Some 250 business executives, IT professionals and web developers convened at this year’s annual Microsoft Innovation Day to discuss new products.

Speakers included non-Maltese guests and Karl Davies Barrett, a Maltese who started his career at Microsoft Malta and is posted at Microsoft in Munich where he is responsible for technical promotion of the Windows Azure platform for Central and Eastern European.

IT developers explored the new features in Windows Server 2012 and its application within key scenarios such as management, deployment, virtualisation, networking, storage and more.

Microsoft Malta also presented its annual awards. Exigy Ltd won Partner of the Year Award; Intercomp Retail Partner of the Year; Smart Technologies Ltd SMB Partner of the Year; and Joseph Seychell won Technical Excellence of the Year Award.

Launched last year, the awards recognise and reward the achievements of local partners and customers who show the best effort in developing their partnership engagement with Microsoft Malta through their application of Microsoft tools and technology for more growth and also the most innovative usage of Microsoft solutions within enterprise.

Country manager for Microsoft Malta Adrianna Zammit said it has been an interesting and active year for Microsoft globally, with the release of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Office 365, Windows Phone 8 and Visual Studio 2012 across all global markets. In Malta these products were received with renewed enthusiasm also thanks to the efforts and commitment of all local partners.

“Microsoft Malta is committed to developing the local IT sector. An important announcement relating to the launch of the Microsoft Innovation Centre, a facility for collaboration on innovative research, technology and software solutions involving a combination of government, academic and industry participants,” she said.