The Wire

The Fifth Annual Emoti-Con! NYC Youth Digital Media and Technology Challenge was a huge success--thank you to everyone who came!

This past Saturday, June 1, over 200 people from across NYC came together for the fifth annual Emoti-Con! at the New York Public Library's Bartos Forum. It was an awesome day of creativity, innovation, inspiration, and fun!

The A-Team--a group of youth from several Hive NYC organization (including several youth from Mouse!)--helped plan Emoti-Con! and were front and center throughout the day, introducing speakers, explaining activities, and keeping us all moving.

After lunch, the A-Team led us through a game design activity where everyone had to invent a game in just 10 minutes using a bunch of materials from bags--people designed some awesome games that involved balancing things on balloons, launching plastic dinosaurs with rubber bands, and more!

We also got to hear from three amazing keynote speakers over the course of the day:

• Teresa Lynn spoke about her experiences working on community organizing with The Point CDC and developing and starring in Michel Gondry's film The We and the I.
• Chloe Varelidi talked about her long history with games, including her work on the Athens Plaython (an awesome festival of outdoor games in Athens, Greece) and her work with the Mozilla Foundation. Learn more about Chloe here!
• Limor Fried (AKA Ladyada) shared about things she's learned as an engineer, DIY techie, and business owner, and talked about using tech skills to solve problems, create new things, and hack old technology. Check out the Adafruit website to learn more about what Limor does and get inspired!

In the afternoon, we were lucky enough to be a part of the largest Emoti-Con! project fair ever! HUGE shout out to the M.S. 328 Super Techs, the Gateway Academy Squad at P256Q, the Lewis and Clark Squad, and Mouse Corps for presenting projects! (And thank you to the P.S. 89 Defenders of Technology for coming out to cheer them all on!)

Mouse Squad Members presented their projects alongside youth from Iridescent, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, Global Kids, New York Hall of Science, Parsons Scholars, The Point CDC, REV, WNYC Radio Rookies, ReelWorks, Girls Write Now, and Institute of Play!

We're excited to announce that two Mouse Corps groups won prizes at the end of the day! The Mixing Buddy group won Crowd Favorite and Most Innovative, and the Art Squared group won the Point of View Award! Congratulations to them and to everyone who participated!

For more on Emoti-Con!, check out the Emoti-Con! website, Flickr album, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!