For day two I hit the road again to be at the office by 07:30. Metro after metro, I made it in, brought myself back to life with a cheese-filled simit and we kicked off the first session. In this session, Microsoft’s occupational health and safety specialist Kerim Koçoğlu walked us through what the signs around the office mean, what to do in emergencies, and what kinds of exercises we should do during and after work to look after our body.

Then Microsoft Türkiye Deputy GM Cavit Yantaç took the stage; he talked to us about building energy, raising awareness for our future, and what we can do to be authentic. He also explored why people working at companies in Türkiye don’t quite see those companies as their own — feeling instead like they might walk away any minute. Finally, he shared a handful of insightful tips for those of us about to step into the software world. To give one example: what matters isn’t promoting your app via ads after release, but improving its discoverability — the real game isn’t advertising, it’s getting people to love your app so it spreads organically.

After a short break, we jumped into a deeply informative session with Kerem Özsü on Mainframe, Client Server and Web Server. On top of that, we tried to work through database row-and-column logic by sketching a restaurant app live. Brainstorming venue info, address, menu items and like/dislike fields, we built a column-shaped database design together 🙂

Before the final break there was a nice billiards match — and my own superpower of sinking the cue ball into the pocket 8 times in a row is a separate adventure, but moving on.

And finally, Gökşin Bakır — who runs operations across 76 countries in Microsoft Middle East and Africa and sits on the team responsible for Windows-Azure — was with us. He wrapped up the day with insights on The Garage, Kinect, HoloLens, Cortana, Skype Translator and Windows Phone.