On Friday 9th March our nine Digital Leaders travelled to South Hampstead High to take part in the 2018 GDST Techathon. This annual event involves all 25 GDST schools coming together to look at the role of women in technology. This year the theme was ‘digital music’, and three of our Music Scholars participated in the event. The morning began with an inspiring keynote speech from Elizabeth Davis, Senior Content Editor at Classic FM, who took us on a journey from early female composers to modern day performers. Writing music that can light up the sky with a drone show certainly gave us a glimpse into the future. The girls had an opportunity to work with music industry specialists, using technology to sample music and to make completely new sounds. Tackling new software is always a challenge but the students were very quick to understand how powerful the coding could be.
Following the fun of making music the Howell’s team set about researching and presenting their Music and Digital Technology idea. Their concept was to stream live music from Broadway, the West End and concert arenas to viewers' devices on a pay to view or subscription basis - they captured the essence of this perfectly in a video advertisement and presentation. The judges toured the schools and the Howell’s team gave a confident pitch on their concept. Although not declared the winner, the judges agreed that Howell’s had a very strong concept and would like to see more research in this area. Finally, the team made their way home, all agreed that Digital Music is a vibrant and exciting industry to work in.
