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.