Help Bring Digital Wellbeing to SXSW 2026
- Heather Henderson
- Aug 6
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 9
“Students can’t focus anymore.” I hear this everywhere I go.
This isn’t laziness. It’s the result of the attention economy designed to keep them scrolling, not learning.
The outcome? Anxiety. Overstimulation. Disconnection from their own potential.
That’s why I’m taking this to SXSW EDU — to give educators science-backed tools that help students take back their focus.
Inspired by my upcoming book Reclaim: How to Go From Digital Dependent to Hacking Your Happiness.
How to Vote (It Only Takes 30 Seconds!)
1️⃣ Create a free account at https://id.sxsw.com/sign_up
2️⃣ Click this direct link to talk Reclaim Focus: How Students Can Thrive in Attention Economy
3️⃣ Hit the ❤️ button to vote
That’s it!
📅 Voting Open: August 5–24, 2025
Every single vote matters. Your click brings this movement one step closer to SXSW. I'm hoping to hit about 800 votes. That would give me a much stronger position in the community voting, which makes up 30% of the final selection.
🌮 About: South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX is one of the world’s most influential festivals for tech innovation and wellness. Their talks are chosen partly by public vote — and that’s where you come in!
🔥 Bonus Ways to Help
FORWARD this to 3 friends who care about mental health, students, or mindful tech
SHARE this blog post on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook (social templates)
Thank you for being in my corner. We’re building something powerful — and I’d be honored to have you help me bring it to the big stage.
Love + gratitude,
Heather
Talk Details: Reclaim Focus
Today’s tech can quietly pull students away from their goals, leaving them distracted and disconnected from their true potential.
Drawing on insights from her new book Reclaim and her experience hiring early-career talent at top tech companies, Heather Henderson shows how intentional digital habits can fuel focus and future-ready skills.
This session gives educators actionable strategies to help students align their tech use with their values so they can thrive in the classroom and beyond.
✅ Intended Audience
This session is for educators, campus leaders, and student success advocates who want to help students thrive in a tech-driven world. If you’ve seen students lose focus mid-lesson, struggle with overstimulation, or feel drained by the very technology meant to help them, this session is for you.
It’s also for those preparing students for the future of work, where intentional tech use and focus will be essential skills.
✅ Describe your session idea
Students weren’t designed to live this distracted. In an era of AI and endless scrolls, learners are anxious, overstimulated, and disconnected.
Drawing from her new book Reclaim, Big Tech insider Heather Henderson shows how the dopamine economy hijacks focus, and what it means for education and workforce readiness.
You’ll leave with science-backed insights and classroom-ready strategies to rebuild focus and creativity without banning technology.
✅ Takeaways
How the attention economy quietly reshapes student focus, and what educators can do about it.
A science-backed framework to reframe digital habits so they support learning outcomes and student well-being.
Simple, repeatable strategies to help students reclaim attention without banning technology.
✅ Speaker Biography
Heather Henderson is a university recruiter turned digital well-being strategist, speaker, and author of Reclaim: How to Go from Digital Dependent to Hacking Your Happiness.
She’s hired hundreds of designers and engineers at Google, Visa, and Uber, seeing firsthand how technology is engineered to capture attention at all costs, fueling burnout and disconnection.
In addition to leading internal development programs for Uber’s intern class, Heather helps educators, students, and leaders reclaim focus and creativity with science-backed insights, raw storytelling, and actionable practices.
✅ Qualifications
Heather blends insider tech experience with a human development lens and current research on digital well-being, attention, and burnout.
She has delivered high-impact talks for universities, national conferences, and corporate teams, bridging neuroscience and everyday habits with actionable tools.
Her upcoming book Reclaim and her Unmuted U™ series equip students and educators to reset their digital lives and support sustainable learning outcomes.
✅ How does this speaker contribute a diverse perspective?
Heather Henderson is a first-generation college graduate with a degree in Human Development who began her career in higher education, working in the philosophy and psychology departments at UC Santa Cruz.
She later transitioned into Big Tech, hiring early-career talent at Google, Uber, Visa, and Accenture.
This blend of higher ed, human behavior, and tech experience gives her a rare interdisciplinary lens to help students and educators thrive in a world designed to distract.
✅ Prior Speaking Experience
Heather has spoken at top universities including UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the University of Toronto, as well as national conferences like NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers).
She also leads internal development programs for Uber’s intern class, helping students transition from education to the workforce.
Her Unmuted U™ series on digital well-being, burnout, and imposter syndrome has reached thousands, with over 80% reporting immediate behavior shifts.
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