“We might be a small country but we truly hold a huge potential, a potential we will keep nurturing and developing,” promised Adrianna Zammit, country manager for Microsoft Malta and Cyprus during her opening address at this year’s Microsoft Innovation Day, an annual event dedicated to a select group of business decision-makers, IT professionals and developers in Malta.

“The Microsoft Innovation Centre 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 collabor-ations. In its first nine months, the MIC hosted over 40 events with the participation of 3,200 students, 500 developers, hosted over 20 user group events, trained over 2,000 teachers and is currently hosting 25 start-ups,” she added.

Over 250 guests attended the event, which included a number of technical demonstrations and information sessions.

Ms Zammit explained Micro­soft’s global strategies and drew parallels with Microsoft Malta’s activity and vision for the local sector. “It is a reality that 37.2 per cent of the world’s working population are mobile workers.

“Microsoft estimates that by 2016 one billion people will have access to smart phones and two billion will have gained access to the internet, meaning that more and more workers will need to have access to mobile devices.

“This is presenting a new challenge and Microsoft is creating a diverse breed of devices that will need to be interconnected and in sync. This runs parallel to Microsoft’s strategy to cloud computing, where our direction is to ensure that customers enjoy the exact same experience on whatever device they choose to operate. Cloud computing is the fastest-growing technology that Microsoft has ever seen.”

Referring to local operations, Ms Zammit referred to how Microsoft Malta has this year been focusing on three main areas.

“We have a national commitment to driving economic growth, to empowering our youth and supporting e-government services and technologies.

“We have also worked a lot on the Microsoft Malta brand where we now operate from brand-new offices in Skyparks, adjacent to our MIC, so that we can focus more on our communities and support students and start-ups working from the MIC. We are also committed to establishing the Microsoft Malta brand internationally.”

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