Digital Youth x MindTech Conference – Digital risk, resilience and interventions: co-creating change in youth mental health
Event Details
Date: Thursday, 13th November 2025, County Hall, London.
On Thursday 13 November we welcomed over 200 delegates including researchers, young people, policy makers, academics, industry innovators and parents to take part in:
Discovering key findings from the Digital Youth programme.
Hearing from leading experts in child and adolescent mental health, including Dr Amy Orben and Professor Cathy Creswell.
Shaping the future of digital mental health initiatives through interactive discussions.
Interactive workshops that spark creativity and drive meaningful collaboration including innovative methods in research and how to effectively partner with industry.
Connecting with key stakeholders in digital mental health.
Collaborating with young voices, including the Young Person’s Advisory Group, Sprouting Minds.
Programme:
The event consisted of a variety of talks in the morning and seminars and networking opportunities in the afternoon and provided an opportunity to connect, learn, and lead change. Within the event a space was dedicated to an exhibition summarising the Digital Youth project findings and demonstrations from industry of innovative mental health technology.
10:00 Welcome address – Professor Chris Hollis and Professor Ellen Townsend
10:10 Moving beyond screen time in DIORA: The importance of specific digital activities and the reactions they induce as predictors of adolescent mental health – Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Dr Kasia Kostyrka-Allchorne and Eliz Azeri, Sprouting Minds
10:30 The effectiveness of a socially assistive robot for improving emotion regulation among LGBTQ+ youth experiencing self-harm thoughts – Dr Petr Slovak, Dr A Jess Williams and Lucy Martin, Sprouting Minds
10:50 When SPARX fly: Lessons learned from a gamified digital CBT intervention for low mood in young people – Professor Chris Hollis, Dr Mathijs Lucassen, Dr Camilla Babbage and Stuart Dodzo, Sprouting Minds
11:10 Refreshments, exhibition, demonstrations
11:45 Keynote 1: Fixing the science of technology harms – Professor Amy Orben, University of Cambridge
12:05 Spotlight on policy: Panel discussion in response to keynote, chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy CBE – Baroness Hilary Cass and Professor Bernadka Dubicka
12:25 Lunch, exhibition, demonstrations and networking
13:25 Interactive Workshops
-Challenges and solutions to designing, developing and implementing digital platforms to support remote assessment and monitoring
-Building effective industry partnerships: strategies, principles, and practice
-Digital Youth in the Data Mine: Unearthing Insights from Big Datasets
-Creative Approaches in Research and PPI (Patient and Public Involvement)
14:55 Refreshments and exhibition
15:20 Panel session: ‘Bridging the valley of death’- moving research to implementation and commercialisation, chaired by Professor Chris Hollis – Professor Ed Watkins, Robert Higginson, Barnaby Perks and Dr Aaron Kandola
16:00 Keynote 2: Taking digital interventions for youth from research to practice – Professor Cathy Creswell, University of Oxford
16:20 Next steps and closing comments
16:30 Event close
Speakers
Listed in order of appearance.
This event is a unique opportunity to be part of the conversation and contribute to the future of mental health for young people.
If you have any questions about the event please contact MS-MindTech@nottingham.ac.uk
