It will not be long before I start talking all about Imagine Cup 2009 and the plans we have locally in the UK and at the global competition level. And it's looking better than ever!

I did attend the Imagine Cup Paris finals, but failed miserably at blogging while I was there for a variety of reasons - 1. I was working like crazy over the 4 days I was there; 2. I was twittering at twitter.com/markjo 

So what is Imagine Cup 2009 all about? Three things really:

1. Solving all the worlds problems. This is great news, no longer just one theme to tackle but all the big issues facing society today. See Ed's post for more info

2. More Microsoft technologies to play with. 2008/9 is going to be a BIG year for Microsoft in terms of technology. Stuff like Software + Services, Silverlight, Robotics, XNA, Windows Embedded, Windows Mobile,...this list could go on for ages.

3. Great worldwide finals. Cairo, Egypt, Pyramids, bustling city, Sphinx, 'nuff said.  

I would encourage students to register early and start thinking about ideas for Software Design, Game, Embedded, Short Films, etc. Want some inspiration check out this post on what venture capitalists think the big potential software solutions are - YCombinator Ideas

Register and read more at www.imaginecup.com

(Image courtesy of HouseofSims) 

I've been at Microsoft for exactly 5 years today. Doesn't time fly!

What have I done since I started? Some highlights/history:

• Joined as an i- contractor to deliver technical events to students
• Built Project Hurricane - a social network/community thing before social networks were in fashion.
• Ran the Imagine Cup and coached teams to go to Japan and India worldwide finals. 5 out of the 6 students are now MSFT employees in product groups and MCS
• Became a Developer Evangelist looking at Silverlight and WPF technologies, part of the launch team for Windows Vista and Office to developers. (Presented in an old plane in winter...cold!)
• Moved over to Marketing as an Audience Marketing Manager with my old team. Done some cool stuff with Dreamspark, Imagine Cup, Student events, Channel 8 and more
• Been to 1 PDC, 2 Tech.Eds, 1 IT Forum, 2 MGXs, 2 TechReadys, 3 IC Worldwide finals, 3 role summits, 1 BillG PR event, other random Redmond visits and done hundreds of events, written a tonne of blog posts, travelled to every city in the mainland UK (I think).
• Made some really close friends
• Met my g/f and wife to be

Who knows where I'll go next?!?! ;-)

The Microsoft Art & Technology site showcases a load of Silverlight based web sites from Ice Cube through to Presidential Election sites. The site has:

• Background
• Hands on Sandbox
• Gallery of Silverlight sites
• Case studies

Microsoft Art & Technology

Joe Wilson's Pre-Kick Off: Imagine Cup 2008 Paris

I'll be there from 3 - 6 July with the 3 teams from the UK. According to Joe "Tom Cruise" Wilson it will be the only place to be this summer!

Can't wait. And I'm travelling from the uber-cool St Pancras station:

I'll try to blog a lot when I'm there to brief on the UK students and their progress...fingers crossed.

A week ago, the best students competing in the UK and our Microsoft Student Partners descended upon the offices of Windows Live in London. The day was a roaring success with leading Microsoft, government and industry speakers presenting on the themes of innovation, the environment and the future of the web.

I have uploaded the slides for the event here

There were winners across all 9 categories but the following teams are going to Paris in less than 3 weeks to compete against the best in the world:

Ben Nunney and Dominic Green, Software Design

Jason Parlour, Photography

Luis Hernandez-Munoz, Monica Jaime-Fonesca and Victor Landassuri, Embedded Development

I'd like to thank the following organisations for their support:

• Windows Live Search
• Huddle
• The Environment Agency
• DEFRA
• NxtGen Usergroup
• SysRepublic
• Cap Gemini
• Red Gate
• RM
• Rare Game Studio
• Windows Mobile
• ContentMaster

And of course, all the students from across the UK who came to the event! Check out the photos from the party and see if you can spot anyone you know.

Update: Michael Walsh pinged me an email internally to let me know of the www.microsoft.com/environment site. It has a tonne of information on Microsoft's commitment to sustainability.

Thanks to the Imagine Cup this year, I've spent quite a lot of time talking to government agencies, NGOs and commercial organisations who are focused on helping to combat or adapt to climate change.

It's really cool that you get a mail from a friend who I've worked with since I started at Microsoft who has started a business (he is a lecturer up in sunny Hull) that aims to save energy and therefore money on each PC. Here's the blurb:

Powerdown reduces the amount of energy used by the computers in your business by turning them off when they are not being used. This could save you up to £30 a year for every PC. By reducing your energy consumption you also reduce carbon emissions so it's good for the environment too.

If you are an IT manager then you are bound to be thinking about solutions like Powerdown to figure out ways to get the cost of electricity down. One of our evangelists Steve Lamb has been blogging about Green IT and sustainability.

Check out Powerdown here

We had this really slick video created to explain the Imagine Cup. It is now up on Channel 8 and I would encourage you to take 60 seconds to watch it. MarkT, my big UK boss, recently said in a presentation "beware the teenager in their bedroom" - well, marketing/ad/agency people - this is what one student did in their bedroom :-)

Imagine Cup UK - Achieve what you can imagine

My pal Chris (doesn't blog) has just launched the Microsoft Store. It offers a load of our consumer products and some developer+designer stuff as well.

Early days I know but I hope they will be loading this site with loads of MS and partner products in the future!

Go visit it @ www.microsoftstore.co.uk

I've been mad busy planning the UK Imagine Cup finals on the 5th June and haven't had a chance to stop....until we got a shipment of Popfly ducks for each of the attendees to the event!

Thought it was worth a post :-)

Ed has the detail on us trying something new with our UK StudentZine Facebook page.

The Facebook page features:

• Latest articles from the monthly newsletter
• Team blog posts
• Discussion boards to ask us questions
• Polls
• Competitions
• Videos

We know that Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites with university students in the UK and want to make sure you can get the most out of the student programmes Microsoft runs by putting content on there. And to kick things off we are giving away tickets to see the Foo Fighters play at Wembley on the 6th June - all you need to do is take a funny/creative photo of university life and upload it to the group.

Become a fan here - Microsoft UK StudentZine Fan Page

Andy has posted about XNA CC codes going into MSDN AA - great news if you are teaching games programming (or want to) and want to get your students building games on Windows and Xbox 360.

XNA Creators Club Codes are now in MSDN AA!

This stuff is just too cool! Can't wait to see what the UK finalists come up with and how many get through to Paris!

Hat tip to Mr Ed who is working with the teams in the run up to the finals to make sure they have all the right MS resources.

Some great advice from Philip (MS) and Perry, a marketing professor in the US, for Software Design competitors. This is great advice for UK competitors as they pull together their submissions for sending in on the 15th May.

The UK finalists are in a different situation in that they have already done their in-person pitch but there is a great opportunity to use these nuggets of advice on the screencast demo and A0 poster. Here are some tips from the video:

• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
• Focus on the customer - "give value"
• Tell a good story
• Summarising

The UK Microsoft Student Partner program is an award program for technical students at university who support their peers and demonstrate their passion for technology. That could be anything from running coding events, install fests, blogging, working with faculty as a lab assistant or just being the Geek God at your university halls.

Well, if you are any of the above - and you must be if you read my blog - then step on down.....

Application information can be found here - deadline is 26th May! 

And we thought you'd like to hear what this year's MSPs (2 out of the 61!) thought:

Stephen from University of Hertfordshire

Ben from Greenwich University

I blogged about this before here and now it has been released (in the US it seems).

In depth video from jkOntherun:

If there is anyone in HP UK marketing that wants to loan me one, I'll happily test it out! (I also know about 18,000 students who connect to our programs who might be interested) ;-)