Yesterday was Satya Nadella day! And what a day it was.
The third day of Microsoft Inspire began with a trip out to Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena to hear directly from Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella. As with last year’s Inspire, Satya’s Corenote was a major highlight of the Microsoft Inspire experience. The morning was packed full of mind-blowing statistics, inspiring insights, and a powerful energy. However even more exciting was a callout of recognition to the Collective’s very own Antares Solutions. Antares was recognised by Satya directly, as UNSW’s own Dr. David Kellermann explained their ground-breaking and innovative work with the UNSW School of Mechanical Engineering. Antares built a solution and toolset for UNSW that enabled the engineering school to better utilise Microsoft Teams. The solution is called QBot, and it provides personalised student scorecards, study packs based on individual grades, and much more. Dr. Kellermann explained the solution in detail, and how parts were able to become a reality after Antares became involved.
Attending the Corenote this year, we had our newest Cloud Collective employee; Marketing Manager Lara Vandersluis, alongside the rest of the Cloud Collective team. We all made sure to wake early to be some of the first people through the doors of T-Mobile Arena. We were hoping to secure seats on the floor right near the stage as we did last year – and we were successful! Lara only started with us this past Monday. Her first day of work was actually here at Inspire, so needless to say it has been wonderful to see her experience the magic of it all as I myself experienced it last year after being just two weeks into my role.
As with last year we had the crowd being rallied up in anticipation of Satya coming on stage. Massive stadium waves went around the arena, followed by some talented dancers performing to music that was written specifically for the event through a collaboration between a producer, rapper and sign language interpreter. The vibe was then very much set and we were all energized for the morning’s Corenote.
As Satya approached the arena’s centre stage, it was no surprise he was welcomed by thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd. He kicked off the morning with a heartfelt and sincere thank you to everyone for all the work we do each day to help Microsoft achieve their mission: To empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.
Satya highlighted three key numbers throughout his talk that underpinned the entire Corenote speech: 100, 17, and 7. The three numbers stand for the 100,000 employees of Microsoft around the world, the 17 million partners that work to make Microsoft’s mission a reality, and the 7 billion people on the planet that it is our mission to empower. As the rap song that opened the Corenote told us; ‘it’s all about, the 7 billion’.
These numbers illustrate how the Microsoft mission is about helping local communities create jobs, to increase productivity for the global economy, our society, and our world. And that’s the impact each of us can have – and that is our opportunity.
Satya also noted how it is up to Microsoft and its partners to work together to make every small business more productive; to make every large business more competitive; to make every government more responsive; to expand access to education; to improve healthcare outcomes; to amplify human ingenuity. Satya noted how when we empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more, we empower the world.
Here are some interesting stats and comments that I noted from Satya:
- 14 trillion dollars will be spent on tech by 2030
- 10% of global GDP will come from tech by 2030, with 90% coming from non-tech
- Tech intensity = (Tech adoption x Tech capability) x Trust
- You can’t claim trust; you have to earn it each day
- Hiring of software engineers is growing 11% faster in non-tech than in tech – an example of this stat is the number of software engineers is growing 3x the rate of mechanical engineers in the auto industry
- An average car has 150 million lines of code and Ford Motor company alone has 8000 developers in GitHub
- GitHub is now a way of life with 36 million developers calling it home
- There will be 50 billion connected devices by 2030
- 90% of all data in the world has been created in the last two years
- Azure is the world’s computer, with 54 Azure regions worldwide
- 500 million apps will be created in the next five years however 73% of data is not being analysed
- 9 billion microcontrollers are shipped every year
- Data will fuel everything going forward, and Microsoft is building a limitless data estate
- There are 2 billion first line workers worldwide, with 77% of them not having the tech they need to be productive
As the Corenote continued we heard more amazing stories from customers and Microsoft staff as they joined Satya onstage.
A video explained one of these amazing stories featuring Dr. Raymond Campbell with Phulukisa Health Solutions. He covered how challenging it has been to provide good healthcare in South Africa, especially in rural areas. However, in working with Microsoft, the non-for-profit have been able to weave the tapestry of the future by developing a Cloud enabled backpack for their field medical specialists. This backpack allows them to test for common diseases such as HIV, tuberculous, diabetes, and heart disease. The field doctors can receive test results in minutes rather than days. The backpack has also allowed their team to address South Africa’s very high maternal mortality rate. Pregnant women can be screened in their homes and get results quickly. This technology was life-saving for one case highlighted where a mother who had previously experienced a miscarriage was able to have the tests and treatment she needed.
Another mind-blowing moment involved a demonstration of Mixed Reality and Azure AI services given by Julia White, CVP of Azure Marketing. Using the Hololens 2, Julia rendered a lifesize hologram of herself live on stage and gave a keynote fully translated into fluent Japanese, even though she does not speak a word of the language. The technology even translated her English keynote using her same voice tone and inflections. The hologram demonstrated how she could give this type of address anywhere in the world without physically having to be there, in the native language of the audience it was being presented to. Not only was this demonstration amazing, but we also learned that all the technology powering it is available right now – and as Julia said, it is truly a game changer.
The most exciting moment for the Cloud Collective team in attendance was definitely Dr. Dave Kellermann’s explanation of the Qbot solution built by Antares I mentioned earlier. We have since learnt from Microsoft’s Chief Storyteller, Steven Clayton, that the demonstration by Dr. Kellermann was quite a last minute addition. In fact, only 2 weeks prior to the Corenote, a completely different demonstration was setup and ready to go for the day. After Satya met with Dr. Kellermann directly to discuss the project and Antares’ solution, Satya insisted to his team that it be included. Steve exclaimed at the Australian Corenote on Thursday how he was apprehensive about the last-minute change at first, but after watching a video of Dr. Kellermann sent to him by Satya, he knew including the demonstration was a ‘no-brainer’.
The experience at the Corenote was truly an inspirational ‘Satya day’, made all the more special by the recognition the Cloud Collective received in front of the entire Microsoft community. I highly encourage you to watch the video reply of the session as it will have you fired up about the future that is in store for all of us, whether you are a part of the ‘tech world’ or not. As Microsoft Inspire comes to a close, Microsoft Ready is now just kicking off. It has been an incredible experience here in Las Vegas for the ten of us from the Cloud Collective team that were in attendance. Thank you once again Microsoft for another very special Inspire – we are already looking forward to next year!
Written by Eric Coffman and Lara Vandersluis
