🌍 Microsoft Global Community Initiative Newsletter 

October 2026

Hi Community Builders and event producers!

👋 Welcome to the October Community Update

Halfway through October and the community has been busy! Whether you’re planning your very first meetup, running a local user group, or producing a full-day Community Day, this newsletter is your monthly one-stop shop for what’s happening across the Microsoft Global Community Initiative (MGCI).

A few things we’re excited about this month: CommunityDays.org just celebrated its 4th birthday 🎂 (with a shiny new calendar view on the events page), our Regional Leaders are road-testing a new Event Charter Template on real community events, and Isidora Katanić joins us on October 21 to talk about why building community is a team sport.

 

Grab a coffee ☕, scroll through, and take whatever helps you and your community. Let’s go! 🚀

 

🎗️ Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month- a reminder of the power of community. About 1 in 8 U.S. women will be diagnosed in her lifetime, and an estimated 2,670 U.S. men will be diagnosed this year.

There is hope 💗: when caught early, the five-year relative survival rate is over 99%, and more than 4 million breast cancer survivors are living in the U.S. today.

This month, check in on others, encourage the people you care about, men included, to know their bodies and get screened, and support those facing treatment or caring for a loved one. The more we talk, the stronger we are together.

Sources: American Cancer Society and National Breast Cancer Foundation 2026 statistics.

 

🌟 #CommunityLuv - Community Highlight

 “Wrapping up the day at The North American Collaboration Summit (NACS) with the amazing Joy Apple. How was your day? #MVPBuzz #CommunityRocks #CommunityLuv #GirlGeeks #NACCS”

 

Earlier this month Microsoft MVP Shari L. Oswald shared this post on her LinkedIn, looking back at NACS and MVP Joy Apple on stage! Community is all about lifting each other up, celebrating achievements, sharing opportunities and creating space for others to shine. Thank you Shari for your encouragement, cheering others on. Your support makes a big difference!

➡️ Like, share, or comment on this post here on LinkedIn.

 

🗓️ On Deck: Upcoming MGCI Sessions

📞 Community Builders Network Call

Topic: Game on: building Community together (yes, it’s a team sport!)

Join our monthly Community Builders call and hear from Microsoft MVP Isidora Katanić as she shares her insights on the power of community, connections, and teamwork in building thriving communities. She will share the mistakes she made, the lessons she learned, and how you can bring your best self to the communities you’re part of. 

📅 October 21, 2026

⏰ 8:10 AM PT – 09:00 AM PT

https://aka.ms/MGCIMtgAM

 

🎓 Event Training

Topic: Event Training: Filling seats! How to market your event

Struggling to fill seats? Join hosts Sharon Weaver and Wes Preston along with guest presenter Christian Buckley  for an interactive discussion packed with real-world marketing tactics, promotion ideas, and lessons learned from experienced community leaders who have successfully grown event attendance.

📅 October 29, 2026

⏰ 8:10 AM PT – 09:00 AM PT

https://aka.ms/MGCITrainingMTG 

 

✅ Recently Wrapped

🎤 MGCI Monthly Community Builders Network Call

Topic: Creating community before the event: Lessons from M365 NYC

Summary: Community events don't begin on opening day. In this fast-paced lessons learned session, Diego Domingos da Silva shared how M365 NYC built excitement and sustained engagement long before attendees arrived by leveraging speaker spotlights, video content, sponsor storytelling, interviews, and social media campaigns. You'll learn what generated the most engagement, where they invested more effort than expected, and the key changes they'd make to create even greater momentum for future community events.

Check out all Community Builders Network Call recordings here

 

🎤 Event Production Training & Office Hours

Topic: Event branding - Graphics & Image Tips

Summary: Ever wonder why some community events just pop? In September Sharon Weaver shared the graphics and image tips that make an event page eye-catching and click-worthy.

Check out all past event trainings here

🌎 Community Days – Upcoming Events

🆓 Upcoming Community-Led Events (Free or Low Cost)

📅 October 24: CollabDays (Affligem, Belgium)

📅 October 28: AMP Rennes 2026 (Cesson-Sévigné, France)

📅 November 4-7: Microsoft 365 LIVE (Colombia)

📅 November 10: Azure & GitHub Community Day (Dublin, Ireland)

📅 November 13: AI Community Conference Boston (Cambridge, USA)

📅 November 14: M365 Community Days Atlanta ’26 (Morrow, United States)

….and many more! 

🎟️ Upcoming Community Paid Events

📅 October 20: Dynamics User Group (Stockholm, Sweden)

📅 October 27-30: Power Platform Community Conference (Las Vegas, USA)

📅 November 2-6: TechCon 365 (Dallas, USA)

📅 November 12-13: Update Conference (Prague, Czech Republic)

📅 November 23: CollabDays (Oslo, Norway)

📅 November 30 – Dec 3: ESPC 2026 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Check out all community events on communitydays.org

 

💡 What Happens Next

 

Join us October 20 at 9:00 AM PT for the OneDrive + Copilot digital event! Discover how OneDrive is evolving for the AI era, with new experiences that help you turn files into outcomes, collaborate with confidence, and get more from your files and photos.

 

See the latest innovations in action, hear directly from Microsoft product leaders, and stick around for a live AMA with the OneDrive team. 

 

📅 October 20 | 9:00 AM PT

🎟️ Register today and join us: https://aka.ms/OneDriveEvent

🔗 Read the full blog: https://aka.ms/OneDriveEventBlog

We know you want to work smarter and get stuff done. OneDrive is ready when you are with a litany of AI features for home and work. With intelligence in every click and inspiration in every memory ...

 

🚀 Microsoft Ignite 2026

Microsoft Ignite returns to San Francisco this year on November 17-20, 2026. See what’s next – first. Explore the AI and cloud roadmap, get hands-on with what’s shipping and connect with experts to turn new skills into actions.

 

 

Check out the full agenda, explore the sessions, and register for the Full Conference Pass or Hub-only conference pass.

 

🇳🇱  ESPC 2026

 

Heading to Amsterdam for ESPC26 (November 30 – December 3)? MGCI will be there, and we’ve got lots of community in store for you! Come say hi to our Regional Leaders, Board Officers, and fellow community builders. 👋

 

🌍 MGCI at ESPC 2026

🍽️ Dec 1 – MGCI Community Lounge Lunch Meetup

🥂 Dec 1 – MGCI Table at the Expo Drinks Reception

⚡ Thu, Dec 3 · 12:45–2:00 PM CET (TBC) – Lightning Talk: “Powered by Community: Inside the Microsoft Global Community Initiative”

 

🎉 Plus a whole lot more community!

👩‍💻 Women in Tech and Allies (WITA) lunch, meetup, and Inspire Stage breakout

🤝 Affinity group round tables

📸 MVP photo, meetups, and round tables

🎟️ Haven’t bought your ticket yet? Use code COMMUNITYDAYS10 for 10% off on the ESPC26 Community Days listing. See you in Amsterdam!

 

Check out everything ESPC-related here: https://aka.ms/ESPC26_EventGuide

 

📰 Blog Posts on MGCI

Explore a growing library of stories and resources in the MGCI Hub on Microsoft Tech Community. Community members share their experiences, lessons learned, and ideas to help you strengthen your own events and communities.

Recent posts feature lessons from the Shift+Enter Summit and M365 NYC, plus an announcement about the new Event Recap Template designed to help Event Producers share their own event stories. 

 

🤝 What Are the MGCI Regional Leaders Doing for Community?

📝 Road-testing the New Event Charter Template

Our Regional Leaders have been rolling up their sleeves! This fall they have been teaming up in regional cohorts to road-test a brand-new Event Charter Template: a fill-in-the-blanks starting point for planning a CollabDays, M365 Community Day, or any community-led event, whether it’s in person, virtual, or hybrid. It walks you through the big stuff: purpose and goals, audience, format, speakers, venue, accessibility, sponsorship and budget, marketing, timeline, and what happens after the event.

Instead of testing it in theory, each cohort picked a real event in their region and worked through the charter together. Big thanks to the Austrian Power Platform Enthusiasts, who reviewed the template ahead of their second-ever Community Day on October 23! 🇦🇹

What’s next? The cohorts are wrapping up this round over the next few weeks, and the refreshed template will join the event production templates on the MGCI site so anyone running a community event can download it and make it their own. MGCI Regional Leaders, working for the community!

In the meantime, explore what’s already available in the MGCI Organizer Toolkit . Stay tuned, there’s more on the way! 👀

 

Thank you for staying engaged with the Microsoft Global Community Initiative, we hope to see you at our upcoming MGCI monthly calls!

 

Sincerely,
Your Board Officers