Leigha Dugdale and Marianne Checkley, Kinia, and Marty Reilly

Kinia Creative Technology Week begins

Celebration of creative technology for children and young people builds to flagship event Tech Feile
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Leigha Dugdale and Marianne Checkley, Kinia, and Marty Reilly

20 March 2023

Today sees the start of Kinia Creative Technology Week, the first national celebration of creative technology in Ireland. Kinia is an education focussed non-profit organistion and social enterprise, ensuring that critical future focussed skills and digital learning opportunities are accessible and available for all children and young people.

Two flagship events open to teachers, youth workers and young people aged between 12 to 18 years will showcase the incredible work of young people throughout Ireland are the (all-Irish) Tech Feile event on 23 March and the Creative Tech Fest event which will be held on 25 March. Creative Tech Fest is celebrating its tenth year.

Each event will showcase young people’s creative technology projects in the areas of STEAM, digital media and computer science with approximately 1,000 participants travelling from all corners of Ireland to take part. Both events will both be held in Drumree, in Co Meath, incorporating a programme of interactive events including the Kinia Robot Wars Competition; the Kinia Youth & Industry Showcase; Kinia Live Concert, Kinia LAB & Spaces; and a live streamed Kinia Award Ceremony.

The young people, having previously received full Robot-making kits, are tasked as a group or class to create a bespoke robot, considering the strengths and weaknesses of their creation in advance of the Robot Wars element of the event. This contributes to team building skills, effective planning and preparedness as well as developing STEM and digital skills.

Also on the agenda is a Kinia Youth & Industry Showcase, where young people will be given the chance to showcase their various projects, and in turn industry partners to Kinia such as TG4, RTE, Medronic, ESB and others will be invited to showcase business and future employment opportunities on the day.

There will be a live concert with no less than 10 talented musicians or youth bands given the opportunity to take centre stage, with performances also being broadcast on Spotify and YouTube.

A youth advisory group made up of 10 young people, having been selected, brought together and trained in podcasting, will act as youth facilitators at the two live events, with the aim of establishing a much-valued Kinia Youth Voice among young people at both Tech Feile and Creative Tech Fest events.

The event also sees the launch of Kinia NanoCreds – unique and ‘stackable’ credentials to reward, incentivise and help build confidence as they strengthen their 21st century digital skills in creative technology. The recipients will be the first in Ireland to receive a Kinia NanoCred, which is a European digital credential for learning.

Marianne Checkley, CEO of Kinia, said: “This year’s Creative Tech Fest and Tech Feile will provide an opportunity for young people to broaden their skills and aspirations and be recognised for their creativity in digital media, science, technology, engineering, arts and maths. The events are a celebration of potential and open new possibilities for young people to develop skills, explore new creative technology and STEM, and spark interest in future career paths. This year we launched a new STEM for Sustainability programme that supports our goal to make sure that no young person is left behind in an increasingly complex and digital future.”

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