The only difference was many of the delegates at the Otakou Kids Information Communication Technology Conference in Dunedin yesterday were primary school pupils who spent several hours striking awkward poses in a bid to make a cartoon about themselves.
More than 100 pupils from 14 schools on the peninsula, and in South Dunedin, Green Island and Fairfield attended the conference at Tahuna Intermediate, aimed at schooling them up on information communication technology equipment and programmes.
Among the new technologies being presented to the pupils were Photobooth and Comic Life.
Pupils used the programmes to superimpose photos of themselves on to images of famous landmarks around the world, such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Opera House.
Much of the fun was in watching each other pretend to be climbing stairs for the Great Wall photo, or leaning on an angle to make it look as if they were holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The images were then turned into a cartoon strip, in which they became international spies smuggling secrets from different countries.
Tahuna Intermediate principal Tony Hunter said the conference was run largely by the pupils themselves, with schools volunteering their resources and services so it could be run at zero cost.
The conference aimed to educate high achievers in ICT so they could return to their schools and pass on the knowledge to other pupils, he said.
