Come Play, Touch and Learn! Visitors to Innovationation - Singapore's largest display of Infocomm - were greeted with an interactive experience that showcased the pioneering efforts that made Singapore a leading user of Infocomm Technology over the past 25 years.

innovationation - an interactive experience that engages visitors to Play, Touch and Learn about technology's past, present and future

The free public exhibition held at the Singapore Expo between 11 to 15 October occupied a show space of 10,000sq m (about 160 three-room HDB flats or 2.47 acres). It showcased the pioneers of the Infocomm industry and how technology has progressed since Singapore's first national IT plan, the Civil Service Computerisation Programme in 1981.

The hands-on interactive experience began the moment a visitor received his complimentary personalised Radio Frequency Identity (RFID) badge at the entrance. Using this badge, visitors - students, working professionals and industry folks - explored innovationation's many interactive zones. For instance, they faced some thought-provoking questions like "When everyone was talking about the Y2K bug, did you feel?" which they answered with a swipe of their RFID badge. Their answers were then tabulated at the end of the exhibition, along with other visitors' response, on a large wall. That showed how they scored compared with the rest of Singapore.

PM Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and distinguished guests explore the 12 innovationation zones

innovationation features a game of 'Free Up' that emphasises the themes of collaboration and convergence at the 'IT For Life' Zone

Visitors journeyed back in time as well at innovationation, as they came face to face with devices from yesterday such as computers that were the size of refrigerators, disk players the size of washing machines and mobile phones that were lugged around in suitcases. With just a skip between zones,visitors could zip from the past, into "future". In the iN2015 zone, they explored a virtual landscape with a 'Minority Report' sensor screen. Each time their hand moved over a part of that screen, it activated hotspots that revealed technologies of the future. Like magic, they got to experience life in Singapore in 2015 with a wave of their hands.

Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore said, "We have come a long way in our Infocomm journey. Many technology pioneers have worked tirelessly in the last 25 years to make Infocomm technology work for everyone in Singapore, whether at work, learn or play."

Mr Chan Yeng Kit, Chief Executive Officer of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore said, "The aim was to educate Singaporeans on the possibilities and excitement that Infocomm can bring to their lives. We wanted an experiential exhibition, where technology is used to present Infocomm's past, present and future in a fun and interactive manner, unlike any other trade and consumer Infocomm exhibitions. This includes telling the stories of our technology pioneers whom have worked tirelessly in the last 25 years to make Infocomm work for everyone, in an engaging way. In conceptualising the exhibition, we also took into account that the public can continue to enjoy Innovationation at the Singapore Science Centre after the initial launch at Singapore Expo."

PM Lee and Dr Balakrishnan viewing the latest digital pen prototypes

At the 'Tomorrow Today' Zone, PM Lee navigates the iN2015 virtual landscape using a 'Minority Report' sensor screen

Before leaving innovationation, PM Lee leaves his impression of the exhibit amongst the kaleidoscope of faces at the video wall in the 'Make Your Mark' Zone

In addition to the public exhibition, seminars and talks which featured distinguished Infocomm speakers like Ms Mary Ann Davidson, Chief Security Officer at Oracle Corp and Dr Bernard Meyerson, Chief Technologist at IBM Technology Group were also organised for Infocomm professionals.

For the public, there were a host of fringe activities too:- including of workshops on podcasting, video productions, and even talks on how one can set up an online business.

Four books were also written to document Singapore's 25-Year Infocomm journey. Collectively entitled "Innovationation: 25 Years of Infocomm in Singapore", the books trace the journey from when computerisation started in 1981, to how convergence led to Infocomm as you know it today. Lively illustrations, anecdotes and interviews with Infocomm pioneers fill this definitive encyclopaedia of Singapore's Infocomm legacy. The books, which are not for sale are available at all public libraries.