First Innovation Facility for Microsoft Based in U.S. to be in Miami

Microsoft Corporation has announced it will open its first training facility that is state of the art in Miami. It will also be the first such facility in the U.S. for Microsoft.

The software maker giant already has more than 100 of the innovation centers around the world. The center will be downtown in the area at the Entrepreneurial Institute Venture Hive.

Through the new center, Microsoft will offer services that are tech-related to local governments, faculty, students and start-ups. Microsoft Vice President Sanket Akerkar told news agencies that the new center would offer technologies and resources to move collaboration, learning and economic development forward.

The Microsoft announcement comes days prior to the eMerge America Techweek meeting, which is to promote innovation and technology within the region. This conference should get much attention from start-ups, investors and companies around the world.

In other news, Microsoft Corporation announced it would set up a new development and training center in Vancouver, increasing its employees in the area by nearly double by adding over 400 jobs and creating the largest center for the company in Canada.

The Canadian center will be called the New Excellence Center and will open before 2016 and estimates are it will inject over $90 million into the economy of British Columbia.

The President of Microsoft Canada, Janet Kennedy said the company was excited, as the center will be the anchor tenant in the redevelopment of the Pacific Center where it will be located.

Once the center is opened, Vancouver will be the largest base of employees for Microsoft in the country. Under the new Foundry Vancouver program, the U.S. based company will offer as many as 50 students at universities in Canada a 16-week paid internship every year, with the first this summer.

The company said Kennedy is always in search of opportunity and talent. The company has considered the area of Vancouver for some time, as well as other locations but at the end, Vancouver topped the list.