2020 Microsoft Events: Middle East and Africa Calendar

2020 Microsoft Events: Middle East and Africa Calendar

Microsoft events in the Middle East and Africa

Happy new year guys! Let’s start off the year by telling you about events to look forward to in 2020. We are putting together conferences and trade shows Microsoft will host or participate in across the Middle East and Africa. The 2020 Microsoft events in the Middle East and Africa target students, developers, IT pros, partners and customers.

We are sharing details of events we have confirmed. However don’t hesitate to share with us events we haven’t included; info@microsoftcaregh.com so we can add them. We will also have a separate post that will focus mainly on the various Microsoft meetup communities and their events across the MEA region.

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DATEEVENTLOCATION
January 11, 2020 Power Platform Ghana 2020 Accra, Ghana
January
30-31, 2020
Microsoft Ignite The TourJohannesburg,
South Africa
February 3,
2020
CyberGirlz annual Conference Microsoft Reactor –
Tel Aviv, Israel
February
4-6, 2020
Africa Tech Summit Kigali, Rwanda
February
10-11, 2020
Microsoft Ignite The Tour Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
February 29-2
March, 2020
Dynamics 365 Dubai Summit 2020 Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
March 9, 2020 IoT in Action Dubai, UAE
March 18-19, 2020Women in Tech AfricaCape Town, South Africa
March 19, 2020 Microsoft Envision Forum Lagos, Nigeria
March 31 and
April 2, 2020
DevConf Cape Town and Johannesburg,
South Africa
April
22-23, 2020
Microsoft Ignite The Tour Tel Aviv, Israel
May 7, 2020 SQL Saturday Israel Petah Tikva, Israel
May 19-21, 2020 MICROSOFT BUILD Seattle, Washington
July 18,
April 10-11, 2020
Power Platform Africa – 365 Saturday Lagos Lagos, Nigeria
July 20-24, 2020Microsoft Inspire Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
August 15, 2020 Power Platform South Africa 2020 Johannesburg, South Africa
September 27 – 1 October, 2020 GITEX GLOBAL Dubai, UAE

Learn about how you can win a Microsoft sponsored trip to DevConf 2019 in South Africa.

This Microsoft events in the Middle East and Africa list will be updated from time to time. As new events come up. Bookmark this page and check it often. Share your thoughts with us.

2019: Microsoft in Africa and the Middle East, year in pictures

2019: Microsoft in Africa and the Middle East, year in pictures

Microsoft Africa pictures  LEAP apprenticeship program

We look back at 2019 and acknowledge the year had some amazing surprises and announcements from Microsoft. Especially in the Africa and Middle East region where we focus. Let’s take you through some of these exciting moments through pictures.

Microsoft Africa pictures,  Microsoft virtual academy
Microsoft Virtual Academy homepage

Microsoft announced “we are consolidating our learning resources and retiring Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA).” The company however has a more modern and update learning page available to learn new skills and technologies.

startups

Microsoft lights up the Gulf startup scene, supporting over 4000 startups across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Yousef Khalid, CVP Azure Networking speaking about the Microsoft Africa datacenters

First Microsoft datacenters in Africa go live in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. With new services coming to the region.

Equity Equivalent Investment Programme

Microsoft announces evolved multi-million dollar Equity Equivalent Investment Programme for the South African economy.

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Black community at Microsoft celebrate 30th Anniversary.

Team Athena-IO from Tunisia, came in second place at the Europe Middle East and Africa Imagine Cup regional final championship qualifying round.

Microsoft opens second Policy Innovation Centre in partnership with the University of Pretoria and the South Africa Department of Science and Technology. 

Lagos
NB: not a corresponding picture to details below

This year Microsoft opened its Global Tuition Scholarship to students in Nigeria.

Verah Okeyo

Kenyan environment and health reporter, Verah Okeyo, wins Microsoft Modern Journalism and ICFJ Alumni reporting grant program award.

The shock announcement of the year! Microsoft opening a development center in Africa. The cognition or mixed reality team to be located in Lagos, Nigeria and the Windows team in Nairobi, Kenya.
Microsoft plans to invest a combined expected investment of US $100 million over the first five years of operation. The company will also recruit 500 software engineers across the two sites by the year 2023.

Upepo Technology

Upepo Technology, Kenya recieves Microsoft AI for Earth grant in the area of water innovation.

Nat Friedman, GitHub CEO and Microsoft Corporate Vice President, was in top GitHub contribution country Nigeria to interact with developers.

Africa and Middle East Partner of the year award winners and finalists announced ahead of annual partner conference, Microsoft Inspire 2019.

Microsoft United Arab Emirates

Microsoft announces two new cloud regions in the United Arab Emirates. The datacenters will be located in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Women Innovators

Women innovators in Kenya, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates to benefit from global expansion of Women in Cloud and IdeaGen Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Program.

20 teachers graduate from Microsoft Teacher Internship Program

20 teachers graduate from Microsoft Teacher Internship Program

Twenty technology ambassadors have graduated from the second cohort of the Microsoft Teacher Internship Program in the United Arab Emirates. The program organized in partnership with the UAE education ministry encourages the use of technology in the learning and teaching process. Enabling teachers to become technology ambassadors of tomorrow. Then empower the students to create the world of tomorrow.

Teacher Internship Program Microsoft UAE

Through the Microsoft Teacher Internship Program, teachers learn how to use Microsoft technologies to deliver lessons in the classroom. As well as empower students with twenty-first century skills.

Microsoft Regional Education Director, Ahmed Ameen Ashour, shares this about the program graduates.

Teacher Internship Program Microsoft UAE
Ahmed Ameen Ashour

Honored to announce today 20 new graduates from our Microsoft Teacher Internship program. Those teachers worked hard for 12 month learning about the best use of technology into teaching and learning. They will now be a lighthouse impacting all other teachers across the UAE. Congratulations

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Win a Microsoft all-expenses-paid trip to Devconf 2020 in South Africa

Win a Microsoft all-expenses-paid trip to Devconf 2020 in South Africa

devconf 2020

Microsoft Middle East and Africa Cloud Society is organizing a certification contest. That will see three winners receive a return air ticket to Cape Town, South Africa. The winners will attend a special Microsoft Media Event as well as DevConf 2020 software developer conference. Another ten winners will be selected for various prices including lunch with a Microsoft subject matter expert.

Microsoft says the contest is “to train IT professionals, developers and students in the Middle East & Africa on Cloud technology, while also rewarding them”. Everyone including Microsoft Partners are eligible to participate in the cloud society certification contest. Oh you must be eighteen years and above.

The skill-based contest is however opened to only people from the following countries. South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon and Mauritius. Let’s find out how to participate if you are eligible.

This is how the contest reads out;

Play an instrumental role in strengthening the security posture of your organization with professional cloud computing courses. Begin your journey today by taking our free, specialized courses on Security, powered by Azure on Microsoft Cloud Society and get incredible rewards along the way. What are you waiting for?

Steps to winning a trip to South Africa and DevConf 2020

1. Register to become a member of the Microsoft Cloud Society. If you aren’t already a member. Registration is free. If you are a member sign in with your account details. Kindly note that you’ll need to link your LinkedIn profile to your registered account.

2. Complete any 2 courses from the Security(Microsoft 365 Security or Azure Security) or 1 course from the Modern Workplace learning paths.

3. Get a free Course Completion badge/trophy from Microsoft when you complete the course.

4. Create a public post by sharing your Course Completion badge on LinkedIn or Facebook using the hashtag #iamacloudhero.

5. The top 10 posts with the highest total number of likes and shares on March 1st 2020 will win one of the below prize.

  1. Receive a one year LinkedIn Premium subscription
  2. Be featured on the Microsoft Cloud Society Homepage
  3. Have lunch with a Microsoft technical expert

6. Now to win the an all-expenses-paid trip to South Africa and attend DevConf 2020 and the special Microsoft Media event, you’ll need to take one more major step. That is get Microsoft certified for the course you took. Take a paid examination related to your course. Note that Microsoft cloud society members recieve a discount on the exams fee.

7. Share your Course Completion badge/trophy and paid Completion Certificate on LinkedIn and Facebook using the hashtag #iamacloudhero.

8. The top three participants with the highest total number of post likes and shares will get a chance to go to Devconf, Cape Town in March 2020.

Important!

Don’t forget to submit your entry to the competition when you complete the courses.

Visit the Microsoft Cloud Society page for more details on the contest. Also check out the competition terms and Conditions.

Got any other questions, thoughts or suggestions about the contest? Share them with us in the comments. Don’t forget to share this with anyone who will like or benefit from this. Thank you.

Early this year Microsoft organized the Cloud Society Future Summit and the Open Cloud Summit later this year.

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Microsoft Women in Software Engineering Kenya mentees present projects

Microsoft Women in Software Engineering Kenya mentees present projects

Women in Software Engineering Africa WISE4Afrika

WISE4Afrika, is a Microsoft Women in Software Engineering mentorship initiative introduced in Africa. The initiative is looking to create a culture where more females take up STEM. By exposing the participants to mentorship from other female engineers, executives, educators and entrepreneurs. Microsoft hopes through this initiative participants will pursue and land careers in the ICT industry.

Thirty female students have participated in the program since it launched in Kenya in partnership with Strathmore University. Receiving trainings in various emerging technologies including machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Months into the program, the Microsoft Women in Software Engineering Africa mentees showcase what they’ve been learning. The top six participants got to present their projects at the Microsoft Policy Innovation center.

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