Update from Beau Tydd, Chair, ACS Qld Branch

^Highlights

It’s been a productive 18 months for ACS Queensland Chair Beau Tydd, the Branch team, and our Committees and Chapters, serving and supporting our members right around the State. Read some team highlights and find out how you can get involved across a range of Branch initiatives.

It has nearly been 18 months since I was first elected as Chair for QLD ACS. I am so proud of the achievements that the Branch has achieved and would like to take the opportunity in this column to highlight just a few of the big ones.

We opened up two new chapters, Bundaberg and Toowoomba. This added to our existing chapters - Gold Coast, Rockhampton and Townsville. These Chapters are our lifeblood, and in my opinion the future growth of the ACS. When I took over as Chair, I really wanted our team to focus on getting the tech community in the regions together and I believe we are ways to achieving this. This is in no small part to the Committees, Chapters and also Holly and Alannah. Recently we delivered two great Branch events in the regions with our Gold Coast Chapter (Jobs in the Metaverse, TAFE Coomera) and our Toowoomba Chapter (Career Pathways in ICT, Southern Cross University), and both events were sold-out - a testament to the quality of each event and the significant interest in tech careers in the regions. Keep watch on more great regional events and also the possibility of more chapters opening up.

Following re-invigoration of the ACS Qld University Awards, we decided to establish an Emerging Professionals (EP) Committee. This has been hugely successful and it has been recognized across other ACS branches as an initiative to be replicated. Watch this space.

The EP Committee recently hosted the first Emerging Professionals Committee networking evening, with close to 80 emerging tech professionals in attendance, providing an invaluable networking opportunity to support our community of emerging IT professionals and leaders.

Zac Isaac, Chair of our Emerging Professionals Committee and Mike Driver, Immediate Past Chair ACS Qld Branch Executive Committee travelled to Townsville to take part in TAFE Queensland’s Digitrek program, shining a light on career pathways in tech and how ACS membership can support you at each and every stage of your career.

Olivia Zhou, Events and Stakeholder Lead of the Emerging Professionals Committee and Sharon Singh, ACS Qld BEC Committee Member led our trade presence at the recent QUT Bands/UQ Speed Networking event, meeting prospective student members and discussing how ACS can help champion and develop tech careers.

We have also been developing partnerships with other organizations to further the reach of ACS. We have been doing this a number of ways but one of the most fun was recently when myself, Marissa Shipley, Mike Driver and ACS Professional Partner Members Melissa Crossman of Cryptoloc and Paul Mangano of Mangano IT, helped fly the flag for ACS at the recent Dalrae Charity Golf Event, raising vital funds for MS research.

Melissa was also the winner of the longest drive on the day, congratulations Melissa! Just so we have it documented I believe it was commented on a number of occasions on how I carried Mike throughout the day – better luck next time Mike.

On a final note before I run out of column space, last year about this time we partnered with QATSIF and Substation33 on a program called See IT Be IT to help recycle EOL devices into the hands of kids who have missed out. In the space of 12 months we have directly put 520 devices into these hands and every time we get a photo of a smiling kid I know we made a difference. We need more, so please if you can help with either EOL devices, logistics, or even a small donation for peripherals (mice, keyboards, WIFI adapters etc) please do it now.

How can you help?

The See IT Be IT program would not be possible without the donation of end of life hardware from our amazing partners. If you can provide us with working computers that they no longer need we will make sure they get processed and into the hands of those who need them. If you don’t have access to the tech, we always welcome cash donations to help cover the cost of logistics and processing. We can all do our part! Donate directly to QATSIF or substation33.

Other delivery partners include Litehaus International and P&C QLD.

Special shout-out must go to Geoff Augutis at QLD Computers for leading the way to solve logistics problems and to Peter Yeates, ACS Queensland Branch Executive Hon Secretary, for supporting the initiative with the most donations to date.

ACS is truly a member led organization. Want to know how you can get involved, or have a passion within tech that we can help support?

Drop me a line at Beau.Tydd@acs.org.au to brainstorm some ideas.