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Our journey, date by date

Everything on this page has happened. Each entry gives the date, the place, who organised it and what our part was.

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  • 9

    dated events on our record so far

26 May 2025 to 26 September 2026

  1. Getting started

    May to August 2025

    Our first gathering, then a fundraiser and a climbing day alongside others.

  2. A group of men and women stand close together for a photograph in a café, one of them making a heart shape with both hands.
    Our first community gathering. Hong Kong, 26 May 2025.

    Our first gathering

    Hong Kong

  4. Young people in climbing harnesses, seen from behind, stand watching three climbers on ropes part-way up a tall outdoor climbing wall.
    At the rock climbing event hosted by HKCECES. Hong Kong, 26 August 2025.

    Rock climbing with HKCECES

    Hong Kong

  5. Speaking up

    October and November 2025

    A forum in the Legislative Council Complex, and an interview at a world conference.

  6. Five young people holding certificates and small bouquets stand in a row beside a woman in a pink jacket, in front of a large screen that reads Nurture Our Future.
    Young people with their certificates at the Nurture Our Future forum. Legislative Council Complex, 11 October 2025.

    Youth voices at the Legislative Council

    Legislative Council Complex, Admiralty

  7. Two men stand in front of a conference backdrop showing the Hong Kong skyline: one, in a suit, holds a microphone, and the other wears a turquoise shirt and a striped tie.
    Michael Kalyan, Project Director, interviews Dr John Ivers at the IAIE World Conference 2025. Hong Kong, November 2025.

    A conversation on AI and the future of education

    IAIE World Conference 2025, Hong Kong

  8. Being useful

    March to September 2026

    An eye screening for seniors, and the trainings that make young volunteers ready for one.

  11. Students at their desks, seen from behind, face a trainer who is speaking beside a projected photograph of a retina, while a man in a suit stands at the teacher’s desk.
    Students study a photograph of the retina in class. Fun-Tastic’s training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, 22 September 2026.

    Teaching students to run the fundus camera

    Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, Ma On Shan

  13. The next chapter

Every entry, in full

Our first gathering

Date
Place
Hong Kong
Our part
We held it. It was our first event.
Focus area
A group of men and women stand close together for a photograph in a café, one of them making a heart shape with both hands.
Our first community gathering. Hong Kong, 26 May 2025.

Diverse Talent began with people in a room. On 26 May 2025 we held our inaugural community gathering, the first event under our name. People from different backgrounds came together to celebrate diversity and inclusion. It was the first time the idea behind Diverse Talent, bringing people together across backgrounds, was something you could see. Everything else on this page comes after that day.

One Heart Charitable Foundation’s fundraiser

Date
Place
Hong Kong
With
  • One Heart Charitable Foundation
Our part
We joined One Heart Charitable Foundation’s fundraiser as a supporting organisation and took part in the live bidding.
Focus area
  • In the community
Three men in suits kneel in front of a small stage with a young boy standing between two of them, while a girl in a white dress, seen from behind, stands at a guzheng.
At One Heart Charitable Foundation’s fundraiser. Hong Kong, 8 June 2025.

On 8 June 2025, thirteen days after our first gathering, Diverse Talent joined a charity fundraiser organised by One Heart Charitable Foundation, as a supporting organisation, and took part in the live bidding. It was the first time we stood behind a cause that someone else had organised, and it set a habit we have kept. At the forum in the Legislative Council Complex in October 2025, at the carnival in Sheung Shui in March 2026 and at the trainings in September 2026, we again added our hands and our voices to work that others had started.

Rock climbing with HKCECES

Date
Place
Hong Kong
With
  • HKCECES
Our part
Our youth members climbed, and cheered for the other climbers.
Focus area
Young people in climbing harnesses, seen from behind, stand watching three climbers on ropes part-way up a tall outdoor climbing wall.
At the rock climbing event hosted by HKCECES. Hong Kong, 26 August 2025.

On 26 August 2025 we joined a rock climbing event hosted by HKCECES, the Hong Kong Council of Early Childhood Education and Services. Our youth members put on harnesses and climbed, alongside young people of all backgrounds, and cheered for one another from the ground. Encouragement is real work, and it is work that any young person can do on their first day with us. The link with HKCECES continued. Less than seven weeks later the same organisation held a forum in the Legislative Council Complex, and our youth members were among the young people who spoke there.

Youth voices at the Legislative Council

Date
Place
Legislative Council Complex, Admiralty
With
  • HKCECES
  • Fun-Tastic 悠樂長
Organiser’s title
Nurture Our Future: Forum on the Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting Ordinance
Our part
We supported the forum, and our youth members spoke in the CECES Youth Ambassador sharing session.
Focus area
Five young people holding certificates and small bouquets stand in a row beside a woman in a pink jacket, in front of a large screen that reads Nurture Our Future.
Young people with their certificates at the Nurture Our Future forum. Legislative Council Complex, 11 October 2025.

On Saturday 11 October 2025, HKCECES held its Nurture Our Future forum in the Legislative Council Complex in Admiralty. The subject was serious: preparing professionals, teachers and parents for Hong Kong’s new law on reporting child abuse. The forum belongs to a wider HKCECES campaign against student suicide, school bullying and child abuse. Diverse Talent supported the event and took part in it. Our youth members spoke in the CECES Youth Ambassador sharing session, adding their own voices and their own point of view. Local Hong Kong and ethnic minority young people stood side by side for the same cause. We are grateful to the organisers, and to Fun-Tastic, our supporting charity, for making it possible for us to be there.

See the post on LinkedIn

An audience on rows of chairs listens to speakers seated at a table on the left, with an electronic keyboard in the foreground and a camera crew filming from the back of the room.
The Nurture Our Future forum in session. Legislative Council Complex, 11 October 2025.
Nine people stand in a row in front of a dark wall, some of the younger ones holding certificates and single flowers.
At the Nurture Our Future forum. Legislative Council Complex, 11 October 2025.
A full conference room poses for a group photograph, with children sitting on the floor at the front and adults behind them, some holding small signs.
Everyone at the Nurture Our Future forum. Legislative Council Complex, 11 October 2025.

A conversation on AI and the future of education

Date
Place
IAIE World Conference 2025, Hong Kong
With
  • International Alliance for Invitational Education (IAIE)
Our part
Our Project Director, Michael Kalyan, conducted the interview.
Focus area
Two men stand in front of a conference backdrop showing the Hong Kong skyline: one, in a suit, holds a microphone, and the other wears a turquoise shirt and a striped tie.
Michael Kalyan, Project Director, interviews Dr John Ivers at the IAIE World Conference 2025. Hong Kong, November 2025.

The International Alliance for Invitational Education, known as IAIE, held its 2025 World Conference in Hong Kong on 7 and 8 November. Michael Kalyan, Project Director of Diverse Talent, interviewed Dr John Ivers of Brigham Young University-Idaho there, about the future of education in the age of AI and quantum computing. It was a different kind of work for us: not lending a hand at someone else’s event, but asking questions of our own. We came away with three thoughts, set out below. They matter to a youth initiative for a plain reason. The young people in our team will study, work and volunteer alongside AI for the rest of their lives.

What we took away

  • Teachers are not going anywhere. Their work is moving from giving knowledge to guiding students, ethically, through what AI can do.
  • For students, adaptability is the skill that counts: learning to work with AI, and with teachers, in order to grow.
  • The AI worth building is kind and supportive. It strengthens the bond between student and teacher, and does not replace it.

These are our own notes from the conversation, not quotations.

See the post on LinkedIn

Volunteering at a seniors’ eye screening in Sheung Shui

Date
Place
Sheung Shui
With
  • Lions Club
  • Fun-Tastic 悠樂長
Our part
By invitation of the Lions Club, our volunteers supported the eye screening throughout the event.
Focus area
A volunteer in a suit and blue gloves works the joystick of a fundus camera while a visitor looks into it under a dark cloth and a second helper leans in to point at the controls.
At the fundus camera, during the Eye Care and Traditional Chinese Medicine Wellness Carnival. Sheung Shui, 13 March 2026.

On 13 March 2026 the Lions Club invited us to the Eye Care and Traditional Chinese Medicine Wellness Carnival in Sheung Shui. Our volunteers gave their support throughout the event, helping seniors through a free eye screening. At the fundus camera, which photographs the back of the eye, a volunteer worked the controls while each visitor looked in. Seniors had their eyes checked and then explored the Traditional Chinese Medicine wellness booths. It was heartening to watch. The screening service itself is run by Fun-Tastic, and we were there as volunteers, by invitation. What the day taught us is that care reaches people best when it comes to where they already are, and when someone has the time to stand beside them. We thank the Lions Club for the invitation.

AI-assisted retinal screening is a risk screen, not a medical diagnosis. It does not replace an examination by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

See the post on LinkedIn

A volunteer wearing a lanyard leans across a school desk, smiling, towards a seated visitor, while a second volunteer in a face mask sits beside her holding a phone.
Volunteers help a visitor at the registration desk. Sheung Shui, 13 March 2026.
Two volunteers at a screening station: one, seated, grins and gives two thumbs up, and the other stands behind him in a suit, a face mask and blue gloves.
Volunteers at the screening station. Sheung Shui, 13 March 2026.
A school hall with visitors seated in rows, volunteers at desks filling in forms with them, and display boards along the far wall.
The hall during the carnival. Sheung Shui, 13 March 2026.
At a row of school desks, a woman examines a seated visitor’s eye with a hand-held instrument while a man beside her writes, and more visitors wait in the foreground, the nearest wearing a cap and a face mask.
Eye checks under way at the carnival. Sheung Shui, 13 March 2026.

Training new volunteers for Fun-Tastic’s eye screening

Date
Place
Hong Kong
With
  • Fun-Tastic 悠樂長
Our part
Our Project Director, Michael Kalyan, led the training for Fun-Tastic.
Focus area
A woman works the controls of a fundus camera while a man leans into it under a dark cloth, and other people stand around watching.
New volunteers practise on the fundus camera. Fun-Tastic’s volunteer training, 12 September 2026.

On 12 September 2026 Fun-Tastic held a training session for new volunteers. It was led by our Project Director, Michael Kalyan, who is also a director of Fun-Tastic. Nine people were trained. They learned three things: how to operate the AI-assisted eye screening tools, how to give basic eye-health education, and how to talk with seniors with empathy. The third matters as much as the first two. A camera can be learned, but a senior remembers how they were spoken to. By the end of the session, nine newly trained volunteers were ready to help bring free eye screening to seniors across Hong Kong. As we wrote afterwards, every trained volunteer becomes an extra pair of caring eyes for our seniors.

AI-assisted retinal screening is a risk screen, not a medical diagnosis. It does not replace an examination by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

See the post on LinkedIn

A seated trainer in a striped top explains a fundus camera to a ring of people standing round the table, as one of them sits facing the camera.
A trainer explains the fundus camera to new volunteers. Fun-Tastic’s volunteer training, 12 September 2026.
Thirteen people pose in two rows behind a table with a fundus camera on it, in front of a projection screen.
Volunteers and trainers together. Fun-Tastic’s volunteer training, 12 September 2026.
A group leans in around a table as a man in a suit points out the controls of a fundus camera and another man steadies the head of the person seated at it.
New volunteers watch how the camera is operated. Fun-Tastic’s volunteer training, 12 September 2026.
A trainer lifts the dark cloth of a fundus camera for a man seated at it, while a seated colleague explains and others stand watching in a meeting room.
Trainers show how a person is positioned at the camera. Fun-Tastic’s volunteer training, 12 September 2026.
A man in a suit stands at the head of a long table beside a fundus camera, speaking to people seated around it.
A briefing during Fun-Tastic’s volunteer training, 12 September 2026.

Teaching students to run the fundus camera

Date
Place
Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, Ma On Shan
With
  • Fun-Tastic 悠樂長
  • Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School
Our part
Our Project Director, Michael Kalyan, led Fun-Tastic’s training at the school.
Focus area
Students at their desks, seen from behind, face a trainer who is speaking beside a projected photograph of a retina, while a man in a suit stands at the teacher’s desk.
Students study a photograph of the retina in class. Fun-Tastic’s training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, 22 September 2026.

On 22 September 2026 Fun-Tastic held a fundus camera training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, led by our Project Director, Michael Kalyan, who is also a director of Fun-Tastic. A fundus camera photographs the back of the eye, and it is the heart of a community eye screening. That day the people learning to run it were secondary school students. Fun-Tastic records more than 20 of them. They learned the technical side of fundus photography, and they learned how to communicate with care and empathy when the person at the camera is a senior. The students are now ready to assist at community eye screenings. As we wrote that day, every trained student is an extra pair of caring eyes for our seniors, and a reminder that age is no barrier to service.

AI-assisted retinal screening is a risk screen, not a medical diagnosis. It does not replace an examination by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

See the post on LinkedIn

A student in school uniform works the joystick of a fundus camera with an adult beside her, while a classmate sits at the chin rest under a dark cloth that gloved hands hold in place.
Students practise on each other. Fun-Tastic’s training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, 22 September 2026.
A classroom seen from the back: students at their desks watch a trainer who raises her arm towards a screen showing photographs of retinas.
The lesson under way. Fun-Tastic’s fundus camera training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, 22 September 2026.
A trainer leans in to guide a student in school uniform at the controls of a fundus camera while a second student looks into it under a dark cloth.
A trainer guides students at the fundus camera. Fun-Tastic’s training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, 22 September 2026.
A trainer points to the base of a fundus camera on a trolley while a student in school uniform and disposable gloves stands beside her, looking down at it.
A trainer shows a student how the camera is prepared. Fun-Tastic’s training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, 22 September 2026.
A class of students in school uniform and four adults pose around a fundus camera on a table, many giving a thumbs-up or a V sign.
Students and trainers together. Fun-Tastic’s training at Caritas Ma On Shan Secondary School, 22 September 2026.

Rehearsing a whole screening day with new volunteers

Date
Place
Hong Kong
With
  • Fun-Tastic 悠樂長
  • Time Auction
Our part
Our Project Director, Michael Kalyan, led Fun-Tastic’s training, a rehearsal of a whole screening day.
Focus area
Volunteers sit along the far side of a meeting table with two open laptops, listening to a man speaking at the right, with part of a fundus camera in the foreground.
Volunteers at Fun-Tastic’s AI Fundus Screening Volunteer Training, 26 September 2026.

On 26 September 2026 Fun-Tastic held its AI Fundus Screening Volunteer Training, led by our Project Director, Michael Kalyan, who is also a director of Fun-Tastic. The volunteers were recruited through Time Auction, a Hong Kong charity that matches volunteers with organisations. The session walked them through a whole screening day, station by station. At registration: welcome each senior, help with the forms, explain that the photographs are for screening only, and ask for consent. At the camera: check the details, clean the equipment, settle the senior comfortably and photograph both eyes. At the report desk: explain the result, give advice, and remind anyone with a flagged finding to see an eye specialist soon. Last, help each senior download their report. These volunteers go on to community screening days. The aim, as we put it afterwards: connecting young people and seniors, and bridging the gap between generations.

AI-assisted retinal screening is a risk screen, not a medical diagnosis. It does not replace an examination by an ophthalmologist or optometrist.

A man in a suit speaks to one side while a volunteer in a face mask sits with her hands on the base of a fundus camera and others stand behind her, watching.
A volunteer takes a turn at the camera. Fun-Tastic’s AI Fundus Screening Volunteer Training, 26 September 2026.
A man in a suit stands beside a fundus camera on a small round table, gesturing as he explains it, in front of a projected slide headed Quick operating guide.
Going through the quick operating guide. Fun-Tastic’s AI Fundus Screening Volunteer Training, 26 September 2026.

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