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Martin Foakes (OFFSEAS Board Chair & previously Head of Outdoor Education at Tanglin Trust, Singapore) shares insights and learnings about the launch of the OFFSEAS annual event for outdoor education professionals, the success of the last event held at UWC Phuket, and their vision for future growth...
The OFFSEAS conference is an amazing collaboration between international schools and colleges together with a range of outdoor industry professionals which has become an essential annual event on the Outdoor Education calendar. The aim is to raise safety standards and share best practice for student residential camps and outdoor adventure activities in South East Asia.
OFFSEAS has grown spectacularly, to become a major regional conference with an annual attendance of over 250 professional outdoor educators. Outdoor people tend to be outgoing, open minded and positive human beings, so there is always a very special atmosphere of inclusion and mutual appreciation at every OFFSEAS event. There’s an inspiring array of awesome keynote speakers representing a wide range of backgrounds, together with an impressive list of pre-conference workshops that include Swift Water rescue certification, Climbing Wall instructor training, Austere First Aid and Risk Management for school leaders.
The original objective of forming an Outdoor Education community in South East Asia was to provide a professional forum where schools and providers can share examples of best practice, offer training opportunities for professional development and collaborate to raise standards for adventure tourism and student travel industry in the region.
International Schools (and Universities) need to offer their students a wide range of inspirational and exciting outdoor experiences, residential trips and adventure activities as part of the curriculum. These activities always carry an element of risk, and in South East Asia the safety standards for adventure tourism vary a lot. The regulation of the outdoor adventure tourism industry by government bodies and specialist NGOs is not always as strong as it could be so it can be very difficult to make decisions. Schools are in loco parentis when they take students off campus, and ensuring the safety of students and staff is absolutely crucial.
OFFSEAS began as a very small and informal group of less than 10 teachers from Tanglin Trust School and United World College South East Asia (Singapore), together with the Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok Patana School in Thailand. Over the next 5 years it began to gain momentum and numbers increased as the provider companies were invited to join in. The pandemic put a halt to in-person meetings for a few years until we were able to host a substantial gathering of around 150 outdoor educators at Tanglin Trust School in Singapore in 2023. The most recent OFFSEAS event in April 2024 was held at United World College in Phuket and attracted over 250 participants from all over the world, creating a real buzz and considerable enthusiasm at the time.
The conference included opportunities to complete wilderness first aid certification, kayaking instructor training and Risk Management workshops for school leadership teams. It’s not too difficult to persuade people to attend events in Phuket as part of their professional development - but it wasn’t just the sunny seaside location that drew people in. There’s a real need for outdoor educators to connect and learn from each other, and OFFSEAS 2024 did not disappoint.
The number of participants has risen exponentially in recent years and it is expected that there will be around 300 attendees at the next event at Bangkok Patana School in April 2025. OFFSEAS already enjoys an excellent reputation for encouraging open dialogue between schools and industry professionals and there’s an exciting range of speakers and workshops on the agenda. It offers teachers and outdoor activity providers a unique opportunity to ask questions and collaborate in an open forum to raise standards and improve safety.
The conference will appeal to any school or college that is running outdoor education programs in South East Asia and beyond, whether it is a simple day trip to the zoo, forest school on campus and nature play in the local park or extended Himalayan expeditions at altitude. In order to operate such programs safely and ensure a high quality experience, most schools will need to engage the services of professional outdoor adventure providers and ensure that teachers are suitably prepared. The pre-conference workshops therefore offer teachers and partner providers the opportunity to refresh their outdoor skills and update their certification, while the main conference is full to the brim with practical workshops and exciting keynote speakers who are quite literally genuine leaders in the field. And at OFFSEAS the opportunity to network with other schools and meet outdoor companies who can safely deliver the programs you are looking for is simply too good to miss!
The OFFSEAS conference attracts professional outdoor educators from around the world, and as the number of international schools continues to grow by around 10% per annum, it is set to play an increasingly significant role in the raising of industry standards and the promotion of a strong safety culture in South East Asia.
You can register for your place to join the next OFFSEAS conference from the 26th-27th April 2025, which is being held at Bangkok Patana School in April 2025 here: https://offseas.community/2025-register/
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