1st DigiCamp: A Complete Success!

Take about fifty seasoned students with varied profiles and six organizations facing very specific challenges. Bring them together for 48 hours of productive brainstorming, and extraordinary digital-creativity ideas emerge. DigiCamp, organized by Printemps numérique in collaboration with the École d’innovation citoyenne (ÉIC), took place on May 7 and 8 at the INGO innovation hub of the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS). Students in software, mechanicaland electronic engineering, design and marketing worked on challenges from Desjardins, Ellicom, Journal Métro, Moment Factory, Quartier des spectacles and STM. Suzanne Gouin, chair of the

numérique board,

said the DigiCampers presented extremely revealing ideas thanks to the companies that agreed to participate in

• this major adventure. Fundamentally, the goal of Printemps numérique
• is to federate and create connections, and that is exactly what happened during
• the event. These students are valuable examples of the influence of the
• metropolis’s digital-creativity universe. Eleven teams developed concrete
• and innovative solutions to the challenges, then presented them in five-minute
• pitches to convince the organizations. The questions included how to

introduce financial

services to newcomers before their arrival in Québec, how to facilitate public-space management through data visualization, how virtual reality can offer a shared experience rather than isolating viewers,how to raise awareness among people who never check their sources, how to capture and transmit organizational memoryduring strong growth,and how to create a tool combining public data with travellers’ preferences. The participating organizations were enthusiastic. Journal Métro’s editor-in-chief said he wasgenuinely touched by theteams’ work and could see concrete results. Moment Factory’s interactive-department director said the suggestions would spark ideas withinhis team. Quartier des

spectacles spoke of a very enriching exercise that rekindled concepts to sharewith colleagues andcity stakeholders. Ellicom invited students to send their résumés, Desjardins was surprised by the relevance of theideas, and STM praised thepassion students brought to application ideas developed specifically for them. Each company offered studentsa personalized visit to discuss the DigiCamp results. Following this success, Mehdi

Benboubakeur,

head of Printemps numérique,

hopes DigiCamp will return for a second

edition next year. It

is a model worth continuing.

The grand prize went to team STM

Live, made up of Anissa Colasante, Yamlal Gotame, Valentin

Kravtchenko and Julian Lucchesi. The digital-creativity favourite went to Ellicom, and thesocial-innovation favourite went to the Fun fun fun teamfor Journal Métro. Grand-prize winners will be scanned in 3D and receive a3D figurine of themselves fromLezar3D,

as well

asan Infopresse subscription and unlimitedaccess to effects MTL, the international conferenceon visual effects and animation. Otherwinners will receive conference access for effects MTL and tickets to

• Festival Chromatic.
• Special thanks
• went to

the jury and to partners including Lezar3D,effects MTL,Caferico, LuxiaKombucha, BecCola and Gamins Gourmands.Printemps

numérique introduces a
broad public to the works of digital creators and attracts an international clientele through the scope and diversity of its program. It strengthens Montréal’s positioning as a creative capital, supports emerging practices and encourages collaboration among creation, production, presentation, research, industry, tourism and institutions such as museums

and
universities.