About 850 NSW secondary students, and a number of higher education students, attended day one of the Sydney Big Day In at University Technology Sydney (UTS) on Wednesday March 20.

The event was opened by Prof. Attila Brungs, Vice Chancellor & President, UTS.

Then the students heard from Anntonette (Anny) Dailey, Executive Director, Operations & Communications at the new Australian Space Agency.

She said that one of her KPIs is to create 20,000 future jobs in Australia’s new space industry. That was very exciting for the students to hear.

Then it was my turn to present my new Big Day In presentation for 2019, Skills to Thrive in the Future.

It really is a privilege to share some of the research around  what skills are considered the most important to thrive in the future and challenge the students and teachers present to focus on those skills due assessment tasks at school and when ever possible.

Other presenters for this event included:

• Richard White, CEO, WiseTech Global Ltd
• Matthew Rockell, STEM & Scholarships Manager, Group Technology, Westpac
• Dan Bowen, Microsoft
• Matt Deshon & Genevieve Ash, TechnologyOne
• Andy Kempson – Digital Transformation Agency, Australian Government
• Alex Giangrasso, founder of Lace Space, Downunder Box & Advisori
• Cesar Saez, Animal Logic
• Corp. Alan Rowell, Defence Force Recruiting
• Steve Doyle, Veeam

In between speakers, the students visited a range of industry reps at their stands to ask them questions.

 At the Adobe stand, the students had the opportunity to play with Character animator and chat with Adobe staff.

Special thank you to the Australian Computer Society Foundation for all the work they do to put together this and all the other Big Day In events throughout the year around Australia.

About 20 NSW teachers registered for the (NESA accredited)  Inject Creativity into the Curriculum professional event which was held at the Adobe Sydney Office yesterday

Premiere Rush was the tool that most of the teachers were interested in knowing more about, but we covered a whole lot more.

For many of the teachers, it was their first time working with Adobe Spark, Character Animator, Photoshop, XD and a range of other Adobe apps.

I’d like to thank Adobe Education Leaders Chris Betcher and Brett Kent for their help running breakout workshops during the event.

Also, a special thank you to Rebecca Smith from Northern Beaches Christian School who stepped in at the last minute to run a Photoshop tips & tricks workshop.

This event was one of a range of Inject Creativity into the Curriculum events we are running around Australia. If you are keen  to attend an event near you, use this Spark Page to find our more and register …

https://spark.adobe.com/page/yoIxhofamR56v/

Highlight comments from the feedback …

• The Adobe Rush app
• 3D Photoshop
• Enhancing knowledge of a wide range of Adobe applications.
• I enjoyed learning about Photoshop 3D and a way to implement stem into photography in a more relevant way that my students will enjoy – Re. VR experience through cinematography
• learn so many new things, and new possibilities — a good mix of detail workshop and inspiration of what’s possible. 
• A highlight of the event was creating high-quality videos using Premier Rush and the ease of using such software.
• I’m so privileged to have been given the opportunity to present some exciting activities in Photoshop with the talented educators in the room.
• I’m going to present my Year 7 and Year 8 students with the Rush app to get them started in video editing and prepare for Premier Pro. Thank you!
• I loved learning about so many different tools and apps. I also appreciated being able to ask heaps of questions throughout the time. The small group breakout times were really valuable.