The weird and wonderful items donated by the events industry never ceases to amaze us, alongside the incredible range of requests from our members. On this occasion, we were tasked with placing some fun tech in the local community.
The donors were George P. Johnson.
A well-known industry heavyweight, GPJ produce enormous conferences and exhibitions across the globe with a curious creative team dedicated to using technology to connect people and brands. They literally have innovation at the heart of what they do with an in-built Innovation Lab in the middle of their London office. The Lab allows the team to experiment, prototype and explore software and electronic-based solutions to shape consumer behaviour and provide a multi-sensory experience for event guests. This has included an immersive CSR rain environment, a virtual reality store experience and a digital escape room.
The GPJ Lab was overdue for a spring clean after the pandemic and the donations on offer were AI kits, robots, droids and AR and VR educational toys. Event Cycle got to work with their network and contacted local schools who could put the items to good use in an educational setting. The items went to a primary school where the donation has motivated the school to start a new STEM project.
“We are blown away with the STEM equipment - it is brilliant! Torridon Primary is based in SE [London] and serves a very diverse community (in terms of both socioeconomics and ethnicity). We would never have had the extra cash to buy this fabulous equipment but now that we have it we are considering starting a STEM after school club where children will be able to work together to build and program drones, droids and use equipment to see things in 3D or use AI voice-kits. We are beyond thankful to Eventcycle and the company that donated them.”
Torridon Primary School
From experiential events to educational activities, we are making sure materials get put to good use instead of going to waste.