformation that happens when families feel supported.
Play is a Journey invites reflection and connection, challenging us to consider what families truly need for children to enter the world of play with confidence and belonging. Play fosters resilience, inclusion, and deep joy—but only when families are part of the journey.
Anxiety in Childhood - Professor Vanessa Cobham
Clinically significant anxiety problems are the most common psychological complaint reported by children and young people. I’ll discuss the significance and implications of anxiety problems, how they develop and are maintained over time, and how important adults around children can help them to develop a plan for effectively managing anxiety.
Worlding's and Wonderings in Joomunjie Land - Principal Andrew Barnes & Professor Gabrielle Ivinson
We explore the vital energies that flow when young people create a place of safety and adventure. We touch on the social, cultural and psychological growth that comes about when people feel held by the community while being given the freedom to play, improvise, and create with mud, rock, trees, sky, insects, birds and kin. We provide glimpses of the 'worlds' that emerge and the deep relations that are forged by young people and what this tells us about education more broadly. We muse on the imaginative 'wonderings' that arise in play and how they stretch into hopeful futures. We celebrate and thank the wide network of communities in Logan and beyond who 'get it', 'value it' and 'hold' Joomunjie Land open and safe for all young people through their active, caring involvement. Joomunjie Land is a place where many cultures meet: a vital crossroads; proliferating and re-energising relationships vital to community building.
I would rather sign a cast, because I cannot sign an anxiety disorder - Angus Gorrie
Lady Marjory Allen, English landscape architect and promoter of child welfare was famously quoted to say "better a broken bone than a broken spirit"... This sentiment could not be more relevant today... But it has evolved... This topic, facetiously titled "I would rather sign a cast, because I cannot sign an anxiety disorder", will unpack this very concept. In a world focused exclusively on the removal of physical risk, we seem to have forgotten that children engage in numerous other forms of risk taking. Social emotional and cognitive risks are more regularly engaged with by children, and more importantly, all these forms of risk taking rarely happen in isolation of each other. Removal of the chance to take risk can, and does, leave room for far worse outcomes for children than bumps or bruises. While a Playworker's goal is to absolutely not be complacent about injury, we must also balance using risk benefit assessments the other faces of risk beyond just the physical. This open discussion will unpack concepts such as the interplay between these various aspects of risk taking, Risk Paradox, Risk Benefit, Dynamic Risk Assessment, and balance these against Playwork Principle No. 8...
"Playwork Principle 8: Playworkers choose an intervention style that enables children and young people to extend their play. All playworker intervention must balance risk with the developmental benefit and wellbeing of children"