Victoria students pitch to impress

Victoria students pitch to impress

Smart ideas for addressing global social issues through digital action campaigns will be presented by Victoria University of Wellington students this week in a Dragons’ Den style competition.

Three teams will take part in Digital Disruption: Reconfiguring Global Citizenship?, a project organised by students participating in the Victoria International Leadership Programme (VILP).

It explores how digital technology transforms the way we participate with global social issues and challenges the teams to develop their own digital action campaigns.

The event will be run like the television show Dragons’ Den with each group given 10 minutes to present its campaign. The Dragons, or judges, who will decide the winning team are Professor Miriam Lips, Professor of eGovernment at Victoria University, Professor Brad Jackson, Head of Victoria’s School of Government, and His Excellency Jonathan Sinclair, British High Commissioner.

The judges will base their decision on the originality and potential of the teams’ campaigns, research, content, and presentation. The audience will also have a chance to pick their favourite team by voting through a downloadable app called Soapbox.

Dr Colin Kennedy, a teaching fellow in Victoria’s development studies programme, facilitated the project and met with the students weekly to help the teams develop their ideas. He says the 12 students taking part are very diverse, which is perfect for a social design group requiring a range of skills and perspectives.

“We have students from a range of disciplines across the University,” says Dr Kennedy, “and many of them are here on exchange from around the world.”

The three teams of four students have come up with campaigns called Food Fight—bringing attention to today’s food issues, Digital Youth—looking at how young people use the internet and Where’s My Data—creating awareness around who owns our data online and what a digitised world means for individual privacy.

Dr Kennedy says when planning their campaigns, students were asked to consider the digital divide—the economic and social inequality that means those who don’t have access or knowledge of information and communication technologies are being left behind.

“We take internet access as a given but it’s not for everyone, and it’s not just developing countries that are affected. The 2013 New Zealand census showed that more than 400,000 households throughout the country don’t have internet access.”

The teams will pitch and launch their campaigns at an event on Thursday (9 October) to be held at Victoria University’s Faculty of Architecture and Design. The winning team will receive a cash prize.

Digital Disruption: Reconfiguring Global Citizenship?

Date: Thursday 9 October

Time: 6–8pm

Venue: Te Aro Campus foyer, 139 Vivian Street

The event will be hosted by Vice-Provost (International Affairs) Professor Roberto Rabel, VILP and Victoria’s School of Design.

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