Experiencing Seattle with Microsoft Student partners!

Last Updated on 2022-07-10 by James Croft

It’s not every day that you get to go to Seattle with over 70 global Microsoft Student Partners. A weeklong experience full of technology and innovation from the genius minds at Microsoft.

In 2014, Microsoft whisked me out to Seattle on my first ever trip outside of the UK. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the Microsoft Student Partner Summit and Imagine Cup 2014 world finals. On leaving London for Seattle, I met up with three MSPs from different countries all on their way to the Summit.

Being a Microsoft Student Partner creates a bond between the students and technical evangelists involved in the program. There was no doubt that the people I met on this trip would become lifelong friends.

What we saw at the Microsoft Student Partner Summit

When we arrived in the US, we took a scenic trip to the University of Washington. This would be home to our base camp for the next week. We had an action-packed week of events hosted by Microsoft that gave us the opportunity to meet Microsoft tech gurus! We also got a lot of time to geek out over tech throughout the week too.

The first two days consisted of the Microsoft Student Partner summit. We had Scott Burmester, head of the MSP program, host us. We got to hear from a diverse range of speakers from Microsoft. This included product managers, as well as the managers of the Microsoft MVP program.

We had fantastic talks on how MSPs can take technology and use it to guide others into a career in technology. As part of my MSP experience, I did just that throughout 2014 giving talks on app development for Windows Phone, running a hackathon, and starting a YouTube channel to help people learn to code.

Displaying our own projects at Microsoft’s One Week hackathon

During the two days, Imagine Cup finalists and MSPs could present our own innovative projects to Microsoft employees. This is an experience like no other, the opportunity to get valuable insight into the minds of tech professionals.

I took up the chance to demo my final year project, which was originally an Imagine Cup project for 2013, called PhysiHealth. The interest in the idea behind the project was incredible, and I gained some insightful feedback on how I could improve the app.

Early in the week, Ben Lower provided all the MSPs with a brand-new Kinect for Windows developer kit. I was sure to put this to use with the PhysiHealth project to improve exercise tracking.

Attending the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals

What an experience this was for everyone! The students, MSPs and Imagine Cup finalists, received a backstage tour of where the finals were being held. It was a unique opportunity to make a grand entrance behind the thousands of attendees already waiting inside.

The experience was so unreal, a once-in-a-lifetime event that I’d never experience again. If you get the chance to attend an Imagine Cup final in person, do it!

Celebrating our last days together at the MSP Summit in Seattle

To wrap up the trip, Microsoft put on two awesome events for everyone to get involved in.

The first was a race around Seattle’s most famous sites using GPS waypoint devices. The MSPs teamed up with their country Imagine Cup team for this one.

We trekked the city, seeing all the sights we could. It was a team bonding exercise that has us learn interesting facts about the Seattle area.

It was a fantastic opportunity to network, as well as get some of those sights checked off the bucket list!

The end of the race had us take an elevator ride up the side of the Space Needle to the top to see the city from new heights.

The Imagine Cup After Party

As well as the race, Microsoft put on an awesome after party at the Musem of Pop Culture, formerly the EMP museum. It’s an innovative museum merging music, sci-fi and pop culture into one.

We got get the chance to roam the museum after hours all to ourselves. But the main event was the amazing music surrounded by the new friends we had made throughout the week.

How can you join in on the Microsoft student action?

While the Microsoft Student Partner program may not exist today, it lives on through the Microsoft Student Learn Ambassador program!

If you’re interested in activities you can get involved in with Microsoft as a student, do check out my post on how to do this!