A Busy Week for Microsoft in Silicon Valley

In addition to its long history and growing presence with more than 2,400 employees, Microsoft is a very active participant in all aspects of the Silicon Valley. This week is a great example of the breadth and depth of the company’s relationships within the tech industry, the venture community, entrepreneurs, media and community leaders.

Fox Business Network

On Tuesday, Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president, Strategic and Emerging Business Team, participated in an interview with Liz Claman on the Fox Business Network live from the Technology Museum. For the last three years, Fox Business has produced a special series called, “Three Days in the Valley.” This is a series of live interviews with top Silicon Valley CEOs and executives and one of the most popular interview series for the network. A key theme of the interview was Valley entrepreneurship, and Lewin highlighted the Microsoft BizSpark program for startups.

Web 2.0 Summit 2011

Later in the evening, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sat for a Q&A with John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media, at the Web 2.0 Summit 2011. The summit brings together 1,000 senior executives from technology, media, finance, telecommunications and entertainment. The theme this year is “The Data Frame,” focusing on the impact of data in today’s networked economy. With more and more services available online, big data is becoming a hot topic on the backend of the Web. Below is a photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in conversation with venture capitalists at the 12th annual Microsoft VC Summit, Mountain View, Calif.:

Ballmer in Silicon Valley

Annual VC Summit

On Wednesday, Microsoft hosted the 12th annual VC Summit at its Silicon Valley campus. The goal was to provide a strategic overview of the company’s big bets and product directions to the venture capital and angel investor communities so that they are aware of business opportunities available to their portfolio companies should they partner with Microsoft. Steve Ballmer and Dan’l Lewin were both on hand to lead an open dialogue with the participants. In the afternoon, Microsoft product teams held numerous workshops for the investor community.

BizSpark One Summit

On Thursday morning, 100 BizSpark startups participated in the BizSpark One Summit. Startup management shared insights about what it takes to be a successful tech startup and the benefits they have realized from the BizSpark program. They discussed the many challenges faced by entrepreneurial companies, and compared notes in a collaborative environment on the lessons realized. Local media participated by attending sessions and interviewing BizSpark One members.

Microsoft Sponsors Education Laureates at Tech Awards

Later that evening, Microsoft honored the winner of the Education Tech Award. Microsoft has been an active sponsor of the Tech Awards since their inception 11 years ago. The Tech Awards recognize 15 laureates in five categories, before an audience of more than 1,400 technology, business, community and academic elites, for their application of technology to address global challenges at the local level. The Tech Awards annual gala dinner is the premiere philanthropy event for the Valley and a signature program of The Tech Museum. The laureates were chosen from hundreds of nominations representing more than 60 countries. In addition to sponsoring the Education Tech Award, Microsoft hosted nearly 50 business leaders, community leaders, Microsoft leaders and media. Also honored was renowned philanthropist and social entrepreneur, Jeff Skoll, who was awarded the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award.

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

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