Nearly 600 middle and high school students and their parents took part in the second annual  “Picture Yourself on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Powered by AT&T” event today in order to get a behind-the-scenes look at the variety of work that takes place there every day including medical, manufacturing, research and entrepreneurial organizations. The half-day event was designed to introduce future STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers, internships and volunteer opportunities to area students in grades seven through twelve and to demonstrate the importance of STEM education and the field’s significant  impact on the region’s resurgence.  Participation in the event exceeded the goal of 500 and increased by about 150 people compared to last year.

Buffalo Unconference powered by AT&T, an interactive event built to bring together a diverse group of people, so they may share their knowledge on topics they are passionate about through presentations, demos, and open discussions, returned to downtown Buffalo last Saturday (April 16, 2016) by popular demand for its second year. The free conference was open to the public and was hosted at VCAMP Health Accelerator in downtown Buffalo. The more than 250 innovative and creative attendees were encouraged to either participate by presenting on topics such as technology, entrepreneurship, programming, art, music, volunteerism, writing, or virtually any creative subject or sit in the various presentations to learn a new creative skill or passion.  The Buffalo Unconference powered by AT&T organizers curated the talks and categorized them into six different tracks of speakers that ran concurrently and attendees chose which talks to attend.