Microsoft Student Partner EMEA Summit 2019
Recently, I got an opportunity to be a part of the Microsoft Student Partner Summit for the EMEA region held during 17th — 21st March 2019 in the Netherlands. The 5 Day-long events involved interactions with fellow MSPs, speakers as well as an opportunity to watch the Imagine Cup EMEA Regional Finals Live at the RAI Amsterdam.
Overall, I was able to learn a lot from the experiences from other MSPs about improving diversity in tech as well as organizing events. As the first year as an MSP, I was able to take back a lot of learnings & meet some amazing MSPs who have done a great job so far!
The Summit
Day 1 — 17th March:
Students arrived early and were given a chance to explore the Netherlands. Each MSP was paired with a roommate and got an opportunity to interact and learn from their experiences.
Day 2 — 18th March Entrepreneur Day and MSP Summit:
The MSPs were taken to the Microsoft Netherlands Office. Talks were given by GIST Network for the EMEA Regional Finalists and MSFT Student Partners on learning how to craft the perfect pitch and take their idea to the next level. The session also involved learning more about the business model canvas and how it is important to keep the customer needs in mind.
The MSPs were informed of an Open Hack where they got to experiment with Azure technologies within a 1-day time frame and then present their solutions. The MSPs competed in teams of 2 and the top two winners presented their solutions alongside other Imagine Cup Competitors. Our Team Car-Assist was an easy app for all your car information needs, which used Azure Custom Vision and OCR to capture the make, model and other car information based on a picture of the car. The day ended with a group photo taken outside. Out of the projects, three amazing ideas were selected to present during Ignite!
Day 3 — 19th March MSP Summit & Imagine Cup Competition:
MSPs got an opportunity to interact with the Imagine Cup teams and watch the Finals live at the RAI Amsterdam. Following the presentations for the Open Hack, Talks were given by Maasa Walker (Windows Developer Marketing Manager at Microsoft) & few other speakers. We got to interact with the speakers after the sessions as well as have a one on one mentoring session for the MSPs.
I loved the talk given by Maasa especially, which was really helpful for us, as students to learn about using current tools like Linkedin to make yourself stand out!
Day 4 — 20th March MS Ignite the Tour:
MSPs attended the Microsoft Ignite the tour conference in Amsterdam, which involved speakers from Microsoft on various topics ranging from Data Visualization to using Custom Vision for Augmented Reality apps. We could speak with the experts at the networking booth and learn more from their experiences. Day ended with a Private dinner where we had a final meal with other MSPs
Day 5 – 21st March MS Ignite the Tour & Flights :
I headed out early due to an early flight, but as flights were scheduled at different times, few MSPs attended the Ignite Tour Day 2 as well.
I’d like to extend my thanks to Mr. Pablo Veramendi & Mr. Lee Stott & the team for providing this amazing opportunity to learn and take back new ideas to implement in my region. The tips offered on improving Diversity in Tech from interacting with speakers were extremely helpful & really looking forward to implementing them!
