Most partners know that selling with Microsoft is a priority heading into FY27, but far fewer know how to make it work in practice. The gap is rarely about effort. It is about execution, knowing what Microsoft’s field teams respond to, how to position yourself in a crowded ecosystem, and how to build the kind of relationships that generate pipeline before a deal is even on the table.
At Ultimate Partner LIVE Bellevue, May 11-13, some of the sharpest practitioners in the Microsoft ecosystem are coming together to share what works. These are candid, practitioner-led sessions built for senior leaders who need to walk away with something they can use, not a framework to revisit in six months.
🏛️ Sessions Worth Your Time
đź’° Marketplace Meets AI: The New Route to Partner Revenue
Cyril Belikoff, VP Microsoft Azure · Jon Yoo, CEO Suger
Cyril Belikoff helped architect the unified Microsoft Marketplace and launched the resale enabled offer, which lets channel partners bundle software development company solutions and transact against Azure commit. Within the 1st week of GA, partners were already processing deals at scale. Cyril joins Vince Menzione and Jon Yoo, CEO of Suger, on Day 1 to cover where the AI-driven marketplace motion is heading and what partners need to do now to capture their share of the revenue flowing through it. Cyril’s advice for the partner still on the sideline is direct: do not try to boil the ocean. Get listed. Create offerings. Figure out 1 or 2 deals, transact them, and see the opportunity. This session gives you the map.
🎯 From Attention to Trust: The New Rules of Hyperscaler Go-To-Market
Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO Transcends · Leigh Ann Campbell, Principal REV Alliances
We are no longer in an attention economy. You are not competing to be seen. You are competing to be trusted, and the shift has a specific mechanism. AI agents are already making procurement decisions using verified signals: co-sell track records, Partner Center data, marketplace history, certifications. The partners building that record now are building an advantage that compounds quickly and is difficult to replicate later. Leigh Ann Campbell has driven over $200 million in influenced and net-new revenue through the Microsoft partner ecosystem. She knows what happens to a referral the moment it lands in Partner Center and what you need to do to make sure it does not die there. Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO of Transcends, brings the broader GTM lens on how the trust economy is changing what buyers respond to and where most partner marketing misses the mark.
🚀 Partner to Pipeline: Activating your GTM Strategy
Reis Barrie, CEO Carve Partners · Greg Goldkamp, Sr. Director Microsoft
This is the rare combination of a partner who has built real pipeline through Microsoft’s co-sell motion and a Microsoft leader who can tell you directly what gets field attention and what gets ignored. Most software companies approach co-sell as a relationship exercise. The ones generating real pipeline treat it as a system. They know which solution plays are active in the current fiscal year. They show up in seller conversations before a deal is open. They make it easy for a Microsoft seller to bring them in because the pitch is already mapped to what that seller is measured on. This session covers how to build that system, from first registration in Partner Center through closed pipeline.
🔗 From Connector to Catalyst: Today’s Alliance Manager
Erin Figer, Founder CORE Consulting · Christine Bongard, CEO The WIT Network · Steven Karachinsky, CEO ZIRO
Erin Figer helped build the co-sell practices at Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud when those programs were still being designed. She brings a reframe that changes how the best alliance teams operate: before you can market with a hyperscaler, you have to market to them. Treat Microsoft like a customer. Understand their priorities, their fiscal calendar, their field incentives. Build the internal credibility that gets you pulled into deals instead of chasing them. Joined by Christine Bongard and Steven Karachinsky, this session covers what the transition from connector to catalyst looks like in practice and what separates the alliance managers who generate revenue from those who manage relationships.
đź’ˇ Why the practitioner track matters
These are not panel discussions with safe answers. This audience asks direct questions, and the speakers in these sessions are prepared to give direct answers. These sessions run across both days alongside 2 full tracks of mainstage content covering marketplace, distribution, AI strategy, and Microsoft’s channel priorities heading into FY27.
📅 UP LIVE Bellevue · May 11–13, 2026
InterContinental Hotel, Bellevue, WA
🌟 Exclusive discount for Microsoft partners
Use code ULTIMATEVIP50 at checkout for a special discount reserved for Microsoft partners.
👉 Register for UP LIVE Bellevue
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