Right now, as I’m writing this blogpost I’m on the airplane back to Norway. It’s quite amazing what technology enable us to do now days. Here, I’m sitting at an airplane and surfing the internet, posting new pictures to my Flickr account, talk with friends on messenger. Amazing! Just got to love technology!

Anyway, it’s not why I’m writing this blogpost! I’m writing this to say thank you to all the people that made Imagine Cup 2006 possible. Joe Wilson and his team from Microsoft that organized Imagine Cup and the World Final. To all the students from around the world participated in Imagine Cup. And last, but not least India who hosted this fine event! Looking forward to next years Imagine Cup!

Channel9 did an interview with Joe Wilson, check it out here!

I whish that students from Norway going realized how big Imagine Cup really is. You can’t find a better arena for showing off your skills, meet new friends and have fun. Next year I hope to see a Norwegian team in the Final as well!

Publicity from Imagine Cup 2006:

• http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2006/08/12/473687.html
• Computerworld.no 
• http://www.dagensit.no/min-it/article848038.ece
• http://www.digi.no/php/art.php?id=314315
• http://www.hegnar.no/IT-Kanalen/newsdet.asp?id=225807&cat=110
• http://www.nordlys.no/nyheter/article2230046.ece
• http://www.f-b.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060809/NYHET/60809012/0/FFK
• http://www.dagensit.no/bedrifts-it/article850515.ece
• http://www.nordlys.no/nyheter/article2232445.ece
• http://www.finnmarkdagblad.no/nyheter/article2230903.ece
• http://grunder.imaker.no/cgi-bin/grunder/imaker?id=1971
• http://www.amcham.no/news/news.asp?id=2165
• http://www.nettavisen.no/innenriks/article708217.ece

Today the winners of Imagine Cup 2006 where announced. We finished 3rd in the Software Design category.

Have to the blog later, because I’m on the way out to celebrate the achievement:)

Have added new photos from Imagine Cup to my Flickr account, check them out!

For the last couple of days I’ve been competing in the Imagine Cup 2006 World Final in Agra in India. We had a really interesting buss trip from New Dehli (where we arrived Friday night) to Agra. You can read more about that in Jonas blog.

There where in total 41 teams in the software category that qualified for the World Final in India. The first round of the final started yesterday (7. august). We and 11 other teams qualified from the first to the second round that was held today. Today we held a 35 minute presentation that I think went very well. The judges gave us a really god response on the presentation and the design of our product (MediWatch).

Tomorrow evening the 6 qualifiers for the third and last round are announced. Personally, I think we have a good chance. We did a good job today, “selling” our product to the judges.

I’m proud of us, and what we have achieved in this competition. Being one of the last 12 team in an Imagine Cup world final is an excellent achievement. There are so many talented students that have participated. I’ve seen some amazing products and solutions in the last couple of days. I feel privileged to bee here, and participating in this great competition against all the excellent competitors.

To give you an idea how big Imagine Cup really is, I want to point out some facts that I’ve learned in the last couple of days.

Imagine Cup is the largest technology competition in the world. It’s one of the highest profiled events in the international media. News stories covering the Imagine Cup 2006 have already reached over a quarter billion people. That puts Imagine Cup in the same category as the Oscar awards, a World Cup soccer match and Miss Universe!

More than 65 000 students from 100 countries have participated in Imagine Cup 2006. That is enough to fill a large soccer stadium!

I've posted some pictures from the Imagine Cup 2006 World Final on my Flickr account.

You should also check out my teammate’s blogs:

• J-K (Also known as Mr. PM)
• Jonas
  
• Hans Olav