👋 Welcome to the November Community Update 

Hi Community Builders and event producers!  

November is here, and the community has been on the move! More than 9,000 makers just packed the MGM Grand for the Power Platform Community Conference, Community Days are popping up from Dublin to Mumbai, and two of the biggest weeks on the Microsoft calendar are right around the corner. Whether you're hosting your first meetup or your fifth Community Day, here's your monthly roundup of what's happening across the Microsoft Global Community Initiative (MGCI). 

On our radar this month: Christian Buckley and Sharon Smith join us on November 18 to share creative ways to land sponsors for your events, Microsoft Ignite lights up San Francisco November 17–20, and MGCI is packing for ESPC in Amsterdam. We're also cheering on April Dunnam and her book, The Copilot Compass. 

Settle in with something warm 🍂, scroll at your own pace, and take whatever helps you and your community. Let's go! 🚀 

 

🌟 #CommunityLuv - Community Highlight 

 

 

 

“What a week at the Power Platform Community Conference 2026! 🚀”

#PPCC2026 #PowerPlatform #CommunityLuv #MicrosoftCommunity 

Summary: The Microsoft Community team just shared a highlight reel from PPCC 2026 in Las Vegas, packed with the big moments, fresh ideas, and the hallway connections that make an in-person event special. Couldn't make the trip? This is the next best thing to being there. Thank you to everyone who showed up, shared what they learned, and tagged #CommunityLuv so we could celebrate with you! 

➡️ Watch, like, or share the recap here  

 

Want your post featured next month? Tag it #CommunityLuv on LinkedIn so we can find it! 

 

🗓️ On Deck: Upcoming MGCI Sessions 

📞 Community Builders Network Call 

Topic: Creative Ways to Find Sponsors for Your Community Events 

Summary: Sponsors keep ticket prices low and the coffee flowing, yet finding them is one of the toughest parts of running a community event. Join Christian Buckley of CollabTalk, who helped lead last month's Filling Seats training, and Sharon Smith as they share creative ways to find, pitch, and keep sponsors, then bring your own sponsor questions to the open discussion.

You'll walk away with: 

🔹 Fresh places to look for sponsors beyond the usual suspects 

🔹 Ways to frame your ask so sponsors see the value of your community 

🔹 Ideas you can put to work for your very next event 

 

📅 November 18, 2026 ⏰ 8:10 AM PT – 9:00 AM PT 

https://aka.ms/MGCIMtgAM 

 

🎓 Event Training  

Topic: Taking a holiday break 

Summary: Event Production Training & Office Hours is pausing for the holidays, so there's no session on November 26 or December 24. Sharon Weaver and Wes Preston will be back in the new year with more event-planning know-how. In the meantime, catch up on any session you missed below. 

Catch up on past trainings anytime: https://aka.ms/MGCIEventTrainngPlaylist  

 

✅ Recently Wrapped 

 🎤MGCI Monthly Community Builders Network Call 

Topic: Game On: Building Community Together (Yes, It's a Team Sport) 

Summary: On October 21, Microsoft MVP and MGCI Board Member Isidora Katanić shared a personal story about the speaking invitation she almost turned down because of imposter syndrome, and the allies who helped her get on that stage. Her message: you may never feel 100% ready, so show up anyway, share the spotlight, and be the person who opens a door for someone else. She closed with a challenge worth keeping: write a note to your future self, seal it, and open it on October 21, 2027. 

Recording: Check out all Community Builders Network Call recordings here  

 

🎤 Event Production Training & Office Hours 

Topic: Filling Seats! How to Market Your Event 

Summary: Struggling to fill seats? On October 29, Sharon Weaver and Wes Preston teamed up with guest presenter Christian Buckley for an interactive session on real-world marketing tactics, promotion ideas, and lessons from community leaders who have grown their event attendance. Keep the conversation going in MGCI Discussions on the Microsoft Tech Community. 

Recording: Check out all past event trainings here  

 

  

🌎 Community Days – Upcoming Events 

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

📅 November 13: AI Community Conference Boston 2026 (Cambridge, MA, USA) 

📅 November 13: AI Community Conference Toronto 2026 (Toronto, Canada) 

📅 November 13: MN M365 17th Bi-Annual Fall Workshop Day (Edina, MN, USA) 

📅 November 13–14: AI Virtual Days 2026 (Virtual, Spain) 

📅 November 14: M365 Community Days Atlanta ’26 (Morrow, GA, USA) 

📅 November 16: Microsoft Ignite 2026 NYC Community Day (New York, NY, USA) 

📅 November 17: M365 Community Days DC – Ignite Watch Party + Unconference (Arlington, VA, USA) 

📅 November 17: Community Days 2026 – Guadalajara (Guadalajara, Mexico) 

📅 November 17: aMP Day Lyon 2026 (Lyon, France) 

📅 November 19: Power BI & Fabric Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) 

📅 November 21: AICD – Mumbai (Mumbai, India) 

📅 November 21: Boston Code Camp 41 (Burlington, MA, USA) 

…and many more! 

🎟️ Upcoming Community Paid Events 

📅 November 12–13: Update Conference Prague 2026 (Prague, Czechia, hybrid) 

📅 November 23: CollabDays Oslo 2026 (Oslo, Norway) 

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

Check out all community events on communitydays.org: https://aka.ms/CommunityDays.Org 

 

🌐 Around the Community 

⚡ Power Platform Community Conference 2026: That's a Wrap! 

 

 

 

The fifth Power Platform Community Conference (PPCC) wrapped in late October, and the energy in Las Vegas was something else. More than 9,000 makers filled the MGM Grand for a week of learning, building, and connecting, where first-time makers sat next to Microsoft MVPs and customers worked side by side with the engineers building the products they use. 

A few highlights from the main stage: 

🔹 Power Platform now reaches 80 million monthly active users, up from 25 million in 2022. 

🔹 A new, unified Microsoft Maker Community brings together everyone building across Power Platform, Copilot Studio, and SharePoint: https://aka.ms/MakerCommunity  

🔹 Makers can now build apps in Copilot Studio and Copilot Cowork (public preview), and agents in Copilot Studio can get their own accounts. 

 

Save the date: the conference gets a new name, Maker Con, and heads to Chicago November 2–4, 2027. 

🔗 Read the full recap, Built by makers: Five years of Power Platform Community Conference: Microsoft Power Platform Blog - Innovate with Business Apps 

 

📘 April Dunnam's The Copilot Compass 

 

 

 

Lost in a sea of Copilots, agents, and AI buzzwords? Microsoft Principal Cloud Advocate April Dunnam wrote The Copilot Compass: Navigating Copilot and Agents in Microsoft 365 (Apress) to help you cut through the noise and pick the right tool for the job. April is an international speaker, Pluralsight author, and YouTube creator whose channel helps tens of thousands of makers and developers make sense of Power Platform and AI. 

Inside, you'll learn how to: 

🔹 Choose the right Copilot or agent for a specific business scenario 

🔹 Tell bots, workflows, and agents apart, and know when to use each 

🔹 Decode common AI terms without the jargon and spot strong AI use cases 

Written for business users, developers, and Power Platform makers. Congrats, April! 🎉  

 

💡 What Happens Next 

🚀 Microsoft Ignite 2026 

 

 

 

Microsoft Ignite returns to San Francisco November 17–20, 2026. Get a first look at the AI and cloud roadmap, go hands-on with what's shipping, and connect with experts who can help you turn new skills into action. Explore the full agenda and sessions, then register for a Full Conference Pass or a Hub-only pass on the Microsoft Ignite site. 

Can't make it to San Francisco? Bring Ignite home with your local community at the Microsoft Ignite 2026 NYC Community Day (November 16) or the M365 Community Days DC Ignite Watch Party + Unconference (November 17). 

 

🇳🇱 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. 👋 

The Microsoft keynote lineup is set, too: Jeff Teper, Karuana Gatimu, and Vesa Juvonen take the stage at ESPC. 

 

🌍 MGCI at ESPC 2026 

🍽️ Tuesday, Dec 1 – MGCI Community Meetup 

🥂 Tuesday, Dec 1 – MGCI Table at the Expo Drinks Reception 

⚡ Wednesday, Dec 2 · 11:45–12:05 CET – 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 

🗺️ Plan your week with the ESPC26 event guide: https://aka.ms/ESPC26_EventGuide  

🎟️ Haven't bought your ticket yet? Use code COMMUNITYDAYS10 for 10% off on the ESPC26 Community Days listing: https://aka.ms/ESPC2026  

See you in Amsterdam! 

 

📰 Fresh on the MGCI Hub 

Explore a growing library of stories and resources in the MGCI Hub on Microsoft Tech Community: https://aka.ms/MGCICommunityHub/Blog. Recent posts include Why We Built Shift+Enter Summit, the new Event Recap Template for Event Producers, and a follow-up discussion from the Filling Seats training. Have a story to share? Sign up to write for the MGCI blog: https://aka.ms/MGCIBlogAuthorSignUp  

 

Planning your next event?  

The Event Producer Playbook has templates, tools, and resources to help you plan, promote, and recap it: https://aka.ms/MGCI-EventProducerPlaybook  

Thank you for everything you give to this community. We're grateful for each of you, and we hope to see you on November 18! 💙 

That’s how MGCI continues to grow - together. 

Sincerely, 
Your Board Officers