TechFest is an opportunity for our community to learn, listen and most importantly, play! Try new and emerging technologies, learn new skills, and hear from professionals about our digital world.

We're seeking feedback from event attendees to find out what you liked about this event and what events you'd like to be able to attend at libraries in the future.

We're also looking to find out from young attendees, what youth programs and activities you'd like to get involved in across PAE.

The first TechFest event, was held on Saturday 1 July 2023.

TechFest invited the entire community to come for a day of tech fun! Attendees were able to explore our ongoing digital programs, interact with tech displays, hear from professionals and play with new and emerging technologies.

Attendees engaged with the library space, learning about what Parks Library has to offer. The event also gave attendees the opportunity to converse with other local community members. We wanted to know if people enjoyed the event, if they want similar events and if weekend events are suitable for their schedules.

During this event, we also wanted to engage young people with the City of PAE, highlight some of the programs available to them and most importantly, interact with these young people to find out what they want to see happening in our council.

Overall, responses to our survey were positive, with 80% of people saying the event was good or great.

We received great feedback regarding which days are best for events, with 96% of people saying weekends were best.

When asked, young people stated that they would like to see more volunteering and leadership opportunities available to them through our library services.

The main issue that participants faced on the day, was that some activities (the VR in particular) were not all ages. This was for safety reasons stated by the manufacturer, but we will take this feedback into account regarding future events.

The Library Technology Team who organised and ran this event will discuss all survey responses, sticky notes and whiteboard feedback received and look at how we can use the information to improve future events.

We hope to run an event similar to TechFest annually or bi-annually. Our next steps are to discuss how we can do this and make it even more exciting, accessible and enjoyable for our community.

We will also use this data for other events surrounding young people in the community. We know that young people want events on weekends and that they want events where they can play with technology and create or make things. This will influence our program planning for the future.