"K-Net is providing a model for the technological business world our children will inherit." Delegates examine the fruits of their labours (Durban)

Unlocking the magic

Delegates who attended the K-Net/Microsoft National Technology Conference for kids and teenagers enthusiastically welcomed the K-Net initiative to address their need to understand the world they are getting ready to inherit.

"I think it's a good thing that someone is finally keeping kids and teenagers informed. The conference showed me how to get more out of my computer and how to have more fun with it," says 15-year-old Goolam-Hussein Railoun. "There are lots of applications I never knew about before the conference. I particularly enjoyed SoundBlaster and video making on the Apple Mac and I was surprised how easy it is to program in Microsoft Visual Basic."

His 12-year-old brother, Nazeer, who won a copy of Microsoft Encarta at the conference, says that he would use the package for school work. "Encarta is exciting because it contains so much information. Before the conference I didn't know there were so many different software programs, but now I know them and I know how to use them all together to create school projects."

Helen Putland, reseller development manager at Microsoft SA, says Microsoft sees K-Net as its key partner in addressing the education and home computing markets. "While Microsoft has products that make learning fun, K-Net is providing a model for the technological business world our children will inherit. In terms of developing the emerging market for the Microsoft Home range of products, K-Net is the most exciting new concept we've seen in this country. Their approach to making technology accessible for children nationwide is unique and puts us in touch with the Microsoft vision of a computer in every home."

Jil Hrdliczka, MD of K-Net and innovator of the conference, says it proved K-Net's conviction that today's kids and teenagers are hungry for practical information on how to put technology to work for their daily benefit.

"Our objective was to show kids and teenagers available technology and how they can use it. Parents have been calling from all over the country to tell us that their kids rushed home to work with software they'd abandoned because they never knew just how much they could get out of it before the conference.

"Many of the kids understood for the first time how much they could use packages like Dangerous Creatures and Encarta to get answers to questions, copy and use pictures, look up information in a way that holds their attention, and even play games. Each of those packages contains a world that fascinates kids and teenagers and the conference gave them the key to those worlds."

Hrdliczka says that even the youngest delegates responded to a programme which was sophisticated and stimulating. "Their questions on subjects like the Internet, CD-ROM technology, multimedia and video making revealed that this young market is much broader and more intelligent than people realise."

K-Net is already in the process of rolling out a series of mini conferences in SA's smaller centres during the next month and planning for the 1996 K-Net/Microsoft National Technology Conference is well under way.