Students create digital tools to solve problems

The Apps for Good Awards took place at the Barbican Centre on the 29th of June 2012. The day involved over sixty Apps for Good students from across the country pitching their app ideas to top industry judges, the Apps for Good Market place and a spectacular awards ceremony in the evening.

The Skillsmatter workshop allowed students to gain an insight into the mobile tech industry. Mobile experts Kevin McDonagh and Paul Ardeleanu took the students through app solution sketching. An example they used was an app for Kevin’s American employee Ben, who keeps getting lost in London. Students were able to take their minds off their pitches and learn something new.

The day moved on to the seven category judging sessions – where the top two teams went head to head and presented their final pitches to our top industry judges. Each team had fifteen minutes to pitch their idea, followed by a Q&A session. While judges thought they might need to take it easy on students, they quickly realised they could really put the team through their paces and the questions became increasingly challenging. The students responded very well to the judges’ questions, impressing them with their technical knowledge and calmness under pressure. Judges were very impressed with the quality of the teams’ pitches and found it very hard to pick a winner. One panel even missed their dinner break, debating long and hard to determine their category’s winner.

During each judging session we brought in a team of 7 artists to capture our students’ pitches through illustration. Each student team then had their idea captured in very great creative way, ready for the next phase—the marketplace.

The event now shifted to a more public focus as we were joined by guests from across the sector. Kicking this off was the Apps for Good Marketplace—a chance for each student team to convince our evening guests that their idea should win the overall Apps for Good Audience Award. The atmosphere in the room was electric with fourteen student teams pitching their app ideas. Guests found it hard to tear themselves away to make their way to the Cinema for the big finale.

After our evening guests cast their votes for the Audience Award, it was on to the evening awards hosted by BBC journalist and ex-Tomorrow’s World presenter, Maggie Philbin. The evening was a opportunity to see a video showing the progress of Apps for Good this year, see an overview of the day and to see well-deserved prizes given to the teachers, schools and experts for their outstanding contributions across the year.