Objective
Cultural Perspectives was appointed to create and deliver a whole-of-community activation at the Royal Melbourne Show which focused on engaging the broader Victorian community, promoting diversity and engaging with Victoria's multicultural communities with an interactive classroom experience showcasing the modern education approaches and programs in public schools.

Approach

The Classroom of Excellence was launched to deliver genuine community engagement with families and children throughout the 11-day Show and promote Victoria’s world-class education initiatives.

The Royal Melbourne Show sees 450,000 visitors over 11 days, with 65% of families with children aged 13 years or under.

The exhibit included:

• Live classes area featuring Victorian School of Languages (VSL) teachers and a digital microscope.

• Showcase area included tech installations with a Sphero robot obstacle course and artworks exhibition with artworks that captured diversity selected from the 2018 Top Arts program.

• Playground area featuring a canteen where healthy snacks, yoyos were distributed, as well as a career-themed dress-up ‘Future Me’ photobooth.

Translated information about Victorian public Schools was distributed via a multilingual ZCARD (in 11 languages) and in-language information about the Victorian School of Languages were available. Stakeholder relations promoted the activation

Results

The activation was highly successful, reaching over 20,000 visitors passing by and engaging over 3,500 people in the activities. Qualitative feedback from both staff and community members commended the Department on the activation, and its ability to engage children and adults alike, as well as being suitable for people with limited English, and all ages and abilities.

The Classroom of Excellence won the silver award for best sponsor activation in the Royal Melbourne Show's Commercial Exhibitor awards, for quality, value and uniqueness.