On Friday 1 July 2011, Computing At School (CAS) Wales, in partnership with the Technocamps project, hosted their inaugural conference at Swansea University. The aim of this one-day conference, with the tagline Computing at School: Enhancing the STEM Curriculum for a Digital Wales, was to provide teachers, senior management teams, examination boards, higher education academics, industry and education policymakers with a forum to highlight and discuss the important issues surrounding Computer Science education in Wales.
It featured keynotes talks from:
- Jeff Cuthbert AM, Deputy Minister for Skills, Welsh Government
- Gary Stone, Head of Strategy & Operations for Digital Wales, Welsh Government
- David Davies, Director of NHS Engagement, NHS Wales
- Clare Riley, Group Manager, Education Relations, Microsoft
- Professor Roger Boyle, Computing At School
Over 100 attendees participated in a wide range of workshops and policy panels to discuss curriculum and qualifications, as well as sharing best practice for teaching Computer Science. This event was the culmination of nearly a year of discussions on education and science policy, focusing on the strategic importance of Computer Science within the wider STEM agenda [1,2,3,4,5] and was widely reported in the media [1,2,3,4]. A Storify of the event is also available.
This successful event has highlighted the importance of Computer Science, from an educational, scientific and economic perspective, and has laid the foundation for future curriculum and qualifications reform in Wales.
CAS Wales and Technocamps will continue to work together in 2012 to drive forward this agenda.
(N.B. this blog post was moved from its original location, having been first published in August 2011)
Digital, Data & Policy 
Another picture of the Deputy Minister for Skills, with Professor Richard B. Davies (Vice-Chancellor, Swansea University), Professor Faron Moller (Director, Technocamps) and myself: