Microsoft and cyclist Danny MacAskill recreate Cortana on the River Thames in London

Microsoft Cortana Event

Microsoft invited the media to the River Thames in London this evening to see something special, the #MakeItHappen stunt. The company put on quite the show for Cortana, partnering up with "legendary trials cyclist" Danny MacAskill who attempted to recreate the famous Cortana icon in a loop on his chosen two wheels. The end result was impressive, as was the show itself. MacAskill performed the stunt not only in the vicinity of the river, but in the middle, between the banks, aboard a float, and situated just in front of the London Eye.

A short video was played just before MacAskill dropped below from the stand he appeared on. The stunt itself was short, a single run through the loop with Cortana appearing in the background. What was interesting was just how much preparation went into the stunt, from MacAskill getting the idea in the first place (with the help of Cortana and his Lumia 930, of course) to actually testing the loop before the evening commenced.

Microsoft Cortana Event

So what does MacAskill and tonight's event have to do with Cortana? It's an interesting question, which was put forward to Microsoft's Adam Johnson once the event was over. Microsoft plans to show off Cortana and how the personal assistant is not only a handy feature for consumers to take full advantage of, but how it wraps everything together within a Microsoft ecosystem, coupled with Xbox One, upcoming Windows 10 and cloud-based services.

CATEGORIES
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

Latest in Cortana
Surface Laptop 4 Amd 2021 Keyboard Lights
Microsoft confirms Lapsus$ breach, denies danger of source code leaks
Cortana Face Eww
Lapsus$ claims to leak 90% of Microsoft Bing's source code
Cortana Play My Emails
Steve Ballmer tried to name Cortana 'Bingo' before leaving as Microsoft CEO
Cortana and Alexa
Microsoft's Cortana no longer integrates with Amazon's Alexa
Cortana Ios End
Today is the last day you can use Cortana on iOS and Android
Cortana Ios End
Cortana apps on iOS and Android now warn about their upcoming demise
Latest in News
Cloud servers
Microsoft has killed "several" data center projects in the U.S. and Europe, according to reports — Microsoft responds (Updated)
Photo of Microsoft's new sign-in page for Xbox.com using the Microsoft Edge browser.
Over one billion users will get a new Microsoft user experience, and it has a dark mode
The Thing: Remastered key art
The Thing comes to Xbox Cloud Gaming's "Stream Your Own Game" library alongside other new arrivals
Promotional screenshot of heroes fighting a giant in Pillars of Eternity
Obsidian's classic Baldur's Gate successor 'Pillars of Eternity' is getting a surprise turn-based mode later this year, alongside other updates
Atomfall
Atomfall reviews and Metacritic scores are in: Here's a roundup of what everyone's saying about this new Game Pass survival game
Screenshot of one of the new flat world presets in Minecraft.
Minecraft testing new flat world presets and a better way to locate your friends in-game