A message from the ACS Victoria Chair - A Year in Review

2019 has proven to be another BIG YEAR at ACS Victoria, including the launch of our new Melbourne Innovation Hub that’s now open to all ACS members. This space has been long in the making, and it is finally here! We’ve seen many of our members come in to experience the new member space over the past few months. I would like to encourage all members to visit the Hub in the new year.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you what the ACS Victoria Branch Executive Committee (BEC), ACS volunteers, and Branch staff have been up to this year.

Membership initiatives and engagements this year included:

• Transitioning the Victorian Branch newsletter to fortnightly communications, to produce higher quality articles and content for members and to accommodate the recently launch second weekly addition on Information Age that is published on Tuesday;
• Kicking off the seventh round of the ACS Victoria Mentoring Program, which to date, has seen 70 mentors and 70 mentees complete the program since it began in 2014;
• Recognised 15 students across 4 student award ceremonies at Victorian partner universities;
• Actively engaged with 7 student ambassadors across the year from MIT, La Trobe University, Deakin University, Swinburne University, and Monash University; and
• With the move to 839 Collins Street, Docklands in July, we utilized the space for engagement opportunities by conducting many tours and enabling members to actively engage with the space through various meetings and events.

Events, activities and highlights from the ACS Victoria Branch this year involved:

• 2019 Big Day In, hosted by ACS Foundation;
• Big Meet Melbourne attracting undergraduate and post-graduate students looking into career opportunities;
• Charles Sturt University Careers and MIT Student Expos;
• Sponsorship of the 2019 University of Melbourne Doctoral Colloquium;
• Collaborated on the 2019 #TechDiversity Awards;
• Attended numerous Victorian university and high school initiatives to engage with students and staff around sector growth and ACS membership;
• Ran and supported several events and initiatives during the Victorian Government’s Digital Innovation Festival in August/September;
• Launched and implemented 2019 Victorian events calendar, which incorporated new formats and activities to create more engaging offerings for members. Some of these events included hacks, debates and interactive panel sessions;
• Hosted for the second time the ACS Reimagination Thought Leaders’ Summit & Digital Disruptors Awards;
• Welcomed 1,400 students at the Young Professionals Half Day Conferences and introduced the newly created ‘Unconference’ sessions facilitating interactive sessions running concurrently, which were very popular;
• Increased members digital touchpoints through marketing and streaming opportunities; and
• Achieved a 50/50 split of female to male speaker and emcee roles across the calendar year.

Members and volunteers’ recognitions

This year, the Fellows committee, led by BEC member John Graham, awarded David A Wood with his ACS Fellowship. We also recognised Past ACS Victoria Chair Ian Dennis who was the recipient of an ACS Honorary Life Membership.

Earlier this year, we celebrated both 2018 Quarter 4 recipient of the ACS President’s Award, Prof Matthew Warren, and the overall 2018 ACS President's Award winner, Karen Gee.

We also awarded two Victorian BEC members with 2019 ACS President’s Award to Richard Magalad, recipient of the Quarter 1 and Cynthia Lee, recipient of the Quarter 2.

We recognise that we would not be able to achieve what we do without the help and support of numerous people!

On behalf of ACS Victoria, I would like to extend our SINCEREST THANK YOU to our Professional Partners, Committee Members and Volunteers, Victorian Branch Executive Committee (BEC) and the Victorian Branch team for their ongoing hard work, commitment and dedication to the ACS.

I would like to thank our members, for their continued support of ACS Victoria in 2019. We would not be able to achieve what we do without your tireless commitment to the ACS and to the ICT community!

For those who are not members yet, I would like to encourage you to join this wonderful community by becoming an ACS member!

Wishing you all a SAFE and HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON. I look forward to working with you in 2020!

Kind regards,

Maria Markman, Chair - ACS Victoria