It isn’t all doom and gloom though. Teenagers are surrounded by technology, and in the right environment the negative stereotypes about the people who create it can be broken, as they meet with the scientists and engineers behind the gadgets they love. Here is Maggie Philbin, talking about Teentech as we got ready for the day – streamed live (at the time!) via mobile phone.

By the end of the day everyone was exhausted, but delighted! The young students went away with a much clearer idea of the doors that studying science and maths open up to them, having met and talked with a larger number of enthusiastic (and dedicated) professionals. A warm congratulations to the sponsors, including the IoD, IET and the education bodies involved for supporting an amazing day. Adults and children alike were inspired. Much of what I want to say is summed up in this discussion with Maggie Philbin at the end of the day.

If you are a business that depends on science and technology,  get involved – Follow Maggie on twitter: @maggiephilbin or leave a comment here, and have a think about what you could do to support the next generation of Scientists and Engineers in the UK. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved and help, even if it is just letting the young people around you know what you do, and encouraging them to tackle the subjects they perceive to be the realm of boffins, and beyond what they believe they are capable of.

I have a couple more videos I’ll be adding soon!

Teentech Mentions:

• The tech new blog.
• BBC News.

Finally, after a few tweets between Drew Benvie, Matt Brady, Neville Hobson and myself, it is all systems go…  

Drew has written a post about his hopes for TVSMC, and Neville gives a good background on Tuttle/SMC. There are a number of people out this way who regularly trek in to London Tuttle, so that gives a great start. It is wonderful to have something local to the Valley here, which will hopefully open up the opportunity for many more people to experience what happens when on-line and off-line merge.

As Matt Brady says, “[Reading] and its environs is chock-full of digital talent“, so it is time to show your stuff, if you are in the area sign up on the Thames Valley SMC  wiki. Any problems signing up, catch me on twitter or drop me an email and I’ll sort you out. I’ve built three RSS feeds into the site so far:

• RSS feed of the Wiki pages, to keep up with changes/sign ups.
• RSS feed for TVSMC blog (first post pending!).
• RSS feed from the calendar to keep track of dates.

The first gathering is at 10AM on Friday 13th of March. I’ll be there in spirit (since I’ll be in the thick of South by South West Interactive), but there is a healthy crowd going along!