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Bima D-Day

BIMA D-Day 2013: Chapter, e-Strategy, Cube3, DigitasLBi, Weber Shandwick, and E3 reveal the best ideas of the day

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

October 11, 2013 | 7 min read

BIMA Digital Day, or D-Day, this year was a roaring success.

Yesterday, BIMA in association with The Drum, partnered over 100 digital agencies with schools across the country. Over 5,000 pupils were set challenges ranging from web design and coding to app building and social media. Famous YouTube blogger Crabstickz even got involved and asked the pupils to submit a video telling everyone what they thought the coolest digital idea in the world would be.

After the school bell rang The Drum caught up with some of the agencies involved including Chapter, e-Strategy, DigitasLBi, and E3 to find out what they thought of the day.

Paul Rose, head of web development, e-Strategy at South Dartmoor Community College

When going into D-Day, I had no real idea what to expect. Were the kids at the school going to be engaged with the idea of digital? Were they going to find it interesting? Turns out they did. I was a little bit taken back by how switched on they were. The digital challenges that were set really got them thinking and produced some great results. My favorite student idea of the day came from one of the mobile app challenge groups. Essentially a WhatsApp style chat called ‘Bubble Chat’ where the bubbles appear in the form of a hologram that you can manipulate with gestures in air. Another great one was an app that super imposes yours and your family’s face onto the characters in your favorite film so, as the students put it, “you really could be Harry Potter if you wanted”.When we did the student survey at the end of the day it was great to see how many had switched from ‘not interested in a career in digital’ to ‘definitely considering’! I even suspect a few may go away and start to turn their ideas into something real.

Neil Collard, managing director, E3, who attended Hans Price Academy

For me, BIMA D-Day is born of a desire for the digital sector to secure the brightest brains of the next generation. As I reflect on a day spent with the students of Hans Price Academy I am left with the sense that in the future we will be just fine.This is the second year that e3 has taken part and again I came away impressed and inspired by the class that we met. The students demonstrated the traits that we should be looking for in the future, showing an innate understanding of the digital world and a fearless approach to change. The solutions that the teams came up with were as varied as they were challenging. For example, one group thought nothing of completely reinventing the whole car ecosystem - and then sold the idea so convincingly that I struggled to work out why we hadn't ditched the internal combustion engine years ago. A different group felt a strong need to support how well old people (alluding to those over 30) cope with new technology, while the third group demonstrated an encyclopaedic knowledge of the gaming industry.Brilliant ideas - brilliantly conceived and presented. To witness our young talent perform to such high standards is a thoroughly rewarding way to spend the day - thanks again to Andrew and the team for making BIMA D-Day happen.

Abi Ellis and Simon Attwater, group creative directors at DigitasLBi at the Kingston Universtity hub

Spots. BO. Dyslexia. Social awkwardness. Mood swings. Who better to find solutions to these problems than 150 awesome teens?We have two favourite ideas. Because Simon and I have two heads and two hearts.SpotLight is a mobile app that not only detects zit outbreaks before they bloom, but gives you a powerful light treatment to blast away the infection. Boom. Or should that be zap? The inventors of SpotLight even thought about the commercial side of things, with top-ups and add-ons. Oh, and The Spot Gallery feature (it is what it sounds like) is taboo-breaking genius. Like.Or how about a washing liquid that embeds your clothes with mobile-controlled heat sensitive nano-molecules? HeightOfHeat lets you cool down or warm up, at the tap of an android. An FMCG product, activated by an app? Now, that's clever. Coming to a supermarket near you soon...What really blew us away was the quality of the two-minute pitches. Slick, funny, insightful. One pitch opened with a rendition of Sam Cook's "Don't know much (about history)". We had role play. And stand-up comedy.Pitching in front of 150 of your peers is no mean feat. Especially aged 14. And when you've had just two hours to conceive of your idea, flesh it out and rehearse. But every group took to the stage and brazened it out.Do not under-estimate these brilliant young people. One day, they'll be showing us how to do it.

Kate Astall, account director at Cube3 who went to Blessed Thomas Holford

All of the groups on D-Day came up with innovative and well-thought through ideas across a wide breadth of digital channels, from apps to responsive design. The best new concept came as a result of the brief: design a mobile app of the future, a perfect task for the future generation of the digital industry. The group came up with the concept of a watch with built-in GPS that acts as a satnav - they even came up with the brand identity; ‘Watch your Step’. The students identified the target audience as pedestrians and commuters in busy city centre environments where people are more likely to be carrying lots of bags and the hustle and bustle makes it difficult to use phones for direction. This was also motivated by the increasing problem of mobile phone theft. Using voice or screen control the device would guide the user without the need to constantly use hands/touch screen. Another stand-out idea was ‘The Magic Multiples’ calculator app, devised as part of the coding challenge which aimed to help children learn their times tables.

David Evans, digital specialist, Chapter, at Northleigh House School

For me, the most amazing thing to come out of the D-Day event is the ability to witness the student's complete lack of boundaries for ideas. Those of us in this industry who have been working at it for a while are shaped by our experiences and they inform our approach to our work. It's fantastic to be able to see new minds tackle the kind of problems we handle for our clients on a daily basis in a completely fresh way.

Tom Braithwaite, account manager and digital lead at Weber Shandwick, at Loreto Grammar School in Altrincham

Living and working in Manchester, it was a great opportunity for me to explain more about the digital work we’re doing at Weber Shandwick, particularly within social media.I was working with pupils in year 10 and I was particularly impressed with the enthusiasm and understanding they showed throughout the day. The ideas ranged from working with augmented reality to allow users to virtually ‘try-on’ clothing before buying online, to creating bespoke digital channels for new mums to access in the early, scary days after giving birth.The pupils also developed creative ideas around the use of apps, like designing a fridge that provides recipes based on its contents and issues reminders if it was running low on a particular item. It was fantastic to see what the next generation has to offer and I would encourage more digital agencies to be a part the BIMA Digital Day in the future.”

Bima D-Day

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