The Tech Girls Movement teamed up with the Australian Computer Society and Digital Careers to celebrate International Womens Day 2015 at QUT, Brisbane.
We kicked our event off with purple cupcakes and we had superheroes Jewella (me), Aion and Cybele in the house with our guests – girls in year 11 and 12 and their parents.
Bruce and Ben from NetEngine walked us through the importance of crisis mapping and how we can literally change the world from our laptop using open street maps. Because there are many places in the world that GoogleMaps does not map (such as West Africa where Ebola has hit), each save of a user-defined road or creek can help the Red Cross and UN get the necessary aid to those who need it.
Even the parents and teachers got involved! Some teachers are working the 2015 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero into their assessment this year!
I was so inspired to see how much the girls really wanted to make a difference. They jumped straight into the task at hand. My most inspiring moment of the day was talking to Brianna who was telling me she has chosen to study IT and creative design next year at university, not realising we have met before. At a Young ICT Explorer event 3 years ago we met and I gave Brianna a copy of Tech Girls Are Chic (my first book) which she said inspired her to study tech. Now with this event, she was convinced. I nearly cried! What an awesome International Womens Day 🙂
Oh and if you haven’t seen this video yet, you must 🙂
