News & Events

This year, every team participating in the yMedia Challenge will have it’s own Tumblr Blog, updates from which will be pulled through to the team’s profile page on our website.

For the Students, all you need to do is visit www.tumblr.com, enter your email address, a password, and choose a blog username or URL. You can then start posting to your blog!

You might like to get things started with a post about your team - who are you? Why did you choose to join the Challenge? What do you hope to achieve?

If you like, you can choose a theme from the Tumblr theme library to change the look of your blog. While you won’t get “extra credit” for customising your blog with a theme of your own creation, you are most welcome to create something a little more unique.

Some of the deliverables for the yMedia Challenge require a corresponding blog post - check the Student Guide for more information on these.

Happy blogging!

yMedia Crew member Aurelie shares her impressions of the Microsoft Imagine Cup held on Friday the 31st of April:

As I stepped in the doors of Auckland University’s brand spanking new Owen G Glenn building, it became instantly clear to me that Microsoft does not do things by halves.

Running late, I was disappointed to find out I’d completely missed yMedia’s Change It event, but glad I made it just in time to catch the sense of the excitement in the air as hundreds of students and supporters gathered in the foyer.

As I listened in on all the animated conversations, I anticipated something great was about to happen. Soon enough, 7:00pm came ‘round and people began heading towards the auditorium.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, and had no idea what an event like this had in store. I’ve never been in a crowd of people with bang-bang sticks before, and I have to say it sure added to an already amping atmosphere!

The speakers all had one major message to put across, effectively summarised by Diane Holland’s catchy phrase: “Small country, big voice”. New Zealand has a knack for raising creative, open-minded people, and this is reflected in our great achievements in areas such as film and digital media.

New Zealanders can be proud of the fact that they are greatly over-represented in award-winning companies (such as Diane’s Massive Software) in the global arena because of their innovation.

When the teams began presenting their technological solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, I was in complete awe. These were uni students. Solving the world’s problems! It was one of the most inspiring things I have seen in a long while.

From being told that as a New Zealander I have a myriad of opportunities available to me, to seeing some of the brightest young minds in the country grab hold of those very opportunities, I couldn’t help but wonder, what else is possible?

In the end, the winning team was OneBeep. Their solution? Going to the root of most of the world’s other problems, by contributing to the education of those most in need. Their system of transmitting digital files via radio waves will allow those lucky enough to have benefited from the One Laptop per Child campaign, to now receive up-to-date educational programmes directly to their desktop through a radio.

An amazing feat, which is sure to give New Zealand a very good chance at winning the world final of the Imagine Cup in Poland. It’s important to remember that we all have the potential to use our imagination to make a huge impact on the world. And thanks to endeavours such as the Imagine Cup and the yMedia Challenge, we can be inspired to think bigger than ourselves.

[Photo thanks to James Hancox, Photo for Charity]

yMedia and the Begreen B2P pen joined forces on Friday night to host the ‘Change It’ challenge.

Created as a pre-event to the incredible and inspiring Microsoft Imagine Cup National Finals, ‘Change It’ attracted over 200 talented people to fill the Auckland University Business School foyer.

Participants had a sneak peek into the ‘B2P’, a brand new pen that is not only innovative in design, but also lends a hand to the environment by being 89% constructed from recycled water bottles.

Using the B2P as inspiration, ‘Change It’ participants collaborated together in groups to discuss objects often disregarded as waste. They were then given 30 minutes to conceptualise on paper ways in which these objects could be reused to create a new or redesigned commodity product.

With incredible ideas being visualized, such as ‘self composting flower beds’ and ‘lawn-clipping bio-fuel’, participants completed the challenge with a great understanding of what organisations such as yMedia and Imagine Cup stand for – that innovation and enthusiasm is all it takes to make a huge difference in the world.

[Photo thanks to James Hancox, Photo for Charity]

Presenter: James Hurman, Head of Planning, Colenso

Venue: Media Design School, 242 Queen St, Auckland Central

Date: Wednesday 5th May, 6pm – 8pm

Branding can often come across as fluffy clichéd baloney.

But done right, “branding” brings clarity and focus to an organisation, aligning teams of people around a clear purpose and enabling them to work together to achieve extraordinary things. In this workshop we’ll take inspiration from brilliant brands both big and small.

You’ll learn how to understand and define, clearly and simply, what’s at the heart of your organisation, and how to activate that understanding in powerful and cost-effective ways.

(Register for the Challenge, and come along to our workshops!)