Joshua Ndemenge, Kenya MSP, shares 2019 EMEA Microsoft Student Partner Summit experience

Apr 1, 2019

Microsoft Student Partner Summit
MSP’s at 2019 EMEA Microsoft Student Partner Summit. Amsterdam

Microsoft hosted MSP’s from across EMEA at the Microsoft Student Partner Summit 2019 in Amsterdam. Josh from Kenya shares his 5 day experience.

After 7 months into the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) program i was glad to be chosen to attend the EMEA Microsoft student partner summit 2019. This included a chance to attend the Microsoft Imagine cup EMEA Finals and Microsoft Ignite The Tour all held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. An opportunity like no other in my entire campus life. With an opportunity not just to network with other industry professionals but also to meet new people and tour a different country.

After a month of a great hustle to get all the travelling documents in place I was ready for it. In the early morning of 17th march I left for the summit and few minutes to 6 pm (UTC+1) I arrived in Amsterdam. Together with other MSP’s we left for the Holiday Inn where we would reside for the next 4 days.

Microsoft Student Partner Summit

Minutes after checking in at the hotel and settling in my room i headed for dinner. It was during dinner that I met the guy from the PI Project who was here for the Imagine cup reginal finals from Russia. It did not occur to me that this was the team that would take the third position. I also did meet Lee Stott who gave me more insight on the Machine Learning Stack on azure. Pretty much day one involved much of networking with the other MSP’s, Imagine Cup Finalists and the team from Microsoft.

Microsoft Student Partner Summit

18th March, Day one of the MSP summit –
After breakfast we took a bus direct to Microsoft Offices. One thing would catch your attention at the offices and this was Microsoft’s mission placed in bold and in light.
The first activity was a talk from GIST Network revolving around how to build a perfect pitch for your idea and put all the blocks together into a nice presentation.

The MSP Summit day 1 activity begun later in the afternoon as the Imagine cup finalists had their mentorship sessions. During this I had an opportunity to share with fellow MSP’s what it takes to run a student community on campus. 
Next, we teamed up for the open hack, work on an idea and pitch it the next day. Just like in all hacks this was a day where the better part of the night was spent writing the code. Follow the thread for the open hack projects here

Microsoft Student Partner Summit
Team iCropal, presenting at 2019 Imagine Cup EMEA regional finals in Amsterdam

19th March, second day of the summit and the day for the imagine cup final competition. –
This was a very inspiring day for me to see what student across the region can come up. I was glad to meet the team from Kenya Team iCropal. After the imagine cup competition I got the opportunity to have a chat with Wiley Larsen about a project I am currently working on. I got a lot of new ideas and how to cope with some of the challenges. Big thanks Wiley Larsen.

20th March Microsoft Ignite The Tour. Headed to Amsterdam Rai for the conference. –
I had chosen the Learning path Getting most out of your data. And out of the four session I attended one session (Using Artificial Intelligence to Augment Data) was captivating, and many people showed up for it. The day ended with a private dinner, yes for the first time I’m mentioning meals. This is why, during the dinner we had raffle tickets and five lucky individuals would win 250USD. Unfortunately, that was not me.

21st March, Final day in Amsterdam. Headed to Rai Amsterdam for the live Microsoft Mechanics Show. Spent the next 2 hours exploring the city. Checked out the hotel at 11 am.

This was an exciting moment to learn, network and explore. Special thanks to Pablo(Microsoft Imagine Cup, program manager) and the whole team from Microsoft for this incredible opportunity.

Follow Joshua Ndemenge’s exploits on twitter.

?: Microsoft Imagine Cup