Microsoft holds the “Learn What’s Next” event in New York City

On the second day of May 2017, Microsoft hosted its “Learn What’s Next” event in New York City. Themed around education, the event featured many new tools for students. New services like Microsoft Teams for Education, Minecraft Education: Code Builder, and Windows 10 S were announced as new services to help students be productive and learn in new ways. In addition, Microsoft announced a new Surface device, the Surface Laptop, built for students.

The event began with a keynote by CEO Satya Nadella, who talked of the greatness and potential of education.

“Today’s event is about education and technology. More specifically, it is about empowering the students of today to create the world of tomorrow,” said Nadella.

The keynote then transitioned to the announcement of Windows 10 S, the newest version of Windows, by Microsoft Executive Vice President of Windows and Devices Terry Myerson. The keynote then discussed new Windows educational tools, including Teams and Office 365, as well as Minecraft. The keynote culminated in the enthusiastic launch of the Surface Laptop by Panos Panay, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Devices.

But the real question is “Why education?” Microsoft has stepped out to talk education now.

“It really started when Satya refocused our mission on empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. And that really starts with students,” said Eran Megiddo, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of  Education. “If you want to achieve more in life, it’s about achieving more in school, learning how to read, how to write, arithmetic, all the way through coding and STEM skills… And starting from that mission, we really took it to heart…”

Overall, the event showed Microsoft’s newly-reaffirmed commitment to education, and how it planned to empower students. While it has had educational products and services prior, this event proved to bring out the best and the newest that Microsoft can provide.