The Robogals Australia & NZ Conference was held in Sydney in September, with Robogals all over Australia and New Zealand flying over to attend. The primary purpose of our annual conference is training for new executive committee members, as well as planning for the year ahead and a chance to meet fellow Robogals from other cities. This year, we also welcome a new chapter from Dunedin, New Zealand. Priyanka Patel, Marketing Manager for Robogals Otago tells us of her first contact with Robogals in Australia.

As I sat shivering in my icy Dunedin student flat, I read an email about a great opportunity across the ditch. This opportunity came in the form of a student-run organisation called Robogals, and the best thing was that they wanted to start a new chapter at the University of Otago, New Zealand! Six girls from our university, including me, were chosen to attend the conference held in Sydney on the weekend of 10th till 12th September 2010.

The journey thus began as soon as we arrived at Alfred Park Hostel in Sydney, where we quickly donned our Robogals t-shirts and went to University of New South Wales.

At the university, we were excited to be greeted by the members of other Robogals chapters from all around Australia! After a quick lunch and ice-breaking activities to get everyone better acquainted, the new exec each got handed a LEGO mindstorms NXT kit. We were instructed to make robots, programming them to follow a line using light sensors. At the end of the session, there was a robots dance-off, where every robot brought something different to the table. There was a break-dancing robot and also a digger-bot! It was really hard to decide on a winner! After a day full of activities and meeting new people, our famished stomachs were pampered with a delicious Italian meal.

The next day entailed presentations of the work other chapters had done so far. We listened closely to draw inspiration from our established colleagues! Next was role-specific training which gave us better ideas and steps on how to execute our roles efficiently. Lastly, we enjoyed a trip to Wynyard Park at the heart of Sydney's CBD for The Robots Are Coming prize-giving ceremony. There, we received a warm welcome by ALICE, BINBOTS, GLOW, AERO ROCK and the amazing artists who created these robots. I was really intrigued as to how the artists came up with their robot concepts!

Soon, the end of our trip was approaching, but none of us were ready to leave the warmth of Sydney just yet. The morning of our last day in Sydney, we took part in brainstorming activities, successfully generating a range of events for fundraising and to promote Robogals in general. For example, one of the ideas generated by my group was to create a robotic panda and dragon for a Chinese New Year parade by Robogals! After the morning sessions at UNSW, we embarked on an amazing race around Sydney which finished up at Sydney Opera house! Thus our trip ended as it had begun—with lots of laughter, sharing lollies, cheering for each other and robots.

Upon returning home, Robogals Otago were charged up and ready to go! We had our first meeting as an official Robogals chapter at Eureka cafe, where we discussed ideas on fundraising, volunteers, legal requirements, robotic lessons, and much more. We have decided to hold a Quiz night as our first fund raising event. We plan to make enough money to buy robotic kits and supplies for an amazing O-week stall.

The core values that will make Robogals Otago a successful chapter include determination, and teamwork that is engraved in each and every member!

For most, the conference was an activity-jam-packed weekend, buzzing with inspiration and motivation.

Ashley Toh, the new Sponsorship & Partnerships Manager (for Robogals Australia & New Zealand), attended the conference for the first time. She gives us a comprehensive insight as to what she experienced in Sydney.

Friday
During the day, while newcomers to Robogals were being introduced to LEGO robots, the rest of us, together with some other Robogals members from Sydney, had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Google Sydney office! We met up with the young inspiring Google team who were very passionate about Google and their roles there. I was impressed to learn that Google really values world top talents and treats its employees very well. We were spilt into teams to build and program robots, while being mentored and assisted by the Google team. In the end, the teams' robots were put into a sumo wrestling competition!

Morny, Ashley and Marita working hard into the night to prepare for Saturday's workshops

Dinner time was great for bonding - it was a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know each and everyone from different chapters. Later at night, some Robogals went off to bed early, some hung out with newly-met friends, while most of the Global team stayed up late to put the final touches on the next day's conference. It was my first time staying up so late for work, but in the end it was worth it!

Saturday
From early morning onwards, we had role-specific training for chapter executive committee members, (although I would say there was also a lot of 'experience sharing' rather than 'training'). I was in charge of the sponsorship managers. Everyone was very excited throughout the session and asked a lot of questions. We also had role-plays and a fruitful discussion. I received feedbacks that the role plays were effective in helping everyone visualise themselves at real networking events and sponsors meetings.

In the afternoon, we went to Wynyard Park for the closing ceremony of The Robots Are Coming exhibition. It was interesting to hear the artists explain the efforts they put into designing and building the robot artworks. My favourite robot was Alice! I was really impressed with how interactive she was, and how the mirror beads reflected people passing through her to enter into an exciting robotic world! All in all, I appreciate the efforts put in by the global team in organizing the event.

After the ceremony, we had a free night - most Robogals had fun catching up with friends in Sydney and exploring the city.

Sunday
First event of the day was brainstorming! The brainstorming session was led by Adrienne Tan from Brainmates, who kindly provided her services to Robogals free of charge. We were asked to break free and generate as many creative ideas as possible by using random visual clues such as cards with alphabets and pictures, magazines, a panda soft toy and many more. This encouraged us to break out of the cocoon and think outside the box. It is definitely interesting to note that even though some of the groups picked the same items, different ideas were generated. This shows the importance of idea-bouncing and making use of the pool of knowledge and experiences of our team members.

And then we had goal-planning for the next year. I like how our ideas tend to become more structured and convincing when we actually write them down and discuss them with the team.

The day ended with the Amazing Race around Sydney, organized by the UNSW Robogals! We had to take pictures in front of various tourist landmarks to earn points along the way, and gathered for a last group photo in front of Opera House, where we also had certificates of participation handed out. I thought that made a very good ending to the conference.

Monday
For the Global team and chapter presidents, we had breakfast with current and potential sponsors and partners. It was a rare opportunity to meet people from companies like Google, Engineers Australia, First Lego League, Defence Force Recruiting, Cochlear, Beck Arndt Engineering, etc. I had a great time talking about the engineering industry and Robogals. In the end, I felt motivated as most of the sponsors were really supportive of and impressed with what Robogals is doing. The conference was a really fantastic experience. Robogals has a really exciting year planned, and I can't wait for the year ahead!