

I loved this competition from Origin; it was such a great concept, asking children to find the next BIG idea because unlike adults they don’t censor themselves; they come up with these grand, completely unique and inventive ideas of how they can make a difference in the world.
There were three different age groups for this comp, school years 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 with a winner chosen from each age group. I was lucky enough to go down to Melbourne to film at one of the schools and be there with the kids when they came up with ideas. It was really fun. The cute factor was off the hook.
I found judging the competition really inspiring. It is easy to be jaded when you think about all the problems in the world, but when you see these kids come up with an idea, you see the spark behind their eyes and get a glimpse into all the possibilities that they can see — that we adults can’t.
The winners totally blew me away. Greta Cummins, who won years 3-4, amazed me, not just because her idea was so good but also the way she presented it. Greta’s idea was to introduce an alarm system in cars that contacts emergency services when an air bag is deployed.
It would even give them your GPS location. Greta had seen a story in the news of a woman who drove her car down a ravine, survived but wasn’t found for seven days and thought ‘here’s a way I can fix it’. My favourite thing about Greta was that her whole family was there — parents, grandparents and siblings. When she won they all started crying and you could see how incredibly proud they were.