Bima D-Day

BIMA D-Day: When the digital industry entered the classroom for a day

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

October 11, 2013 | 8 min read

Digital experts from agencies up and down the country went into schools to help encourage and educate pupils about entering a career in the digital industry. Here's a run down of the day.

Yesterday, school pupils across the country undertook a plethora of digital challenges ranging from app building and coding to web design. It was all part of Digtial Day,or D-Day, a scheme, set up by BIMA in association with The Drum that recognises the growing need for digital talent in the industry and aims to address it by partnering schools with local digital agencies.After an introduction and overview of the day, the experts from agencies including McCann Manchester, DigitalLBi, Weapon7, and E3 all gave presentations and answered questions on what a career in the industry can offer. For some kids, salary was a top priority. After a tuck-shop break the pupils started brainstorming. Some ideas were brilliant, some were…well unique. But all of them were inventive and imaginative about what technology and the digital industry could one day be capable of producing. How about an app that super imposes yours and your family’s face onto the characters in your favourite film, or a fridge that suggests recipes based on its contents? One group of teens thought of a website or app that could teach the elderly all about today’s technology, while a group of girls decided to launch an online fashion store and came up with a social media strategy that would get them trending. Once the ideas had been jotted down it was time for lunch. School dinners have never looked better and inbetween second helpings of sponge pudding and custard the digital experts helped the pupils create videos for a challenge famous YouTube blogger, and teen favourite, Crabstickz had set. The kids were asked to finish the question: “I think the coolest digital idea would be…’. They video could last 10 seconds, and they could act it out in groups, use props, even add in some special effects. All the videos were collected ready to be judged at The Drum's Dadi Awards, a ceremony celebrating digital excellence which took place that night. Here are some of our favourites.
The kids then stared to make their ideas a reality. With a little guidance they were shown how to build websites, the foundations of creating an app, some even stared promoting their ideas with adverts and social media activity. Then came the dreaded presentations. They worked up to the wire preparing (a true taste of agency life) and took to the stage to explain their ideas. At the end of the day the pupils were all given certificates recognising the work they had done. Every agency left impressed and hopeful that the future of the digital industry was in safe hands. But, BIMA D-Day was all about encouraging school children to consider a career in digital. This was achieved in spades, as pupils took to Twitter and Facebook saying that the digital industry was where they were headed. Meanwhile the experts went home for a well earned rest. At The Dadi Awards it was a tough task to shortlist just eight videos. An esteemed panel of judges liked the humour married with the bright ideas: a toothbrush that tracks you down when you’ve forgotten to brush for example. Other contenders included a portable flash drives to save you memories, musical toilets or photographic eye lids. But the joint winners of the BIMA D-Day challenge were Langtree School in Woodcote and digital agency DigiCrab for a pillow that records your dreams (although quite embarrassing for those teacher crushes) and South Dartmoor Community College with agency e-Strategy for glasses that warn you of obstacles. “Warning lamppost”.Check out the compilation video that played on the night.
Bima D-Day

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BIMA (the British Interactive Media Assoc)

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