Digital for Life Festival 2024

At the Digital for Life Festival 2024, more than 66,000 visitors – from families, children, youths to seniors – embarked on an exciting learning adventure to explore and experience all things digital. Held over three weekends from October 26 to November 10, the festival turned Keat Hong Community Club, Heartbeat@Bedok and VivoCity Central Court into interactive playgrounds packed with enriching digital experiences and fun-filled learning activities.

Two seniors learning how to identify online scams by playing SIMI Scam, a Snake and Ladders game by Digi-Up!

Practical Skills for the Digital Future

A young member of Vivita, a STEM club for youths, introduced their showcase to curious festival goers

Participants, young and old, discovered useful digital skills and tools that can make their daily lives easier and more enjoyable. Aided by games and engaging booths, they learnt more about creating prompts and leveraged AI tools that facilitated everyday tasks, such as content creation, creating presentations, and travel planning.

Alongside their friends, many seniors visited the festival, and thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on activities as they learnt how going digital can enhance their daily lives, through using digital banking tools to make e-payments and ordering food or groceries via e-commerce and delivery apps. Parents also picked up latest digital trends and helpful tips on how they can guide kids in the digital age, including how to be discerning, safe and kind online.

Educational Experiences for the Young Ones

Beyond empowering parents and children to navigate digital spaces safely, the festival created heartwarming moments of connection. Families bonded over shared experiences through mini games, quizzes and meaningful conversations on various topics related to online safety and wellness.

For instance, parents and children learnt more about screen time management and healthy gaming habits while competing with other teams over Pokemon Unite Telematches. Others explored online safety and well-being through Lego-brick building, tested their skills to discern real and deepfake images, as well as learnt the basics of financial literacy through fun activities.

Our young participants were excited to learn through play and had the opportunity to tinker with tech in the form of robotics and coding experiences, applying their newfound knowledge to create a self-watering system for houseplants and making playable 3D games.

A father and his daughter enjoyed games while learning about digital safety and well-being together

Emerging Tech for Live, Work and Play

The showcase of emerging technology ignited everyone’s imagination and enticed many to immerse themselves at the various interactive booths. Participants had a go at Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Generative AI (GenAI) experiences. Experiences included trying new sports through VR, generating images via AI-powered photobooths, discovering unlimited possibilities of AI through Google’s Gemini and Microsoft Copilot and many more.

All smiles from a senior, who experienced playing a sport on Virtual Reality (VR) through a headset

As part of Smart Nation 2.0, which offered a glimpse into the future of digital innovation, the showcases were aligned with the government’s vision of harnessing technology for the benefit of all Singaporeans. Participants learnt more about systems designed to ensure safe and secure digital spaces for citizens, experienced the use emerging tech and AI to improve quality of lives and enhance productivity, especially to increase accessibility and inclusivity for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) with assistive tools.

CODY, a robot with AI capabilities, by Singapore Police Force was a crowd puller for both young and old visitors

Be Inspired to Play a Part

Digital for Life partners and their volunteers at the Play a Part zone shared how their projects and initiatives have made a difference for the community

Visitors of the Play a Part zone were inspired by passionate individuals and organisations, who championed community-led projects that promote digital inclusivity. They learnt more about how the projects made an impact for beneficiaries and helped enrich lives with digital.

This year, our partners also held live recruitment booths for on-the-spot volunteer signups at Heartbeat@Bedok and VivoCity. Experienced volunteers were onsite and conducted one-on-one coaching sessions where interested participants were taught practical digital skills like using Google Chrome and WhatsApp, as well as basic programming and coding.

Kickstart Your Own Digital Journey

The festival has seeded interest, sparked curiosity and enthusiasm for embracing and learning all about digital. But your learning journey does not end there. The thirst for digital knowledge continues online via our Digital for Life Portal, which houses articles, guides and videos that can support your digital learning journey, no matter your background, age, or familiarity with digital tools.

On the Portal, you can find step-by-step guides to using digital tools and the latest applications including Generative AI, e-learning resources on keeping you and your loved ones safe online, as well as articles on topics such as managing screen time, setting parental controls and fostering positive digital footprints, for parents to guide their children online.