Judging Microsoft Digital Innovation Contest
A week and a half ago, I had the pleasure of judging a number of entrepreneurial initiatives for Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition. It was great to see how innovative and dedicated Colombia’s youth can be to creating great technology while helping out the needy. As usually happens during these events, it is a truly enjoyable experience not only to meet these youths, but also to meet and get to know my fellow judges.
We debated the merits and weaknesses of the different competitors. I had a favorite that tried to solve an important problem (poverty) by applying better information design. Unfortunately, they had some snafus with their presentation and demo and I was unable to vote for them as the winner. We ended up giving the final prize to a sharp group with an incredibly polished presentation and they will be traveling to Poland to represent Colombia. I wish we could have had the winning team train the other team to be more polished and to finish off their software as I think it would have been an excellent presentation in Poland. Nevertheless, I’m sure the winners will do a great job!