Code in the Park — An event spectacular produced by General Assembly and Yahoo7 for VIVID Ideas
Why should everyone learn how to code? “Because it teaches you how to think.” Steve Jobs
General Assembly Sydney and Yahoo7 partnered on the 18th June, 2016 to present and celebrate one of Australia’s largest learning events in history held at aMBUSH Project Space at Central Park in Sydney as part of the Vivid Sydney Festival.
Code in the Park was created in order to inspire everyone to learn the basics of coding, to acquire a new digital skill for the future of work, innovation and education- and to transform thinkers into creators
So what did Code in the Park showcase exactly? The aim of the huge event was to teach everyone in attendance how to start and discover all the creative and entrepreneurial things one can do with code at an afternoon full of inspirational panels, talks, interactive demos and a coding lesson for beginners from Australia’s leaders in tech, creativity and innovation.
At the event itself, over 700 people turned up on a Saturday afternoon at the culmination of the Vivid Festival. to witness an exciting, engaging and enthralling event with the room full of attendees glued to their seats for the 3 hour event duration.
General Assembly set themselves a task to find and populate the event with a diverse and dynamic group of presenters and facilitators gathered in one place to share their experiences and explain, inspire and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, coders and creatives through the message they conveyed throughout the event. With an intention to turn thinkers into creators, the message of supporting Sydney’s growth as a creative, tech and innovation hub was enhanced throughout the day.
The intention of the event? To show everyone in attendance that no matter what background or level of knowledge one has, from young and old and from those starting out their careers through to CEO’s- this was an inclusive event for everyone, highlighting the utmost importance of diversity in tech.
The event began with an introduction from MC Damian Damjanovski, the Co-Founder of Common V and a regular instructor at General Assembly in Australia. Essentially- ‘what is code and why is it important?’
Delivering the keynote address at Code in the Park, Yahoo7 key figures Paul Russell, Director of Technology and Caroline Casey, Director of Product and Audience communicated to the audience the important aspects of understanding the potential of acquiring digital skills- key skills required in the future of work, incoming innovation and future educational pathways.
Dean McEvoy was up next to talk about Sydney’s progression towards being a top-10 startup ecosystem in the world, and the potential for the future enabled through tech education and creativity. With TechSydney having launched in May 2016, by aiming to create a greater sense of community in the Sydney startup ecosystem, the hope is that the group can connect and engage this tech community and beyond, helped along by the recent successful TechSydney Pozible campaign.
With the entrepreneurs panel tasked with discussing coding sitting at the cutting edge of Australian entrepreneurship, it was up to the panel to dive into some key aspects of tech and coding- where to start? What tools and resources are available? How to start in the world of tech and coding?
On top of important discussions discussing what industries or jobs coding will be relevant for right now and in the future thanks to panellists such as Jessica Glenn, the Chief Technology Officer at OneShift & Skilld and Tom Arbesser-Rastburg, the Senior Platform Engineer at Yahoo7, there were further deep-reaching issues discussed, such as gender, age and cultural diversity within the tech industry.
One such person well versed to speak about this on the panel was Sarah Moran, who as the Co-Founder of Girl Geek Academy, is aiming to enable a global movement encouraging women to learn technology, create startups and build more of the internet! With Annie Parker, Co-Founder of Muru-D moderating, further thought-provoking questions were asked such as the future prevalence of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence and much more. In particular, forging a career in tech was a main discussion point, a topic that Jude Osborn, the Creative Developer & Tech Lead at Google was well placed to answer!
During the interactive lesson detailing why software literacy is the new literacy by communicating the basics of coding to the audience, General Assembly Sydney’s Lead Web Development instructor Joel Turnbull had a large portion of the audience, many with no prior coding experience learning the basics and the impact that can be created.
As Joel stated during his presentation- “Follow your heart. The things you can do with computers now is amazing.”
For many at Code in the Park though, for pure entertainment value, the highlight was the Creative Coding facilitated by Code on Canvas and Andrew Sorenson- an artist, programmer and computer scientist who live codes his music performance, iterating as he goes to change the pitch, tone and beat of the arrangement. Certainly for context, these performances highlighted exactly how powerful coding can be and the impact it can create in an artistic context.
Rounding out the day were code clinics run by BCG Digital Ventures- for budding entrepreneurs looking to bring their creative vision or business ideas to life, and breakout sessions on how to interact with code, facilitated by Google (Editions at Play) and Code on Canvas (Snake the Planet!)- these interactive and inclusive demonstrations showed what code is, how it is used, and what exactly it can do.
Code in the Park was a huge success and one of the largest (and free) learning events in Australian history. With over 700 attendees and a mountain of interaction on social media throughout the day, the objective of conveying the potential to learn new skills and allow everyone to recognise that they can develop their opportunities in education and career pathways for the future was never more apparent and immediate.
Check out more details from #codeinthepark on Instagram and Twitter and learn more about coding classes, workshops and events at General Assembly.
For Melbourne audiences, your wait is nearly over- Code in the Cinema will be presented as part of Melbourne International Film Festival on August 12th at The Comedy Theatre! Check it out HERE
Don’t just buy a new video game, make one. Don’t just download the latest App, help design it. Don’t just play on your phone, code it. — President Barrack Obama
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