Students see first-hand how technology transforms everyday living at Tech Days 2015

Several Microsoft Student Partners from Belgium recently attended TechDays 2015 in Paris, an intense, information-rich mega conference that offers non-stop sessions that last all day. This highly attended conference focuses on exposing IT pros to a new technology (in a day or two) so they have the confidence to deploy and then implement the technology wherever they work.

But why should students like you, who might not have started a career yet, attend TechDays?

From right to left, the Belgian MSPs at TechDays 2015 in Paris, France: Sebastiaan Polfliet, Quentin Devos, Alexis Georges, Julien Lebutte, Julie Cugnon, Alexander Clerbois

We caught up with three Microsoft Student Partners – Sebastiaan Polfliet, Alexis Georges and Julie Cugnon – to ask them how attending TechDays can benefit student developers.

From left to right: Sebastiaan Polfliet, Alexis Georges, and Julie Cugnon

He was speaking of sessions such as “Geek in da House” (which you can watch in French here) where a developer walked through a simulation of all the cool tech available for everyday use in a home. The conference focused on hot topics such as the Internet of Things (IoT,) and this session demonstrated the automation of water, gas and electricity counters.Sebastiaan attended his first Microsoft TechDays as a 16-year-old student in 2010. What keeps him going back year after year? Turns out it’s the perfect complement to his formal education. “You learn from the experts straight away! It’s very practical, not as theoretical as university can be.”

“Geek in da House” also made an impression on Julie Cugnon. Julie said, “It was really impressive to see how mobile technology can be used to automate tasks such as water and energy usage, all in one program.”

Julie thinks there is value in attending TechDays because it exposes you to all the things you don’t know and how technology is used in the real world to benefit more than just IT people.

Alexis Georges agreed. Alexis attended one session called “Coding4Fun,” where developers created silly projects just to show off the power of code. For instance, a developer named David Catuhe designed a safe Web browsing program for his young daughter called “Pony Browser.”

“Pony Browser” censors photos and videos that may not be age-appropriate for his daughter. However, he didn’t want her to just see a big CENSORED alert covering photos and videos flagged as inappropriate by the browser. Instead, he created a function to replace those censored items with a picture of a pony.

Clearly, the three MSPs left with a new understanding of how technology not only has the power to change the world, but how it can change people’s everyday lives in and around their homes. TechDays brings technology to life, into the real world of everyday, practical use.

Consider attending a TechDays near you. The next TechDays will be held in the Netherlands on May 28 and May 29 and in the U.S. in San Francisco on June 5 and June 6.

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 21, 2015
  CAn you Arrange this in India for US