Stephen Metcalfe, MP for South Basildon & East Thurrock, opened Basildon Creative Tech Fest on Saturday 10 February – a new event made possible with investment from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to showcase creative tech and inspire young people to pursue careers in the industry.
Basildon Creative Tech Fest is a new event made possible by investment from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a Government initiative to level up the country, increase life chances, and connect a wide range of local partners. The Tech Fest holds two main events, the _LAB event and the _LEARN event. At the weekend, Stephen cut the ribbon to the _LAB event and spoke on the importance of increasing participation in science and technology.
The _LAB event offered young people (primarily aged 14-16) and their parents/carers the chance to play with some cutting-edge technology, explore how everyday tech skills could lead to interesting careers and talk to professionals working in creative tech. Speakers included Sian Fan, an internationally exhibited digital artist, Sarah Strachan, a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin, and AJ Grand-Scrutton, a Basildon-born games developer who has worked with Disney, Xbox Game Studios and Rare.
At the _LAB event’s drop-in sessions, young people were able to survey and engage with a broad range of technologies. Get Shot Studios, Leonardo, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Screen South, Virtus Studios, and Aaron Shrimpton Films each held exhibitions and workshops.
On Tuesday 13 February, the Tech Fest will hold its _LEARN event at Leonardo. There will be up to 50 head teachers, secondary school teachers, and university lecturers. It will look at the latest tech and research on how emerging tools – particularly Artificial Intelligence – can be harnessed to liberate time and increase creativity.
Stephen Metcalfe said: “I really enjoyed opening the Basildon Creative Tech Fest at the weekend. There were so many interesting people and ideas. It was also good to see pupils and parents so engaged on the opportunities for learning and careers in the technology sector.
As I said at the launch, new and emerging technology is transforming the job market. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Machine Learning, Chatbots, Robots and Coding are all disrupting the way work is done. Many of these technologies are no longer the preserve of technical specialists but being used by a range of people in their day-to-day work. The democratisation of technology means that a whole range of professions are now having to adapt to make use of these technologies. Many of the jobs we know today will no longer exist in the future, but new ones will emerge to replace them. This is why Basildon Creative Tech Fest will be so important in the years to come.”
