Chair's Report — Premila Jina
Ten years in, the Game Changer Awards still gives me chills.
This year, Minister Stephen Dawson joined more than 500 students in singing "Happy 10th Birthday" to GCA. It was loud, joyful, and completely unrehearsed — and it captured everything this program stands for. A community of young people, educators, industry leaders, and volunteers, all backing the same idea: that every child has the potential to be a game changer.
That belief has guided this program since day one. It still does.
Chair
200
Project Submissions
67% increase
766+
Students Participated
74% year on year
95
Industry Judges
40
Volunteers
60% jump from 2024
750+
Awards Event Attendees
25
Schools Engaged
18
Industry Sponsors
This year we launched the Game Changer Academy — a program designed to build lasting capability in schools, not just produce award entries. Through design thinking and innovation-based learning, we're equipping teachers to lead change in their own classrooms. Many schools are now running their own "mini-GCA" events year-round. That's the ripple effect we've always been chasing.
Mini GCA itself grew from a single pilot school and 15 teams in 2024 to five schools and 105 teams in 2025. That kind of growth doesn't happen by accident — it happens when the demand is real and the model works.
We also refreshed the state finals format, inviting each school's top five teams to compete, with six finalist teams advancing to pitch at the Young Entrepreneurs Showcase at West Tech Fest. That's a meaningful bridge — from classroom problem-solving to standing in front of industry and saying: here's my idea, and here's why it matters.
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Western Australia's future depends on young people who can think critically, collaborate across difference, and back themselves in the face of hard problems. GCA develops exactly those qualities — through a play-based, inquiry-driven approach that meets students where they are and asks them to stretch.
Many past GCA winners are still growing their ideas, still partnering with industry, some still in school. That's not a coincidence. That's a program doing its job.
Building lasting capability in schools through design thinking and innovation-based learning, equipping teachers to lead change in their own classrooms.
From 1 pilot school and 15 teams in 2024 to 5 schools and 105 teams in 2025. Growth that happens when the demand is real and the model works.
Top five teams from each school competing, with six finalists advancing to pitch at the Young Entrepreneurs Showcase at West Tech Fest.
Metropolitan
Schools across the Perth metro area
Regional
Reaching schools across regional WA
Special Needs Neurodiverse
GCA was never just for one kind of learner
None of this happens without our extraordinary GCA Committee, our sponsors, our judges, and every teacher who said yes to something new this year. Eighteen industry sponsors backed the program in 2025 — a sign of how seriously WA's technology and innovation community takes the pipeline of talent coming through behind them.
We are changing lives - one game-changing child at a time.
Thank
you.
WAITTA Patron Professo Lyn Beazley AO reflects on Western Australia's innovation achievements across 2025, and the organisation's renewed identity as the Western Australian Innovation, Technology & Talent Alliance.
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Co-Chairs Jess Etheridge and Cameron Zivkovic reflect on the 2025 INCITE Awards, celebrating Western Australia's innovation and technology talent with record attendance, national recognition, and community impact.
President Premila Jina reflects on the 2025 year for WAITTA, from a new name and renewed purpose, to growing STEM impact and celebrating success.
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