By KATRINA BRANDON

 

FROM June 7 to June 27, the Festival of Big Ideas (FOBI) took place around Gippsland, sharing futuristic ideas and fun and educational activities.

There were many activities and venues, with some events and chats online discussing many different topics and facilitating communication between support organisations and youth brought together by the FOBI organisers and Uplift.

“Uplift is a group of 30 organisations that run youth events. We run about three events in Latrobe each year, and we rotate different locations and themes, trying to engage youth with fun activities and connecting them with organisations and services that are available to them,” FOBI Organiser, Den Lim said.

“This event was in collaboration with FOBI, and the Latrobe Valley Authority had a big part to play with Community College Gippsland in facilitating and organising the event. All the organisations joined as committee members to make the event happen.”

During the FOBI celebrations, children attended activities such as exploring the future of energy, improving communication skills workshops, jumping into innovation and entrepreneurship with Fed Uni, seeing how AI can be applied in projects and tackling the most significant challenges.

In the final activity, Be Seen and Heard at Morwell Leisure Centre, multiple organisations challenged youngsters to participate in all interactions with a passport. At the end of the around-the-world experience, the youngsters could hand in their cards to receive prizes.

Organisations included in the activity were Berry Street, Environment Victoria, Community College Gippsland, Volunteer Gippsland, Ladder, Gippsland Centre Against Sexual Assault, United Muslim Sisters of Latrobe Valley, Latrobe City Council, Latrobe Regional Hospital, Ramahyuck, Artists for Kids, GippSport, Gippsland Climate Change Network, Crime Stoppers Victoria, CMY, Latrobe Health Assembly, Latrobe Valley Authority and Skills and Job Centre.

Within each station, families could think about what they would like to see in their future in the environment, what they would like to change, play rainbow Jenga with a hidden agenda, play chess, Connect Four and Scrabble, make their self-care buckets, play candy pong, visit the local power stations through virtual reality and talk about a safer future.

Street game activities like spike ball, soccer and basketball were also available.