United States Ambassador MaryKay Carlson recognized the importance of engaging audiences online during her closing remarks at the “Creators Co-Lab: Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Bootcamp for Digital Creators” held from 28 May to 1 June in Manila.

“Social media is no longer a nice-to-have item,” Ambassador Carlson said. “People of all ages are turning to social media for information. You have an incredibly powerful platform to inform, educate, and positively influence people in your home countries and around the world.”

Sixty content creators from 11 countries in Southeast Asia gained new skills in storytelling, digital safety, and brand development during the five-day workshop.

Organized by the US Embassy in the Philippines, in partnership with Out of the Box Media Literacy Initiative, the workshop included in-depth discussions on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, brand development and intellectual property protection.  Speakers included food content creator “Lumpia Queen” Abi Marquez, journalist Jacque Manabat, and cybersecurity expert Carlos Ely Tiongson.

The content creators also visited the Manila offices of leading US technology companies, Microsoft and Meta, to learn about emerging tools in social media analytics and community-building.

Collectively, the 60 content creators have a following of over 15 million across various digital platforms. Ten of the 60 participants are from the Philippines.