Road closures not stopping the Empowered participants

Two busloads of students came from Westport, and others made the seven-and-a-half-hour trip the long way from Nelson to attend, whilst others chartered a plane.

Several tutors from NMIT hosted workshops, including CGI tutor Sarah Wallace, who thought the event went well.

“Most of the students enrolled in my workshop were coming over from Nelson, so my class was a little small, but everything went smoothly, and I hope that the students had fun!”

Sarah said she was appreciative of the opportunity to be a part of it.

Sara Matthews, Programme Lead Specialist, also attended and has already begun conversations for next year’s event, which might be held in Nelson.

“I would be really keen to investigate using NMIT as the main venue,” she said.

The coding festival(external link) offered ākonga aged between 13-24 five different workshops over the three-day period.

They could learn about digital design, artificial intelligence, robotics and coding through interactive experiences.