Registration is open for the Emoti-Con Virtual Project Fair!
We have officially opened registration for the 14th annual Emoti-Con NYC Digital Media & Technology Challenge. Submit your middle and high school projects by May 16 to be included in this city-wide competition.
Emoti-Con showcases youth who express themselves and reflect on the challenges facing our communities through creative making and digital storytelling at schools and informal learning programs across NYC.
The amazing Rudy Blanco, founder of the Bronx Gaming Network and Director of Entrepreneurship & Gaming at DreamYard Project is our 2022 Keynote! Rudy creates physical and digital gaming communities for BIPOC, queer and women game players and creators. In 2019, he launched BX Start, a physical gaming space dedicated to entrepreneurship, gaming and career exploration in the Bronx.
Rudy’s Keynote will kickoff the Award Ceremony on 6/10 at noon.
Why Participate?
Last year, over 450 teen creators presented 145 projects – our largest turn-out ever, in the middle of a global pandemic. We can’t wait to celebrate your new ideas!
Emoti-Con is a chance for us to celebrate and showcase the innovations & ideas of teens across NYC.
Judges with media, tech and design expertise will review projects, give feedback and share advice on how your project connects to college and career pathways.
Each project will be published and have its own webpage. Students can share their project page with parents, friends and mentors who can leave 👏 Emojis 👏 of encouragement and kudos on their work.
Getting Ready to Submit
2022 Emoti-Con Project Fair Guide: Get all of the details and resources you will need to create and submit your project.
Emoti-Con Project Application Worksheet: This worksheet has every question from the application so you and your students can prepare your responses before filling out the live form.
Free Resources to Present a Project Virtually
How can you share your idea with judges, if you can’t speak to them directly? You’ll need a great pitch that can be linked or uploaded on your project page. Here are some free tools you can use!
Wix.com Project Webpage Template: Our friends at Wix Education developed an amazing free template webpage for Emoti-Con teams to show off your project, along with a video tutorial.
Project Fair Slides Template: If you’d rather make a slide deck, copy and remix this Google template and link it on your application.
Mouse Open Projects: Not sure how your students will turn their idea into a prototype? Mouse has released several free, DIY design & digital making how-tos activities for making apps, 3D models, easy game prototypes, and more.
Get Live Support: Emoti-Con has a few volunteer educators who can work with you and your students to get a project ready for the Project Fair. Email us (Emoticon@mouse.org) and we will schedule a time to meet online.
Project Fair Schedule
5/23: Virtual Project Fair Begins
6/3: Last day of Project Fair
6/10: Award Ceremony - Winners announced at noon!
The Emoti-Con Steering Committee & Supporters
Emoti-Con is the largest event of its kind amongst informal learning programs in New York City. Emoti-Con addresses the need for cross-institutional collaboration and provides the much needed venue for youth to get to connect through their common identity as youth media producers and technologists.
Steering Committee
The event has been developed through a unique collaboration between youth designers, an alumni committee, and NYC youth-serving organizations from the Hive NYC Learning Network who form the Emoti-Con Steering Committee: Code Nation, Global Kids, Mouse, the New York Public Library, and Parsons School of Design.
2022 Supporters
We'd like to thank our supporters at Best Buy, the Pinkerton Foundation, the Simons Foundation, and the NYC DOE's Department of Instructional and Information Technology (DIIT). Their support demonstrates a commitment to growing design-thinking and innovation skills among youth and educators citywide.
