On Thursday 23rd May 2019, we had the pleasure of inviting our STEMFest whānau, sponsors, supporters, and friends to an official launch event.
We were fortunate enough to have the evening hosted at the lovely Beca Group offices in Tauranga.
Our guests starting arriving around 5pm and pretty soon the room was full of activity as guests had a go at making DNA bracelets and getting messy with slime as well as engineering with cocktail sticks and play dough (harder than it sounds).
Other cool tech on display was our 3D hologram projector which had people gazing in awe as well as some amazing retro computer games enjoyed by children and adults. Our hosts also provided some awesome VR experiences which proved very popular. The star of the show though was our amazing augmented reality sandbox which was built by Ryan our GeoTech engineer and Paul the TechGuru. Guests of all ages enjoyed creating mountains and changing the landscape by simply moving sand around.
Photography by A. Crowther, D. Begbie, M. Larkin.
We were thrilled by the number of supporters who came along to find out more about what we have been up to and share in our big announcements. The presentation was given by the whole team and you can view the PDF of the slides we presented by clicking below.
The highlights from our presentation were:
1.Tauranga STEM Festival has been granted official event partner status as part of Ada Lovelace Day. We are so grateful to founder Suw Charman-Anderson for putting her trust in us and making this the first ever ALD partner event outside of the UK. This puts Tauranga STEM Festival firmly on the world stage!
2. We were also delighted to officially announce our Fringe Events, including our Debates series, kindly sponsored by Zespri, and our STEMChampions and Challenge Day sponsored by the University of Waikato. We are looking forward to working with our friends at Arataki Systems to bring to life the STEM Treasure Hunt. Please contact us if you have any questions about contributing to these fringe events.
3. New AquaSTEM zone for the main festival day – to include all things to do with marine science and engineering!
4. A warm welcome to our new megabyte sponsor Eurofins.
5. Thank you to Regional Bay of Plenty Council for offering all STEMFest ticket holders free bus travel on the 12th October 2019 to get visitors to and from the CBD.
6. We are really excited to be working with NZME as our official media partner. Bringing all the latest news and announcements to the wider community through press and radio coverage.
A big thank you…
To our main sponsors Beca for being such gracious hosts (letting us bring children AND sand into their office) and providing the delicious food and drinks.
To our other main sponsor the University of Waikato and Professor Geoff for saying a few words about the importance of making STEM accessible and approachable.
Our sponsor Stratus Blue for providing the wine and beers to wash down all the yummy food and loaning us the awesome display screen.
Our friends Richard and Alvin from TechnologyWise for loaning and setting up our retro computing area for the evening.
Our sponsor Project Box for sponsoring our awesome limited edition Friends & Supporters tote bags for all our guests.
We are really looking forward to building the momentum and shaping this awesome kaupapa to bring a world-class STEM Festival to the lovely people of Tauranga!
Watch this space and stay curious – ngā mihi,
The STEMFest Team.
