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Digigirlz – WOW ! what a day

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On the 19th of June I was very proud to be part of a “Digigirlz” day held at Microsoft. So what did this day involve ?

We invited 10 schools from around the local area of Reading and Bracknell of up to 20 girls per school to an Action Packed Day. The day was designed to inspire and enthuse Girls to consider I.T. as a potential career or subject choice to study further.

 

The day was kicked off by a great Inspirational Presentation by Natalie Johnston Director MSIT , who talked around the challenges and what motivated her to choose to work in I.T. and what a fufilling career I.T. . Also she talk about  how many different forms it takes whatever your interest is from Marketing to Programming to Sales and Support.

 

 

Then Andy Sithers and Mark A’Bear gave a great interactive demonstration around  Surface and great resources which are currently free out there on the Net to Manipulate your Digigital Media.

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It was fantastic hearing all the Ooohs and the Aaahs coming from the girls as the demonstrations and interactive activities were happening.

However we expected the girls to do some work too !.

They were sent away on a task divided down into teams of 10 girls each to think up the

“Next Big Accessory in Technology”

They were given a digital Camera plus lots of other resources and Photo Story to come back with a 3 minute pitch to explain their ideas. And boy did they ?. The ideas were brilliant and truely amazed us all. and the School that Waingels did a fantastic pitch based around the Environment and digital media. Queens Anne School came second with their Digital Wardrobe.

In the afternoon the day took and explosive turn. We had our very own Chris Bishop from Microsoft Research who earlier this year delivered the Royal Society Christmas Lectures give a series of fantastic demonstrations all around the theme of

“Computers of the Future”

I can truly say it was the most interesting presentation I have certainly ever seen The girls were absolutely captivated …as were all the Adults in the audience to.

The feedback  we have received has been excellent and we are looking to put on more days like these in the future.

Team Vista – ‘It’s a brilliant place and I would love to work here’

Team Live messenger – ‘Loved it, thought it would be boring but wasn’t’

Team Virtual earth – ‘Excellent, Fantastic, would love to work here’

Team Bing – ‘Good fun, I like technology more now’

Team Exchange – ‘I wish I could come here every year’

Team Lips – ‘I really enjoyed myself which was a surprise because I never used to be into this type of stuff’

This is what makes I.T. FUN !

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