On the 16th of May 2019, we launched the very first TASS conference at the Pullman Brisbane, turning a spotlight on software tech and trends in the K-12 education space.
Over 260 delegates representing 119 schools came from five Australian states to share the TASS Journey. Learn about what we covered and what we got up to here.
Since our last Roadtrip, we've released a whole host of new services and features designed to improve our customers' user experience. We took the chance to walk our delegates through everything we've been up to lately, as well as the latest and greatest in the TASS school management software!
Our community forum, enhancements voting system, and customer support feedback loop are all new initiatives introduced by TASS in 2018 in order to help us understand more about our customers, and to assist where possible in solving the challenges they currently face.
We also introduced TASS Cloud Hosting Services - providing schools with the server infrastructure and management required to run their critical school administration system, in a secure AWS environment. TASS Cloud places ongoing server maintenance and monitoring in the hands of an expert team with over 30 years of experience - leaving schools to focus on day to day tasks!
Finally, we launched our Small Schools Solution - a partnership with Cole School Experts designed to offer smaller schools a powerful school management system, at a small school price.
For our second session on Thursday, we were lucky enough to be joined by Mr. Chris Ryan, Deputy Principal of St. Joseph's College - Gregory Terrace. The College is over 140 years old, and is currently educating over 1500 students from years 5-12 - with a school of this size, there's a significant amount of data being held.
The College recently developed a set of goals as part of their ICT Strategic Plan, to assist them with the transition of the school's technologies to a more sustainable and 'future-proof' structure. To assist them with this, the college engaged MOQdigital to devise a technology roadmap.
Chris spoke candidly with us about the journey so far, including the many challenges and triumphs that they have faced. The College has made major changes to incorporate more modern technological concepts into their day-to-day functionality - including a BYOD program, improved service delivery, mobile capability, and a gradual shift from an on-premises operation to the Cloud.
In their ongoing journey, Terrace, with the help of MOQdigital, is fostering and encouraging the evolution and growth of their in-house IT capability.
After lunch, our delegates split into three breakout sessions, to cover our three content streams.
After lunch, we were lucky enough to have Todd Sampson talk to us about his journey to adapt and evolve his brain, and some tips and tricks that we can use in our everyday life to be more flexible and agile thinkers.
Todd is an adventurer, an award winning documentary maker, a television presenter and a businessman - he is the breakout star of the hit series 'Gruen Planet', on the board of both Qantas and Fairfax, and the co-creator of the Earth Hour initiative.
He is also the writer, host and human guinea pig behind 'Redesign My Brain' - a scientific documentary that sees him push his brain to expand its limits, and complete incredible feats as a result.
Todd spoke to us about how he overcame the natural limitations of his brain to complete amazing feats such as climb a rock face blindfolded, escape chains and locks underwater, and walk a tightrope between two skyscrapers.
We had an evening of corporate networking at the stunning Sixteen Antlers rooftop bar, enjoying canapés, drinks, and a panoramic view of Brisbane. Our photographer, Chris Jack Photography, captured the evening for us - view the photos below!
Delegates had a chance to get involved and share their experiences in our interactive panel discussions, working collaboratively to tackle some of the challenges facing Australian schools.
As the conference drew to a close, we turned to the future!
As a company, TASS strives to be a 'solutions' focused organisation - one with a genuine desire to understand more about our customers, and to assist where possible in solving challenges faced by schools.
In our second last session, we explored some of the cool projects TASS currently has in the works, and the direction the company is moving in.
Delegates caught the first glimpse of address validation and geo-mapping in TASS, experimented with a mobile responsive Teacher Kiosk, and explored the new Online Parent Payment Schedules. TASS also announced plans to advance identity management, enhance tours and excursions, and release a sports and music scheduling/management module.
We're excited about what the future brings, and sharing that future and journey with customers. If you'd like to know more about what we've got coming up, get in touch with the TASS Customer Care Team!
To close off the inaugural TASSCON, we were lucky enough to have John Hamilton, IT Manager at Mt. St. Michael's College speak to attending Queensland schools regarding the recent changes to the Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE).
John's presentation covered his school’s interpretation of the new curriculum, the decision making process, how Mt. St. Michael's tackled the changes and the delivery of timely, accurate, informative and understandable reports.
John walked us through his school’s initial setup in the TASS.web Academic Reporting module and the workflow in Teacher Kiosk to build Internal Assessment and calculate results in the markbook to enable progressive reporting and provisional results.
