So as a class, we went to something called the BC Tech Summit. It’s a three day conference held in Vancouver that has a bunch of really cool nerdy things. There were speakers (whom I will talk about later), universities showing off programs, just generally some cool projects, entrepreneurs, and so on. We got to go to Youth Innovation Day, which gave us a one day experience of all of the cool things. Let’s dive in.

As I mentioned before, there were speakers. I think my favourite was Brent Bushnell, who was pretty much the coolest engineer ever.

He talked a lot. But honestly, it was so interesting it felt like five minutes. He covered everything from VR and how it can be improved with video games, to education. A fun fact he gave us: 65% of schoolchildren will be employed in jobs that don’t exist yet. Isn’t that crazy? To think that I could be doing a job that right now doesn’t even exist. That’s so cool to think about. Another thing: he helped make the really cool Okay Go Rube Goldberg Machine video that I am OBSSESSED with.

The other speaker was Andy Bird. First of all: great hair. He is a professional wrestler, which sorta made me wonder what he had to do with tech. But he was talking more about being motivated to go do what you’re passionate about, and to never give up. He told us a bit of his back story, about how he was homeless at 14 and wanted to become a wrestler. And, soon enough, he was the heavyweight champion for 441 days. Awesome!

After the morning session of speakers, we got to talk to a guy from Microsoft! The room wa sreally loud and we were at a table of people, but talking to him was really cool. I asked him about how his job is helping improve education, and we luckily got it recorded:

Also, there were universities there. They talked a lot about how technology was helping them with their education. One of the cool ones was a 3D scanner I saw. It helped scan a car engine, and then made a digital model that students looking to be mechanics could learn to take apart and build up again. There was also the weird baby birthing robot that simulated birth. It was… something.

All in all, the Tech Summit was really cool! I would go again next year for sure.

Read you later

Sincerely, Me