All Together Now: Creativity, Education and Emerging Technology
All Together Now, Waterford, Ireland 2026.
I took the photograph accompanying this article at the All Together Now festival. Looking back at it, the name felt unexpectedly connected to something I have been thinking about: how creativity can bring traditional education and emerging technology closer together.
New technologies are developing faster than many schools and youth organisations can respond. New tools arrive, unfamiliar language develops around them, and educators are often left wondering where to begin.
Creativity can provide the bridge.
A young person does not need to understand every technical detail of virtual reality, AI or game development before exploring an idea. They can begin with something familiar: a drawing, a character, a story, a place or a problem they want to solve.
A sketch can become a 3D object. A story can become a playable world. A physical artwork can be extended through augmented reality. Technology becomes another creative material—not the destination.
This does not mean leaving traditional learning behind. Drawing, writing, making, discussion and critical thinking become even more important. They give young people the foundations to use technology with purpose and develop ideas that remain genuinely their own.
This thinking sits at the heart of HoloGen’s next chapter: creating hands-on programmes that bring creativity, technology and meaningful learning together. Programmes that give young people, educators and communities the confidence not only to use emerging technology, but to help shape what comes next.
Closing the gap between education and emerging technology is not something any one teacher, school, youth organisation or technology company can solve alone. It requires educators, artists, young people, communities and technology partners to learn from one another, experiment and build new approaches together.
