With that said, I'm happy that women have platforms available to them like this one where we can be just open and true to ourselves with a community that thinks and feels like us 💯

Thank you so much, everyone, for yapping with us tonight! Continue to yap beyond this chat room, please. I know it’ll make a difference. 🧡

NOW ON ITS 10TH YEAR ✨

She Talks Asia’s co-founders Bianca Gonzalez, Lynn Pinugu, and Iza Calzado officially kick off the annual summit’s 10th edition on Saturday, March 14.

The summit takes on the theme “Better Together.”

“We are unlearning the idea that we have to do it all alone just to succeed. Aren’t we better together as a community?” Calzado said. #STASummit2026

During her keynote speech, She Talks Asia 2026 co-chair Hannah Pangilinan stresses the importance of intentionality in building community.

“Gaze up, glance left and right, give to the next — and that’s community created,” Pangilinan says. #STASummit2026

HOW DO WE SHOW UP FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS A PROBLEM?

In the “language of connection” breakout session during the 2026 She Talks Asia summit, the organization’s co-founder Lynn Pinugu says that showing empathy is the best way forward when someone comes to you with a problem.

Rather than immediately offering a solution, sharing a similar situation you were in, or tell them it’s going to be okay, Pinugu encourages attendees to give the other person space to talk about their predicament.

“Conversations are no longer about who’s right, but more about understanding what each person is experiencing. This creates emotional safety,” Pinugu says about the power of empathy.

She Talks Asia 2026 panelist, Gen Z content creator Rocio Trillo, highlights the importance of helping keeping yourself open to imparting wisdom to those around you — recalling the time she cold emailed a cosmetics brand executive who later took her out for lunch.

“It’s important to build bridges instead of burn them down,” says Trillo.