In its first year of operations, the Microsoft Innovation Centre (MIC) at SkyParks attracted thousands of students, educators, youngsters, budding entrepreneurs, volunteers and workers from the ICT industry who found a welcoming place where to share ideas, learn and make the most of the available technology.
The centre, officially opened in February last year, has been so successful that a new satellite hub of the MIC will be opened soon at University of Malta to provide resources directly to students on campus.
Never as much as today have local students been exposed to IT and all its advantages
“The MIC is living up to its commitment to act as a catalyst, bridging the gap and bringing Microsoft and Malta’s IT specialists and business entrepreneurs into closer collaboration,” Adrianna Zammit, the Microsoft country manager for Malta and Cyprus, confirmed.
Malta’s MIC is one of the 110 centres in 40 countries around the world and, in its first 12 months, it hosted over 40 events with the participation of nearly 4,000 students, 500 developers, hosted over 20 user group events, trained over 2,000 teachers and is currently hosting 25 start-ups.
Activities range from practical hands-on technical training and certification, to housing and mentoring new start-up businesses, and providing business courses for students on the importance of business values and concepts. This includes workshops, prototyping opportunities, technical support and logistics to create innovative prototypes and collaboration with visiting experts to Malta.
“Everybody knows the giant leaps and advances that Malta has attained over the past few years, establishing itself as a centre of IT excellence. In light of this, having a Microsoft Innovation Centre in Malta is a milestone not only for Microsoft Malta but an important achievement for the country in its quest to further establish the IT sector as a main driving force for the economy. Never as much as today have local students been exposed to IT and all its advantages. But there is so much potential in this area to grow as IT is a fast-paced industry,” Ms Zammit insisted.
The centre is supported by partners that include BMIT, Go, PwC, Demajo Group and Newtech.
“Assisting start-ups, listening to their innovative ideas and seeing the developers’ passion makes me proud to work for an organisation that aims to support them in achieving their aspirations,” added Edward Portelli, business development manager at Microsoft.
“People simply do not believe the amount of support they can get from MIC and the partners; it is a great source of satisfaction.”
Mr Portelli pinpointed some areas where the MIC will seek improvement in the second year of operations. Communication with the different communities is one of them, while the MIC team will also be focusing on events targeting entrepreneurs.
“I believe there are not enough opportunities in Malta for entrepreneurs to network and share ideas. Expect more details shortly. Additionally, we are working to register the MIC as a non-profit organisation. This will allow us to explore new partnerships and services for the local IT community. Further to this, we are leveraging the team at Microsoft Ventures to connect local start-ups with accelerators and venture capital funding. We also have interest from local investors to invest in local IT start-ups and I am positive that this year we’ll see fruits of this,” Microsoft’s business development manager concluded.
Stefan Debattista can vouch for the support that start-ups can get from MIC after he got involved with his new ventures 8AM and ShowsHappening.
8AM (8am.com.mt) is an online network of job seekers and employers while ShowsHappening.com is a ticketing platform for events in Malta. The support he got included office space, access to Microsoft’s software and BizSpark programme, a subsidy to be hosted on Microsoft’s Azure platform, access to professional consultancy and business support.
“Microsoft has given us access to resources that would usually cost a considerable amount of money,” Mr Debattista explained.
“This allows us to direct a greater proportion of our profits to support the growth of the companies. Microsoft helped us reduce the capital we needed as well as our monthly costs to give us a better chance of being successful.”
Asked about whether he would recommend the MIC to other start-ups and innovators in Malta, the reply from the budding local entrepreneur in the ICT industry was straightforward.
“Definitely. We already have and will continue to do so!”