Distinguished guests, friends, and colleagues: it is my pleasure to warmly welcome you to the 2025 Yidan Prize Summit.

Today, I found myself seeing the red dot in the Yidan Prize logo in a new light. It radiates differently — shining with hope. Hope feels the warmest in difficult moments, especially when our local community is experiencing loss. Today’s gathering offers support and strength, and it reaffirms the importance of our shared mission: to co‑create a brighter future through education.

Over 500 of you, from more than 40 countries across six continents, are here as passionate advocates for the power of education to transform lives. Among you are:

• educators from over 30 universities and 100 schools and networks: tirelessly building the foundation for students to thrive, not only supporting their academic and skills development, but also their well-being;

  
  

• 100 students: whose curiosity and potential remind us of the future we’re shaping and whose voices remind us to deeply listen to one another;

  
  

• NGO leaders: who champion learning at every level, transforming mindsets and sharing generous insights from their frontline experience

  
  

• researchers: whose evidence informs us of what works in what context, working in close collaboration with partners and the community we serve;

  
  

• policymakers: who are bridging the gap between theory and practice at a systems level, providing leadership and the necessary infrastructure for change;

  
  

• philanthropists and representatives from 40 foundations: who make bold and urgent investments in our collective future.

  
  

It’s not every day that we get a room full of people like you together, as a community that listens and learns from one another. Throughout the year, we work hard to create spaces for collaboration. We do this knowing that what we can achieve together far outweighs anything we each do alone. And we are co-creating paths forward for a brighter future as a learning community that is truly global and profoundly local.

This year, we emphasize the ‘here and now’ — where education is at a crossroads.

Many avenues spring from the intersection of education, technology, and social change.

To move forward as one, we need education leaders who can harness the power of collaboration — so how can we nurture them?

We recognize that lasting change comes from within communities and cultures — so how do we best center local expertise?

Then, of course, questions around edtech and AI are on everyone’s minds. How can we make sure that learning leads technology, and not the other way around?

Earlier this year, in March, we planted a seed for today’s discussion at the Yidan Prize Conference, co-hosted with Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation.

We explored what it means to be uniquely human in the age of AI — moving beyond principles for educational technology, and into a collective re‑searching and re‑imagining of education. Last week in Doha, the 12th World Innovation Summit for Education placed human values at its core, inviting the world to rethink education’s purpose in serving humanity.

In that spirit, I invite you to see the next two days as part of an ongoing conversation within our learning community.

Today’s keynote speakers will illuminate pathways at a crossroads in global education — drawing on experiences in Asia and reframing the idea of human capital. Our distinguished panels will continue the discussion on the futures of education we began in March: how to harness AI thoughtfully and humanely, how to cultivate rooted collaborations, and how to nurture relational leaders who can build learning ecosystems connected to the environment, to local communities, and to human flourishing.

Three Yidan Prize laureates will also bring our collective conversations into personal focus through their reflections at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. By generously sharing their own turning points and growth journeys, they will help us feel — rather than merely understand intellectually — that everyone has the capacity to be a changemaker.

Working together — at a convening like ours — is one of our most powerful levers for progress. Our aim is to triangulate key issues, secure partnerships to advance near‑term projects, and build trusted relationships for the long journey ahead.

What you share on stage and off stage, and what you take back to your own work and communities, will help illuminate what is possible for our futures.

Thank you.

——
Dr Charles CHEN Yidan
Founder, Yidan Prize