My Experience: Microsoft Student Partner Summit 2020
My journey of Student Partner with Microsoft began in October 2019, when I came across a LinkedIn post by a connection, posting about his selection as a Microsoft Student Partner. At that moment, I researched about this initiative and applied for it immediately. In January 2020, I was selected as a Microsoft Student Partner. It was a honor for me since I’ve always admired Microsoft as tech innovator since my childhood. While scrolling through our MSP Community, I came across link of this event of Microsoft Student Partners Summit in Delhi. Instantly I applied for this opportunity. Just week before the event, while I was returning from a hackathon my college in rapid transit, I came across the confirmation mail for the event. And so, that’s the back story of this event for me. Now, I would like to share my experience of the summit with all of you. Hopefully you like it since it was one of the best events of my life!
Venue
The venue for the event was a five-star hotel, named Le Méridien. It is one of the finest hotels in Delhi. It is located near Connought Place in Central Delhi. It was a twenty minute drive from my home to the venue. The venue was also well connected with Delhi Rapid Transit with nearest station Janpath requiring only ten minute walk to the venue. The event was scheduled for 9 AM. I was able to reach the venue without any hassle. My route took me just past the India Gate. So, I was able to have a glimpse of preparations for Republic Day. At the venue, we were greeted with a bag full of swags and a event card with my name on it! I will tell you what I got in the bag.
Agenda and Keynotes
There were a total of six keynotes for the day. The first keynote was taken by Mr. Pablo Veramendi, with whom I had a picture as well! He is the Global Head for the Microsoft Student Partner Program. He enlightened us by reminding us how special we were, and how big of an opportunity becoming a MSP is. He also told us a story about a South African MSP, who was also the only MSP in his whole country at one time. We were told about his work and we came to know that within one year, he was able to inspire 18 more people to become MSPs in South Africa.
Next keynote was Arkodyuti Saha, who told us about how to empower a developer community. We are reminded us of our responsibilities and duties as a MSP. We were reminded that our goal was not only organize events, but also spread the knowledge to others and in turn inspire them to become a better developer.
The third keynote was by Pragati Rai, who told us about Microsoft Avenger. She had worked as Operating Systems Programmer with PayPal and Motorola where she worked in the development of Android operating system. Her main agenda was to make everyone realize their best part in their personalities. She also told her interesting stories during her time as a Motorola and a PayPal engineer.
After third keynote, at approximately 12:30 PM, we had a great lunch! I was able to enjoy my favorite combination of brownie with ice-cream in dessert. I loved the lunch and was able to click lot of pictures around the venue. We also got opportunity to write our feedback and thoughts related to the event on a big white display board, during the lunch time.
Next keynote started at 1:30 PM. In this keynote, we studied Dockers and Kubernetes. I had hint of these topics since I was studying these in winter internship. We also got to see a practical session, to see how Dockers and Kubernetes can be deployed on Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform. This keynote was presented by Abhishek Gupta.
In next keynote, we got a idea about DevOps. We got an idea of workings in DevOps field and how DevOps works on Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform. This keynote was presented by Vivek Sridhar.
The last keynote was given by Paras Pundir. Where-in he told us about self branding, and also told us how each one of us represented a different self brand.
There was a closing keynote by Arkodyuti Saha, where he thanked us all for attending the summit. After the closing keynote, all of the attendees along with the speakers gathered at stage for a group picture! Apart form the group picture, we also were able to click plenty more pictures with our new friends and connections.
Takeaways
Networks and Friends
Probably this was the best part from the whole event. I was able to make lot of friends! Since childhood, I’ve been a little shy in making new friends. Here, I made friends and connections from different colleges in Delhi and even from other parts of the country! We created a good set of memories in just one day. Hopefully, we all will get more opportunities to meet them and interact with them in future! I was also able to learn about their interests and achievements.
Swags and Goodies
Swags, who doesn’t love them! We got lot of them here. All of us got a event badge with our name written on it, lots of stickers, a Microsoft pen, a great MSP notebook, GitHub cheatsheets (great for learning opensource programming using Github) and a beautiful T-Shirt! Beta MSPs event got more stickers, key-chain, certificate and a MSP themed bag. Since I was recruited recently, so I was just a alpha-one member, and didn’t got these Beta exclusive goodies.
Lessons and Experience
This was probably the most important take-away from the summit. I was able to learn my responsibilities and duties as a Microsoft Student Partner. I also realized that how big this opportunity is. Plus, I was able to get an idea as to how should I conduct myself in such an environment. There are plenty of challenges and responsibilities ahead of me. Hopefully, lessons from this summit make me overall a better person and a better professional. I am really thankful to Microsoft for giving me this special opportunity to be a Microsoft Student Partner. I knew how special this opportunity was, but at summit, it made me appreciate this opportunity even more!!
