Tropical Intelligence: A Superpower We Don't Talk About Enough

Nation and Tempo2 started this research project around Tropical Intelligence with exactly that question. After conversations with artists, ecologists, dancers, and indigenous thinkers across Indonesia and Brazil, we learnt that Tropical Intelligence is an underappreciated superpower that allows us to become better researchers and strategists through a richer understanding of people and culture.
Nation is now putting those insights in conversation with Kontinentalist, a data storytelling studio who treat embodied experiences and community knowledge as meaningful data, and multidisciplinary artist Zarina, who maps geology, landscapes, and indigenous knowledge across the archipelago to ask what it means to witness our environment in crisis.
Join us this April for a gathering of researchers and practitioners working with and through the tropics. Come hear what we've picked up from Brazil to Indonesia to Singapore, and how it's shaped our work and lives across the region!

About our moderators and panelists:
Adri Reksodipoetro, Managing Director, Nation Indonesia
Adri is the founder of Nation with 20 years of experience leading strategic brand & innovation projects around the world. Before starting Nation he was a Director for Hall & Partners in Sydney then the MD of Flamingo’s APAC hub in Singapore.
Widad Jamil, Director, Nation, Singapore
Widad is a strategist with over a decade of experience in qualitative research across Singapore, Jakarta, London, and Shanghai. She specialises in Muslim audiences, helping brands navigate cultural nuance and develop strategies that are both locally grounded and commercially meaningful.
Ai Huy, Strategy Lead, Nation Singapore
Ai Huy is a strategist at Nation, where she has mostly worked on consumer tech projects across the Southeast Asia and East Asia region, including exploring the impact of AI on user search and purchasing behavior. She previously worked as a corporate investigator and due diligence researcher.
Samira Hassan, Community Engagement Manager, Kontinentalist
Samira is a community organiser, researcher and writer who has worked on issues around migration, mental health and democracy in Asia for the past six years. At Kontinentalist, she takes care of partnerships and oversees outreach efforts and social media.
Zarina Muhammad, Artist
Zarina Muhammad is an artist and educator whose practice spans installation, performance, moving image, and sound. Her work engages coastal ecologies, port histories, and multispecies worlds, exploring how we listen to land and water as living archives.

Date: Thursday, 16 April 2026
Time: 6.30pm-9pm
Venue: Drawing Room, The Great Room @ Afro Asia
Free with registration
Other useful information

• Seating is on a first-come-first-serve basis.
• For the enjoyment of participants, the programme will start promptly at the time stated. Please arrive early or at least 5 minutes before the start of the programme.
• Please note that there may be photography and/or video recording (audio and/or video) at the programme. By attending, you consent to your photograph and/or recording (video/audio) being used for future communications by Kontinentalist and Nation Insights for archival, publicity, and publications.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Kontinentalist