In the next few weeks we will be featuring promising and successful New Zealand BizSpark startups and ISVs on this blog. This week’s featured startup is Secured Signing . Secured Signing is one of the first members to graduate from our BizSpark program...

                    The BizSpark program gave startups in Asia Pacific an opportunity to be chosen to pitch at DEMO Asia 2012 in Singapore at the end of February...

            Startup Weekend has seen success with hundreds of events across the globe. Since its inception in 2008, the program has expanded to help more than 45,000 startups in 100 countries. The...

This blog post is brought to you on behalf of the NZ Hi-Tech Trust. Entries for the 2012 NZ Hi-Tech Awards close in just over six weeks. You can now enter the Hi-Tech Awards online . Register once and then choose the categories you want to enter. It is...

DEMO Asia, Singapore, 29 Feb – 2 March 2012                     In conjunction with our partners Startup Weekend and Founder Institute , Microsoft BizSpark...

  If you are based in Auckland, New Zealand and are a new software startup you may be interested in attending this:       Microsoft BizSpark in association with Forbes.com World Top 10 Technology Incubator The ICEHOUSE, is running...

TechEd New Zealand 2011 will run from Wednesday 24th August until Friday 26th August, once again at SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland.  The list of tracks is available now and we have opened the Call for Topics so you can submit a session or two...

If you are trying to install the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit on Windows 7 Service Pack 1, make sure you have downloaded the February 2011 release of the training kit. The February release includes bug fixes to a number of labs as well as updates...

In a couple of weeks time we are on the road with our latest Unplugged developer and IT Pro sessions. This time round we are covering ASP.NET MVC 3, Razor, Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Azure in the developer sessions. In the IT Pro sessions Nathan...

  We still have some space available for our 3 day Windows Azure Deep Dive Hands on Lab training next week in Auckland (Wednesday 23 rd – Friday 25 th February). Abstract The Microsoft Developer & Platform Evangelism team is pleased to announce...

We still have space available for this Innovation Academy Event for start ups and entrepreneurs on Monday 21st February in Auckland.       The Innovation Academy is packed full of tips from experts and entrepreneurs who know the steps to...

The Windows Azure Platform Discover Event is specifically designed for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and software start ups interested in learning more about the Windows Azure Platform. These are one day events being held worldwide with the goal...

If you are a start up that has joined our BizSpark programme hopefully you are enjoying your access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses of server products (including Windows Azure Platform...

If you have been following the latest Azure platform developments that were announced at PDC10 you may be keen to try Azure for yourself. Well the good news is that there is an introductory offer that allows you to have a tinker with Azure and get a feel...

An update for the Windows Phone 7 Developer tools was released in the last couple of weeks. The update is available here and provides: A new Bing Maps Control that improves map performance during user gestures The Capability Detection Tool, which scans...

We have recently put together a case study showing how Integrid are using Windows Azure for their product, GreenButton. If you were at Tech·Ed New Zealand this year, you would have seen Dave Fellows, Lead Architect at GreenButton, do a fantastic demonstration...

This is a guest post written by Stuart Bale. Stuart Bale is a software strategist with a wealth of experience in the industry, having worked in everything from code cutting to consulting. He has the advantage of being involved at all levels with a wide...

In time for the general release of Office 2010, local ISV, Starsoft , has just released the latest version of Ezidoesit , a plugin for Outlook 2010 (and earlier) that allows you to tame your Inbox. This latest release builds on .NET 4 and is available...

Continuing our series of profiles of New Zealand BizSpark companies, we have Contrast Media. Contrast Media have developed a Mobile Tagging solution named HardLink that uses Windows Azure and Microsoft Tag (or QR Codes). You can also find a video interview...

The latest in our continuing series of interviews with BizSpark start-ups and Network Partners has been posted on the Microsoft Spark New Zealand website . This time we are talking to Steve Corbett , CEO of the e-Centre in Albany.  A number of New...

Litmos , a start-up in the Microsoft BizSpark programme we profiled here , has been announced as a finalist in the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards (in the “HiFx Innovative Service Product of the Year” category).   Congratulations to the team (Rich...

Have you filled in the Microsoft New Zealand Developer Survey yet? This is your chance to win a trip to the next Microsoft Professional Developer’s Conference in L.A. We really want to hear your thoughts and opinions on how we can serve you better so...

As part of of our BizSpark promotional activities mentioned in my previous post, we’ve started highlighting local start-ups in the BizSpark programme. Our first case study and video was with Litmos , an online Learning Management System. Here is the case...

This month we’ve started doing some promotion of our three Spark programmes; DreamSpark , BizSpark and WebsiteSpark . These are programmes created to help students, entrepreneurs, software start-ups, young web design companies and next Bill Gates’ get...

If you are a member of our BizSpark programme for start ups and located in North Island from about Napier north, you probably have received an invitation to some Innovation Academy training next week. This training is designed for start up software businesses...