Elger Blitz is founder, principal and lead designer at Carve. He accidentally got involved in designing play environments in the early nineties, which gives him over 30 years of experience in relevant projects in public space. His cross-disciplinary and renewing approach to designing urban spaces from the perspective of play has proven to anticipate on actual demands and trends, with a result that extends far beyond the relevance for urban spaces for children and youngsters alone. He handles design tasks in a very integral manner, switching easily between different scales and disciplines. His unconventional approach and distinctive ideas on inclusive designing for the public realm logically incorporates designing for all ages including kids and teenagers. Elger has been a guest lecturer at different institutes and universities in the Netherlands and abroad.

With seemingly unassuming and minor interventions he can intensify and diversify the usability of parks, squares and playgrounds. He creates environments, that promote active and experiential use, that engage all the senses, making them inclusive and attractive for all ages and users from all backgrounds. Deeply rooted in understanding the principles of play, sport and leisure design, he delivers precise, and often small scale interventions, that positively impact the entire surrounding area. His work doesn’t stop at ideation, he is apt at turning spectacular concepts into realistic projects. With a razor focus on maintaining the highest standard of quality, he delivers on time and within budget.

Mitsunari Terada (Charlie), born in 1991, facilitates child-friendly communities through his work as a landscape planner and researcher. He received his PhD from Chiba University, Japan, in 2020, and serves as an assistant professor at the Research Institute for Children's Physical Health, Nippon Sport Science University. His research focuses on outdoor environments for children in the context of climate change. He is the author of 'Social Capital for a Child-friendly City: Housing, Streets, and Parks' (Routledge). To create child-friendly communities with multiple stakeholders, he plays and talks with children and advocates for people from local community to central government levels. He lived in a neighborhood association center for 7 years as co-manager. He is also involved in various organizations, serving on the board of IPA Japan, as a senior researcher at the Information Research Center of Japan Adventure Playground Association, as a committee member for inclusive playgrounds in urban parks at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan, and on the third-party evaluation committee of UNICEF's Child Friendly Cities Initiative.

Simon Battisti is Executive Director of the Relationship Center (Qendra Marrëdhënie, “QM”), a non-profit research and design agency, based in Tirana.

QM provides technical assistance to local governments to deliver mobility and public space projects that center the needs of children and caregivers. Since 2020 QM has supported the Municipality of Tirana’s city-wide school streets program.

Simon is the Creative Director of the Start with Children Summit, an annual convening on urban childhoods held in Bratislava.

He holds degrees in architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

An enthusiastic and active advocate + practitioner for children’s rights, esp. to play and participation (UNCRC Articles 12, 13, and 31) for over 10 years, as well as a committed promoter of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and gender education in Taiwan.

With experience across civil society, education, and creative industries, she integrates playful, innovative,

and socially responsive projects in both NGO/NPO leadership roles and cross-sector collaborations.

Her work reflects a deep commitment to designing systems andevents that honour children’s agencies, voices, rights, and livedexperiences.

Kevin Siu co-founded AaaM Architects with the belief on architecture as a medium for culture and social interactions. He has been leading the studio to promote architectural and design culture through design works in architecture, interiors, installations and a spectrum of public engagement projects. AaaM’s works have been receiving international acclamations, including Japan Good Design Award—Best 100, DFA Award, Singapore Good Design Award, K-Design Award, and etc. Kevin Siu was also awarded “Perspective 40 under 40” in 2018.

Kevin is also active in the academic field. He has been the Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture in the Chu Hai College of Higher Education in Hong Kong since 2012. With the aspiration of empowering children to unleash their creativity and collaborative power, he has been practicing and advocating design thinking education in primary and secondary learning environment. In recent years, he has been adopting participatory design approach with innovative workshops and activities to engage with children, parents, teachers and community stakeholders to co-create the new generation of public playgrounds in Hong Kong.

Jacky is the Head of Play Environment Development at the Playright Children’s Play Association and a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design. He is dedicated to promoting a playful city and inspiring the public to understand how spatial design can support children’s needs. He also broadens the imagination of place-making in outdoor spaces such as parks, and jointly explores the ideas and best practices for implementing inclusive play environment design.

Rajashree is Professor at the School of Education. She joined Azim Premji University in 2010 and was part of the core group that worked together to start academic programs at the University. She has taught at various levels of education: school, undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Prior to joining Azim Premji University, she was a teacher educator in the four-year Bachelor’s in Elementary Education program at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi. She also worked closely on a large-scale NGO program evaluation project on inclusion in higher education from 2002–2010. Her doctoral work, carried out at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences,

focused on families, education and children with disabilities. Her research and publications are in the areas of child development and teacher education. Her training in vocal music and violin engages her in advocacy work towards inclusion of music for ‘all’ children in educational spaces.