DigiGirlz Christchurch 25th Sept
Diversity of thought was a key theme of the DigiGirlz event held at St Andrew’s College in Christchurch.
The next generation of technology will be consumed by all and, therefore, should be made by all.
Today only 3% of 15-year-old Kiwi girls look to pursue a career in ICT. Microsoft is working hard to try and change that.
On September 25th, Microsoft partnered with EY and St Andrew’s College to bring the DigiGirlz event to the South Island for the first time. Around 75 girls from schools across Canterbury took part in the event that combined thought leadership with hands on tech demos and ideation sessions.
The day was aimed at encouraging young women to get involved in science, technology, engineering, the arts and maths (STEAM). Today’s technology industry demands not only technical skills but ideas, problem solvers and commercialisation skills.
That was the message that was portrayed from Julie Westover’s keynote and underlined the rest of the day. As a Director (Technology Advisory) at EY, Julie spoke to the positive impact she saw technology have in business and in the world more generally.
She also spoke to her own career path where she changed from a career in accounting to become a technology consultant. She imparted on the girls who attended that there was so much more to a future career in technology than just writing code – it was about changing the world.
“Everything begins with an idea.”
The importance of ideas carried on throughout the morning. An ideation workshop challenged the girls to see technology as a means to solve some of today’s smallest issues – such as, not wanting to wait in line at the supermarket – to today’s largest and most profound problems – such as extensive pollution from cars. The girls had an opportunity to learn frameworks that real technology consultants and entrepreneurs alike use to problem solve and ideate solutions.
In small groups, the girls got their brains going and came up with many solutions from creating apps that displayed a hologram of themselves trying on clothes, to laptop charging desks that used IoT and roving chargers. The ideas were fantastic and showed more than ever that they were needed within the industry to create and design our technological future.
Speaking to teachers in the region, it was clear that a major barrier for girls continuing these subjects was confidence they would succeed. If you asked young girls to name notable people within the ICT sector, names like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Elon Musk would be thrown around, but they would struggle to name women. The lack of female role models stopped many from believing they too could have a successful career in technology.
The girls also tried their hand at the Microsoft HoloLens, a self-contained holographic headset that enables people to see both the world in front of them and digital content at the same time.
The event closed with a panel that allowed the girls to ask the various presenters from the day questions about their experiences within the industry and asking how they could get more involved in exploring potential avenues into the industry.
Head of Innovation and Information at St Andrews College, Wilj Dekkers summarises: ‘It was a highly successful day, which created a positive and supportive environment for like-minded girls with similar aspirations and questions.’
To learn more about Microsoft’s worldwide DigiGirlz initiative, click here.
DigiGirlz was also held in Auckland and Wellington earlier in the year, for videos from those two days, click the city.