Everything that the world may become "someday" lies in the hands of young people today. As they look at the road ahead, their close relationship with technology enables them to dream in ways we never have before. Put the two together, and you have young minds holding the tools that can make their vision a reality.
 
This is the recipe that inspired Microsoft to create the Imagine Cup. What begins with a burst of inspiration and a lot of hard work can become a future software breakthrough, a future career, or a flourishing new industry. The Imagine Cup encourages young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world – today. Now in its eighth year, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a global event. In 2009, more than 300,000 students from 142 countries entered the Imagine Cup competition.
 
Imagine Cup has grown to be the premier student technology competition in Gulf. Almost 2000 students registered in 2009 and registrations are expected to increase to 9000 this year.
 
Students from all over Gulf put their minds, creativity, skills and efforts together to solve the world’s toughest problems.
 
1,983 student registrations in Imagine Cup in Gulf in 2009
• Partnered with du to run local mobile competition
• Partnered with CNBC Arabia for monthly Imagine Cup TV show
• 32 Top stories in Gulf media outlets
• 7 TV broadcasts and interviews
• 49 teams entered the local Software Design competition
• 4 teams from the Gulf advanced to the World Wide finals in Egypt (2 UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain)
• Team from Sharjah University (UAE) placed 5th worldwide in People’s Choice Award
• Spawned “Imagine Us” competition for younger students in conjunction with the UAE Ministry of Education
 
Imagine Cup is used locally to fuel innovation, drive creativity and create student led startup companies in the countries as part of the ICT economies. Students in Gulf have outperformed themselves and have shown high levels of innovation and advanced technical skills. They have shown the region that they can compete on a global scale to create and develop applications that will solve worldwide problems in new and innovative ways.
 
Imagine Cup is available in all countries around the world with Microsoft Gulf covering the following countries:
 
1. United Arab Emirates
2. Kuwait
3. Qatar
4. Oman
5. Bahrain
6. Yemen
 
This year the Gulf Regional finals will take place in May 2010 in Dubai to bring together the top teams from our countries and have the students compete to be recognized as the best in Gulf and have a chance to advance to the world wide finals in Poland.