This July at the Imagine Cup World Finals in Seattle, the top team from each category – Games, Innovation and World Citizenship – will take home $50,000. Now, thanks to a trio of new partnerships, each of those teams is also going to have a life-changing experience.
Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft YouthSpark and PAX will provide a customized Boot Camp for each of the category winners.
The winning team in the Innovation Category will be sent to either London, Berlin or Tel Aviv to spend four weeks in a Microsoft Ventures accelerator program. As part of the global Microsoft YouthSpark initiative to offer education, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for young people, the winning team in the World Citizenship category gets a trip to Microsoft global headquarters for a week of intensive sessions curated specifically for the team and their project. The winners in the Games category will go to PAX Prime in Seattle and demo their game to attendees, gaining exposure and hands-on feedback from some of the most dedicated gamers in the world.
Starting this month, a new series of Imagine Camps is also launching. These free, two-day events will help student developers improve their skills, while on-site experts review their projects. Available in more than 70 countries around the world, these events will help support the Imagine Cup Windows & Windows Phone Challenge, which asks student teams to create “better together” pairs of apps for both platforms in collaboration with a local business, artist, performer or nonprofit in their community.
Another big opportunity for one World Finals winning team is a private meeting with Bill Gates.
To find out more about these new Imagine Cup prizes and opportunities, head over to the Imagine Cup Official Blog.
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Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff