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Marketplace trainings and events calendar (updated 04/23/26)
-Welcome to our calendar for accessing upcoming Marketplace trainings and events, along with links to recent resources. This page is a go-to resource for discovering training sessions and events designed specifically for software development companies related to Microsoft Marketplace. Whether you’re building innovative solutions or publishing to the commercial marketplace, you’ll find content to help you stay ahead in today’s fast-moving tech landscape. We’ve organized dedicated areas for partners and customers, making it easy to find sessions most relevant to your needs. Some events are upcoming, while others are past recordings that remain valuable for learning and growth. This page is updated frequently with new opportunities. Be sure to subscribe for notifications; instructions are provided at the bottom of this post. Explore the upcoming AI events below, revisit past sessions, and feel free to comment with any questions. ****Sessions updated as of 04/23/2026**** Partner and Channel Partner sessions Upcoming sessions Date Time Area Title Description Link 4/28/26 8:30 AM PDT Partner Session Maximize selling with Microsoft and Marketplace ROI Join us as WorkSpan shares real workflows used by partners who have closed over $5B in co-sell revenue with Microsoft. Learn best practices for navigating selling end-to-end with Microsoft. Maximize selling with Microsoft and Marketplace ROI - Microsoft Marketplace Community 05/07/26 8:30 AM PDT Partner Session Turning co-sell readiness into real Microsoft Marketplace revenue Join Clazar as they share insights on how to be co-sell ready and how to translate it into a meaningful pipeline and an active, revenue generating partnership with Microsoft sellers. Turning co-sell readiness into real Microsoft Marketplace revenue - Microsoft Marketplace Community 05/20/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours Marketplace Office Hours for Partners Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help you sell through Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. May 2026 Office Hours 06/17/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours Marketplace Office Hours for Partners Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help you sell through Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. June 2026 Office Hours Recent Recorded Sessions Date Area Title Description Link 04/15/26 Office Hours Seamless private offers: From creation to purchase and activation Join this Partner Center walkthrough of private offer execution from creation to customer purchase to partner activation View the recording 04/02/26 Partner Session Why Azure belongs in your multi-cloud strategy Tune in to hear WeTransact share when and why Azure should be part of your strategy. Find out how to replicate solutions for Azure. Hear why Marketplace-aligned companies are able to move quickly using Microsoft tools, funding, and incentives. View the recording 03/24/26 Partner Session Best practices for scaling Marketplace channel-led sales Join guest speaker team from Tackle as they walk through opportunities to scale partner driven revenue. Hear how to activate channel opportunities using multiparty private offers and learn when to leverage resale-enabled offers to expand partner reach. View the recording 03/18/26 Office Hours (Partner) Build, publish, and optimize Marketplace offers with App Advisor Learn what App Advisor is, how it works, and how it can help partners accelerate Marketplace offer creation. Live demo walk through; validating value to publishing and optimizing your listing. View the recording 03/11/26 Partner Session AI-powered automation for Marketplace private offers and IP co-sell Learn from guest speaker Jon Yoo, Suger, how software development companies can use AI-powered automation to simplify buying through Microsoft Marketplace, streamline private offers, and optimize co-selling opportunities. View the recording 02/25/26 Partner Session Inside Azure IP co-sell: What high-performing software developers do differently Get an inside look at the signals Microsoft uses to evaluate Marketplace and Azure IP co-sell readiness with insights from Barbara Treviño of Labra. Learn what top software companies do differently to accelerate approvals and boost GTM impact. View the recording 02/18/26 Office Hours (Partner) How to build a Microsoft Marketplace channel practice Building a successful Marketplace practice takes the right people, process, and strategy working together. Learn how top performing partners organize their teams across alliances, operations and leadership View the recording 1/21/26 Office Hours (Partner) Microsoft Partner Center reporting Get to know the Partner Center Insights and Earnings workspaces. Walk through Earnings, Customer, Order, Usage and Revenue reports. View the recording 12/18/25 Office Hours (Partner) Introducing resale enabled offers Explore resale enabled offers through Microsoft Marketplace. View recording 12/04/25 Partner Session AI-powered acceleration: scale faster on Microsoft Marketplace Go beyond listing basics and explore how Microsoft Marketplace can act as a strategic revenue engine. View recording 11/04/25 Partner Session How to structure your Microsoft Partner Center account for long-term success Learn best practices for setting up your Partner Center account for operational and marketplace success. View recording 08/28/25 Office Hours (Partner) Certified software designations: FY26 benefits updates Overview of certified software designations and FY26 benefit updates. View recording Customer sessions Upcoming sessions Date Time Area Title Description Link 04/29/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours (Customer) Using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend For organizations with an Azure cloud commitment Microsoft Marketplace can be a powerful tool for optimizing how the spend is used. Explore how your organization can leverage its Azure commitment to support software investments through Microsoft Marketplace. Using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend - Microsoft Marketplace Community 05/27/26 8:30 AM PDT Office Hours (Customer) Marketplace Office Hours for Customers Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help use Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. May 2026 Customer Office Hour 06/24/26 9:30 AM PDT Office Hours (Customer) Marketplace Office Hours for Customers Tune in for updates, insights, and live Q&A to help use Microsoft Marketplace. Topic TBD. June 2026 Customer Office Hour Recorded sessions Date Area Title Description Link 03/25/26 Office Hours (Customer) Charting your AI strategy for manufacturing with Marketplace Build, buy, or blend? Gain the insights you need as a manufacturer to scale AI apps and agents across the factory floor using Microsoft Marketplace. Hear about practical manufacturing scenarios View the recording 02/25/26 Office Hours (Customer) Accelerate AI adoption through Microsoft Marketplace Explore practical AI use cases available through Microsoft Marketplace - from prebuilt AI apps and agents to AI-powered solutions that simplify deployment. View the recording 01/28/26 Office Hours (Customer) Optimize cloud cost and performance Learn proven strategies to accelerate time-to-value for cloud and AI investments using Microsoft Marketplace. View the recording 12/11/25 Office Hours (Customer) Chart your AI app and agent strategy Insights into build, buy, or blend approaches for AI apps and agents using Microsoft Marketplace. View recording 07/30/25 Office Hours (Customer) FinOps and the Microsoft Marketplace Learn how Microsoft Marketplace supports FinOps practitioners and accelerates AI transformation. View recording Subscribe to this post If you're not already a Tech Community member, create an account at techcommunity.microsoft.com. Select Subscribe from the three‑dot menu in the upper‑right corner of this post. Under Notification Settings, choose to be notified of edits and comments, and select whether you'd like updates immediately, daily, or weekly (weekly recommended). You can also subscribe to the entire Marketplace Community via the Marketplace Community homepage. ``How to choose the right Marketplace offer type for your AI app or agent
Selecting the right Microsoft Marketplace offer type is one of the most important—and often most complex—decisions when bringing AI apps and agents to market. In this latest Marketplace blog article, you’ll learn how different offer types align to AI delivery models and why this choice directly impacts architecture, security boundaries, customer experience, and monetization strategy. The article breaks down key considerations across SaaS, Azure Managed Applications, containers, and virtual machines, helping software development companies understand how to balance control, scalability, and operational ownership. It also highlights how offer type decisions influence where AI workloads run, how data is managed, and how customers deploy and interact with your solution. If you’re building or publishing AI solutions in Microsoft Marketplace, this guidance will help you make informed decisions early—before development, security, and go-to-market plans are locked in. Read the full article: Marketplace Offer Types for AI Apps and agents: SaaS vs Managed App vs ContainersImprove your Microsoft Marketplace listing performance with AI-powered, personalized recommendations
Discover how to strengthen your Microsoft Marketplace listing and increase discoverability with new AI-powered optimization capabilities available in App Advisor. This article explores how software development companies can receive fast, personalized recommendations that help improve clarity, strengthen value propositions, and align listings with Microsoft Marketplace best practices. In today’s competitive Marketplace environment, listing quality plays a critical role in whether customers discover, engage with, and ultimately choose your solution. The new listing optimization experience provides immediate, actionable feedback across key areas such as value proposition, solution description, and overall presentation—helping teams identify gaps and make improvements with confidence. Learn how this capability works, what it evaluates, and how your organization can use it to continuously refine your listing and drive better outcomes. Read the full article to explore how you can move from guesswork to data-driven optimization in Microsoft Marketplace. Read more: Get personalized, fast recommendations for your Marketplace listing to boost your discoverabilityMicrosoft Marketplace at Channel Partners Conference
Microsoft Marketplace was a first-time sponsor of the 2026 Channel Partners Conference & Expo—the world’s largest channel event—held in Las Vegas, April 13-16. With 59% of cloud marketplace revenue expected to flow through channel, this event provided a clear opportunity to reinforce Marketplace as a core platform for channel‑led growth. The channel is central for customer Frontier transformation, and Marketplace helps power the commercial foundation, connecting partners, software companies, and customers through flexible, channel-led sales models that scale. Our team really enjoyed the conversations we had after our sessions, on the expo floor, and in private meetings! Did you attend Channel Partners Conference this year? We'd love to hear your takeaways! And if you missed the event, check out this article on the keynote delivered by Microsoft's Kevin LeBlanc, GM of Partner and Marketplace Marketing. Resources for software companies and channel partners are always available on our partner site.Securing and governing AI agents before deployment
April 30 | 2:00-3:00 PM (GTM +10) Join this live webinar to learn how to secure and govern AI agents before they go live. Explore how to provision agents with Entra Agent ID, manage identities and credentials, enforce least-privilege access, and prevent risks like Shadow AI and agent sprawl. Join to gain practical guidance on governing AI agents across their full lifecycle—so you can deploy with confidence. To view the session live, register here: Securing and Governing AI Agents Before They Go Live You can view previous Security for Software Development Company series sessions on demand here: Security for Software Development Company Series: Securing the Agentic EraHow to design production-ready AI architectures for apps and agents on Microsoft Marketplace
As organizations accelerate the development of AI-powered applications and agents, moving from prototype to production requires a strong architectural foundation. This article explores what it takes to build AI solutions that are ready for enterprise deployment through Microsoft Marketplace—where reliability, security, scalability, and operational readiness are essential. Learn why “production-ready” architectures are critical to meeting customer expectations, how early design decisions impact long-term success, and what patterns software development companies should consider when aligning solution architecture with Marketplace offer types. The article also highlights key considerations around ownership, runtime environments, and operational responsibilities that shape how AI solutions are deployed and supported. Whether you are building your first AI app or scaling an existing solution, this guidance provides a practical foundation for designing trusted, enterprise-ready offerings that customers can confidently run in production. Read the full article: Production ready architectures for AI apps and agents on Marketplace | Microsoft Community HubWhy building secure AI apps and agents early matters for Microsoft Marketplace
Security is a foundational requirement for publishing and scaling AI apps and agents on Microsoft Marketplace. As AI systems become more autonomous, they introduce new trust boundaries across prompts, identity, integrations, and runtime behavior. This article explores why security must be designed in from the start—and how clear guardrails, identity controls, and enforcement help reduce risk, streamline Marketplace review, and build customer trust. Learn what it takes to create Marketplace‑ready AI solutions that are secure, scalable, and enterprise‑ready. Read the full article: Securing AI apps and agents on Microsoft Marketplace | Microsoft Community Hub
Feedback on Partner Benefit Renewal Experience
I wanted to share a bit of feedback on the partner benefit packages based on our experience. In the past we used the Action Pack and it worked very well for us. Renewal was simple and everything that was already configured just continued into the next period without any extra work. After it was discontinued we moved to the Partner Success Core Benefits package. Our experience has been less smooth, especially with how the Azure credits are handled. The credit must be assigned to a specific user, and if that user already has Azure credit it cannot be applied until the current one expires. When the credit expires, the subscriptions funded by it automatically switch to Pay As You Go. After that we need to contact support to convert the subscriptions back to Azure Sponsorship before the new credit can be applied, which involves several support teams and can take a few days. We also then need to ask support to cover the temporary Pay As You Go usage. As you can imagine, this turns what should be a simple renewal into a fairly time consuming process. Ideally, renewing the benefit package would just extend the existing setup, similar to how it worked with Action Pack, so everything continues without needing support involvement.Scale manufacturing AI from pilot to production with Microsoft Marketplace
Manufacturers are facing growing pressure from labor constraints, rising costs, and increasingly complex supply chains—while expectations for AI-driven efficiency continue to climb. Yet many AI initiatives never move beyond the pilot stage due to fragmented data environments and the complexity of deploying solutions across production systems. In this latest Marketplace blog, we explore practical insights shared during a recent Microsoft Marketplace customer office hour on what it takes to move manufacturing AI initiatives from proof-of-concept to scalable, production-ready deployments. Learn why establishing a unified data foundation across systems such as ERP, MES, IoT sensors, and asset management platforms is essential to unlocking real operational impact—and how Microsoft Marketplace can help organizations scale AI in a governed, sustainable way across plants and environments. Read the full article: How manufacturers can scale AI from pilot to production with Microsoft Marketplace
