Pivot, pivot, pivot

“Pivot” was one of the most-used words to describe 2020. So far, 2021 has been no different. With the COVID-19 situation continuing to evolve over the last few months,  the Go Girl volunteer teams responded by pivoting our view of what success looks like for Go Girl 2021.  

Our first virtual conference, Go Girl – CyberEdition 2020, enabled us to have hundreds of girls from throughout Victoria and beyond join in on a single video conference platform for a day, to be inspired and excited by the multitude of possibilities and options in STEM.  

Like with any new initiative, we had many positives, including bringing together our girls, speakers, and volunteers from across Australia during a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic—no small feat. Of course, we also had things we could improve or avoid, like last year’s mid-event emergency fire evacuation for our tech team at Deakin University that resulted in unplanned disruption. 

CyberEdition 2021 – Back for our second year as a virtual event

Our Go Girl, Go for IT events have always been a place where any girl who’s able to come to the conference is welcome. We wanted to extend that same feeling to our virtual event, too.   

For 2021’s Cyber Edition, we pivoted to accommodate even more girls, parents, guardians, and schoolteachers to attend. We had attendees let us know what videoconferencing platform was used at their school, then connected them with the speakers, presenters, and volunteers who could present and support the platform of choice, making it a more seamless experience.  

The exclusive website for the event was refreshed and split into different classes depending on videoconferencing platform preference. Girls were allocated into their own Go Girl class and followed the schedule for their class during the day, making it easy for them to know “where” to be when.

What did the day look like? 

Girls were welcomed at 9am by Louiza Nutt, the Go Girl Director, as well as Professor Helen Partridge, who is the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Teaching and Learning at Deakin University. 

Using the website, girls followed their class schedule to attend sessions, which all included a keynote speaker, a hands-on workshop, and two career expo presentations.  

To keep engaged throughout the day, they were also challenged to compete in our codebreaker competition, where scrambled letters were shared by the Go Girl Guides in each session, so the girls could “crack” the code and figure out the hidden word. 

Live keynotes

Our Go Girl organising team also pivoted on this year’s keynote session, streaming it live on YouTube and opening comments to allow girls to ask questions in real time. The girls were excited to watch and interact with the session live and shared their enthusiasm through the comments.  

Career expos

After last year, we received lots of feedback that the career expos could be improved—and we delivered.    

This year, we pivoted to fit two career expo sessions into each class’s schedule. This allowed the girls to be in a comfortable space, with their class and their on-the-day guide, while they learnt about the organisations and potential careers and engaged with the presenter. And for our presenters, it meant they knew when to expect their class of girls and what year levels they would be.  

CyberEdition 2021 workshops 

Armed with the learnings from the 2020 event, workshop speakers came in prepared to present interactive sessions to each class. 

Across the different classes, girls were exposed to a wide range of topics including cybersecurity, coding, artificial intelligence, customer experience and human-centred design. Some girls even got to get hands-on in their sessions! 

Competitions 

Two event-wide competitions were run during the day. The first was our codebreaker competitions, where the girls collected clues throughout the day to crack the code, and the second was our Go Girl Goes Social Challenge Instagram challenge.  

The codebreaker competition was massively popular, with more than 300 girls identifying the codeword, “python.” 

Our Go Girl Goes Social Challenge was all about encouraging the girls to get active on social by posting a snippet of the Go Girl experience, and they had a great time sharing their best moments. The winners of both competitions will each receive a UE Wonderboom 2 Bluetooth speaker. 

All good things must come to an end… 

We said goodbye to the girls at noon with a closing video from the Go Girl Associate Director, Jessica Huynh, who recapped the amazing journey the girls went on that day. 

We couldn’t have done it with you!

Sponsors, volunteers, ambassadors, parents, guardians and teachers. A massive thank you goes out to all involved:

Our sponsors: The companies and logos listed below supported the Go Girl – CyberEdition 2021 event through their sponsorship and their commitment to inspire the next generation of STEM superstars.

Our on-the-day Go Girl Guides and the volunteers who dedicated countless hours to make Go Girl – CyberEdition 2021 a success. 

Our ambassadors – Sharbani Dhar, Dr Muneera Bano, and April Staines, who all created videos to share their career paths with the girls and provide them with incredible role models to look up to. 

And of course, to the numerous parents, guardians, and teachers who registered their girls to attend the Go Girl – CyberEdition 2021 event. We hope that your girl has been inspired to learn more about STEM, can see themselves in the future with a STEM career, and are excited to continue learning even more about the many possibilities in STEM.  

We can’t wait to see you next year!  

Go Girl - CyberEdition

The Go Girl, Go for IT 2020 event, Go Girl - CyberEdition, is a virtual, fun and free 1-day technology conference for girls in years 5-12, all online! So it won’t matter if your girls are in school or learning from home - all they need is a device and an email address to join. It will be loaded with workshops, presentations and discussions - to inspire and excite girls for a career in IT.

Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2020

Time:

• 9:00am - 12:00pm AEST (girls in years 5-8) 

• 1:00pm - 4:00pm AEST (girls in years 9-12)

• 9:00am - 5:00pm AEST (Careers Expo for all students to explore at their leisure)

Venue: Interactively online - at home or at school

Go Girl - CyberEdition is all about interactive workshops where we can see, hear and show your girls amazing and exciting things (much like prior Go Girl events, but virtually). We’re keen for all girls to see and explore what IT and STEM can offer!

What can the girls expect on the day?