Microsoft Innovation Center Brussels

BotKamp is a digital center. The definition is intentionally large because it is meant to welcome all kinds of initiatives referring to computers and high tech in general.

What you can find immediately when you enter is a set of 120 high end computers on which customers can play their favorite games together. There are tournaments organized, you have the possibility to rent machines for events or simply to play with a bunch of friends. After just a few months of opening, what you immediately notice, is the social mix of people you can find there; a largely diversified public comes together to seek what has always been a common human nature: play together and have fun.

“Having fun” doesn’t mean losing time. You can learn through games, you can develop your knowledge and skills. There is for example a large aspect of video games dedicated to self-development that is called “serious gaming”; pilots learning through simulators, surgeons learning how to operate before real life situations, politics communicating in a ludic way etc. Everything is possible if you think beyond boundaries and conventions.

To give people inspiration to create and find new ideas, BotKamp also hosts learning spaces. Microsoft Innovation Center and Technocité propose all kinds of initiatives. For example, the MIC Brussels already gave Kinect programming courses, it will also organize a women-only appathon on the 26^th of April. Technocité on its side proposes a large panel of classes, starting from discovering computers to programming complex video games.

On a medium and long term, BotKamp has the ambition to host developing initiatives in cooperation of its partners. The upcoming creators will have the unique possibility to test their software, game or any other output directly on people and gather live reactions. Here, creators and users, which are usually split and far away, will share the same field.

Don’t hesitate to come and talk about any initiative you think would be worth sharing in a nice and relaxed atmosphere.

Marc from Botkamp.