15 Dec Celebrating 2020
2020 was certainly a year to remember (and then some). From starting the year as a nation on fire to forging our way through a global pandemic, it is safe to say that 2020 was not the beginning of the decade that most of us imagined.
But in adversity lies opportunity, and despite the chaos and challenges that the year threw at us, 2020 was a pretty incredible year for Something Digital.
Join us as we take a trip down memory lane … and keep your eyes on your inbox, in January, for announcements on what we have in store for 2021.
February >> Emergency Digital
On February 4, over 100 of Brisbane’s finest digital minds came together to answer the question “How might we leverage digital innovation to better respond, manage and recover from emergency situations?”
Attendees learned from the experts about some of the real challenges we needed to consider when reacting to emergency situations before moving into the design thinking portion of the session. Read the full wrap up here.
March >> Night Nomads
In our our ongoing quest to facilitate bold, daring and sometimes uncomfortable conversations around the way in which digital technology is changing our lives, the 2020 Night Nomads focussed on the theme: The Internet and its humanity.
Over 3 Tuesday evenings, 13 speakers came together to address 3 mind blowing topics including:
- Life in a post-truth era
- The disintegration of the digital/physical divide
- Visions of the Internet for 2070
Friday 13 March >> The beginning of lockdown
We interrupt this wrap-up email to pay respect to Friday March 13. This date marks day one for Australia’s lockdown. National Cabinet was formed, events were cancelled and life as we knew it was dramatically changed.
In response to the rapidly changing environment, we opened up a slack channel to enable our region’s digital community to stay connected. Digital closeness became the antidote to physical distancing.
April – July >>The Riff Sessions
When the virus stopped us from meeting in real life, we knew we had to find a way to keep the tribe together … and so the Riff Sessions were born.
3 months, 7 sessions, 12 speakers, over 1000 registered attendees and one epic Rona Playlist later … the riffs gave us digital closeness whilst we were physically distant. Full wrapup + video links here.
October >>The Rebel Edition
In 2020 we ran our third Something Digital festival, and despite the madness in the world around us, it was our biggest undertaking yet.
3 days, 8 venues, 400+ attendees, 99 speakers, masterclasses, networking events, side activations and a virtual hub.
We had our minds blown through the content. We finally reconnected with friends and peers we hadn’t seen all year. And we did it all whilst embracing a hybrid experience – seamlessly moving from in person to online elements.
With a central theme of a BRAVE new world this year’s festival was all about how we can not only survive, but thrive. For in adversity lies opportunity, opportunities to do things that we might have not necessarily done in a ’normal’ world. To take risks. To grow in ways we never thought possible.
And that my friend is a a wrap (with just a few more stats)
- 46 activations run throughout the year – both online and in real life
- Almost 1500 minutes of video content created
- Our Riff Sessions have had almost 2000 video views and remain freely available on our Facebook Page.
- 157 Speakers now grace our hall of fame and we are proud to be able to say that 50.9% of those are female.
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