Microsoft’s Middle East and Africa(MEA) Multi-Country Cluster(MCC) was declared Top subsidiary Award winner for Small and Multi Countries Subsidiary Category for FY19. Announced at Microsoft Inspire and Microsoft Ready 2019 partner conference in Las Vegas.
Formed a year ago, the MEA MCC includes countries in Africa(minus South Africa and Egypt), Indian Ocean Islands, Levant and Pakistan. I remember when Ibrahim Youssry Microsoft General Manager MEA MCC visited Ghana to talk to Partners. The forum was to introduce the MCC and share Microsoft’s one core vision with partners.
Ibrahim Youssry joined top Microsoft executives including CEO Satya Nadella on stage for the recognition. Watch this in the video below.
I am incredibly honored and proud to announce that Microsoft MEA Multi-Country Cluster (MCC) has been selected as the top Microsoft subsidiary. This is an amazing recognition of our collective collaboration and commitment to serve our customers in the region which spans across Africa, Indian Ocean Islands, as well as Levant and Pakistan. The award comes as we celebrate one year of the MCC subsidiary, and as I take a moment to reflect on this achievement, I feel utmost pride and appreciation. To all our staff located across the 67 markets of our subsidiary, and for our valued partners, thank you all for making it all possible!
Microsoft Ignite The Tour will take place in Johannesburg, Tel Aviv and Dubai in 2020.
Microsoft’s annual technical training for developers and IT professionals conference, Ignite, will be hitting the roads again. Microsoft Ignite is going global and will be in a city near you next year. This will be after the main Ignite conference takes place November 4th to 8th 2019 in Orlando, Florida.
Like last year Microsoft promises to bring the same vibe to you during a two day event on this tour. Get to learn ways to build solutions as well as migrate and manage your infrastructure. Meet people in software development, security, architecture and IT. Get hands-on and deep dive experiences in areas such as security, cloud and hybrid infrastructure and development.
In the Microsoft Middle East and Africa region the events will take place in Johannesburg, Dubai and Tel Aviv. The Johannesburg, South Africa event is scheduled to take place January 30-31, 2020. Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 10-11, 2020 and April 22-23, 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Promising over 100 sessions the event will help you grow your skills, explore new technology and connect with Microsoft engineers. If you are planning to attend there will be so many topics and sessions you’ll need to tailor the experience to what you want to leave with.
Again I echo, dear Microsoft can we have some of these events across West, North and East Africa? Thank You. I think I have spoken the mind of a lot of developers and IT Pros in the region. Also with the launch of the Africa Development Center this should be a thing.
Head over to the Microsoft Ignite The Tour event pages of each city.
Registration links aren’t live yet for Dubai and Tel Aviv. We will update this post once this happens. Update: Links for Johannesburg and Dubai are live, click to register.
Have you had an experience at any Microsoft developer or IT Pro event? Share your experience with us. Looking forward to attending? Share your thoughts with us.
Some of the software developers hired by Microsoft speak out about their journey and the opportunity to be part of something amazing. Listen to them talk below. Want to join the Microsoft ADC check out opportunities.
All-Female Microsoft LEAP Hackathon event in Nairobi.
I thought it was going to be just an ordinary hackathon, when I first heard about the Microsoft LEAP hackathon. Where you just go and compete for prizes and that is it. Says Rosianah Musyoka, selected participant at Microsoft LEAP hackathon in Nairobi, Kenya.
“I was very excited when I got the acceptance email to participate in the program. My expectations were surpassed, interacting with some of the Microsoft engineers and learnt quite a lot from them. I gained a lot of knowledge around Microsoft Azure and made new friends.” she shares.
Microsoft selected twenty-six female developers to participate in its maiden LEAP hackathon event in Nairobi, Kenya. With a similar event underway for female developers in Lagos, Nigeria. An initiative of the recently launched Microsoft Africa Development Center in both cities. The all-female hackathon event “is to strengthen the place of women in the tech ecosystem” Microsoft says.
Learning
Participants were taken through four days of learning: Microsoft Azure, Azure DevOps, Azure AI, Machine Learning, etc. technologies. As well as hacking ideas using learnt technologies.
For Rosianah Musyoka the Microsoft LEAP
program was amazing. She hopes there we will be more of such in Kenya. Sharing that some of the things she learnt
during the event aren’t taught in school. Rosianah is a computer science final
year student at the University of Nairobi.
“Through the program, we have gained lots of skills which have equipped us to become better developers. The trainers who were all Microsoft employees were great, friendly and always ready to help.
Most of the things learned within the one week of the LEAP hackathon are not taught in school. It started with learning how to write maintainable and testable code, learning about dockers and containers, Azure Dev Ops, Azure custom vision, Azure machine learning studio among others.
In addition, we were exposed to other key nontechnical skills which are important when creating systems. These include creating a system that is inclusive of everyone, trustworthy, transparent, etc.”
The female developers were put in teams and tasked with solving societal problems in Agriculture and financial services industry (FSI). Requiring them to develop creative solutions using the technologies they’ve learnt. Rosianah and her teammates emerged winners of the hackathon event. Designing a web application powered by Microsoft Artificial Intelligence. The app helps Maize farmers predict and manage pests and diseases, predict harvest time and the yield amount as well as connect buyers to the farmers.
Hacking Ideas
“During the hackathon my team came up with a project which focuses on two main users, maize farmers and maize vendors. The problems we are solving for the farmer include: Lack of information about pests and disease and how to manage them. Lack of ready market access. Unpredictability of yield and harvest time. Due to this, the farmer is unable to plan for his business well.
The problems we are solving for the vendor include: Unpredictability of supply, hence the vendor is unable to plan for business. Lack of a reliable supply.
We solved the above problems using a web application powered by Azure AI services to: Help farmers predict and manage pests and diseases. Predict harvest time and the yield amount. Connecting Buyers and Farmers.
It was great to work on solutions that positively impact our society. Our solution was motivated by the problem, not any technology.
We had to think about the business model for our project, any similar projects that have launched and even competition market. We also brought in some knowledge acquired in school such as design thinking (developing for the user), business management and entrepreneurship among others to ensure that we do our project well and to completion.”
#MSLEAPHACKATHON#Microsoft I am really excited. My team and I won the competition. We hot ourselves some interesting prizes including ???
The winning team will continue to receive mentorship and assistance from Microsoft in building their project into a realization. Rosianah hopes their idea when actualized, will be used by farmers and maize vendors soon.
Chris Lwanga, Microsoft Senior Director, Software Partnership shared Microsoft’s desire to empower Africa’s youth, developers and startups to excel. He shared this as a keynote speaker at MEST Africa Summit 2019 and MEST Africa Challenge in Nairobi, Kenya.
Speaking to the audience he highlighted the need to focus on the youth and empower them to make an impact. Chris says “Microsoft’s doors are open to students, developers and startups”, an iteration of projects like Head Start.
Microsoft also led sessions on Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence and expounded on the Microsoft cloud.
OZE(Ghana), Snode Technologies(South Africa) and Wayawaya Ltd(Kenya) tied to win the MEST Africa Challenge. They will each receive $50K in equity investment from MEST Africa and $25K in credit from Microsoft.
