BIMA Digital Day, the annual event pairing companies with UK schools nationwide to share knowledge about and promote digital skills in young people age 11-16, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, with Cyber-Duck gladly taking part for the 9th year running.
This year, Mark, Chris, and Ariella, some of Cyber-Duck's newest creatives, volunteered to spend Digital Day supporting 45 aspiring Year 9 students from Bentley Wood High School for Girls in Stanmore, north London.
The format of the day involved the professionals sharing their knowledge and personal experience of the digital industry, then helping the students complete a brief set by the WWF to discover, design and present back new digital solutions – be that campaigns, social media, apps, or a website - to tackle climate change and sustainable living. This is something which is increasingly at the top of our Cyber-Duck agenda.
The exciting day started off with a quick introduction to Cyber-Duck, who we are, our culture and process, with short personal stories about how Mark, Chris and Ariella each entered the industry. They included their short stories to reinforce the idea that no matter their background, the digital world is always looking for new voices and perspectives to create a diverse and inclusive space.
Mark and Chris sharing knowledge with the class at BIMA Digital Day.
After introductions, the students were given the WWF brief to work on in small teams: How can we use digital solutions to make it easier for people to understand the true environmental footprint of products and services, allowing households, schools, universities, and businesses to make choices that are good for the planet? A suitably big title, matching the scale of the climate change and sustainability issues facing us.
The day then flowed into three parts: Discovery, Design and Deliver.
During Discovery, the students researched the WWF, current conversations around climate change and sustainable living, potential gaps in the market, the audience they wanted to target, and how their idea might also become profitable.
Up next was Design, where the students realised their ideas though drawings, physical objects, and any digital tools they wanted to use.
And finally, Deliver, where the students had to present their ideas in a Dragon’s Den-style pitch to the room. The winning idea will be submitted by Bentley Wood to BIMA to be judged by a panel of industry experts for a chance to win cash, digital work experience and other prizes.
While all the groups displayed exceptional teamwork, with everyone tackling various aspects of the task resulting in truly inspiring digital solutions, there could only be one winner.
This was Evergreen – an application using gamification that gives users alternative sustainable actions they can do on a weekly basis with themes through the week, such as Walking Wednesdays and Meat-free Mondays. If users stick to the tasks and complete them in succession throughout the week, they can earn rewards.
Some other truly honourable mentions included:
Enviro-Print – an app that shows the carbon emissions within a given area and gives users alternative sustainable shops and things to do within their given area.
Kill A Mile – an application that scans the bar code of food and goods and gives the user an idea of it is the carbon footprint involved in getting it delivered to the shop, encouraging users to shop more locally.
Mark, Chris and Ariella left Bentley Wood High School really inspired about the next generation of future digital talent, and hoping they left the girls just as inspired in return.
And thankfully it was true! Stuart Burnaby, Head of Computing/Associate Assistant Head Teacher of Bentley Wood, said of the day:
“It was a real privilege for our students to experience Digital Day, which was so expertly led by Mark, Chris and Ariella from Cyber-Duck. They skilfully weaved their experience into the day's proceedings in such a way that the students were left inspired and enthused about careers in the digital industry. We are extremely grateful for their time and support, and look forward to engaging with the BIMA Digital Day in 2022."
We couldn’t agree more.
Huge thanks to BIMA, WWF and Bentley Wood High School for another successful Digital Day. Here’s to next year!
