Where building brings people together

What happens when people who love building things find themselves in the same place? At GitHub Universe 2026, held October 28–29, Microsoft MVPs, several of them also GitHub Stars, took the stage, shared ideas, and swapped stories. Their reflections go beyond new tools to show why sharing knowledge matters: a handmade nameplate, hallway conversations, and practical lessons on AI context, security, and policy turned technical exchanges into connections - and offered ideas to bring home to their communities.

GitHub Universe Speaker Nick Taylor (MVP)

Where Microsoft MVPs and GitHub Stars come together

Several Microsoft MVPs are also GitHub Stars, and GitHub Universe is where the two communities come together. The GitHub Stars program recognizes community leaders who inspire, educate, and shape communities, giving them a platform to showcase their work, reach more people, and help shape the future of GitHub. Perks include early access to GitHub features, invitations to GitHub events, connections to internal GitHub Team members and more. MVPs Kent C. Dodds, Huan Li, and Nick Taylor who spoke at GitHub Universe are GitHub Stars.

For Huan, the moment that captured the spirit of GitHub Universe was sitting on the floor beside the GitHub Star with his name on it - and yes, he needed another photo with it.

“I see it every year, and somehow it still makes me smile.” - MVP and RD Huan Li

To learn more about the GitHub Stars, visit stars.github.com.

GitHub Universe Attendees (left to right) Esteban Garcia (RD & MVP) andAnisha Pindoria (GitHub)

Conversations, creativity, and connection

Ask a Microsoft MVP what made GitHub Universe stand out, and the answer is rarely a single session. MVP Sam Basu says the event “always feels like a different type of tech conference,” and because it is GitHub, “it is truly polyglot.” It is a chance to “rub shoulders with developers across variety of tech stacks, from various corners of the world.”

“The vibe is truly unparalleled with focus on building, collaborating & having fun learning.” - MVP Sam Basu

GitHub Universe Attendees, (left to right) David Fowler(Microsoft) and Sam Basu (MVP)

For many MVPs, that focus on building was literal. MVP and Regional Director Huan Li spent almost an hour putting hundreds of tiny pieces together to build his own nameplate, and it was “worth every minute.” His takeaway: “even when I take a break from building software, I still want to build something!”

MVP and Regional Director Huan Li built a custom nameplate at GitHub Universe

MVP Dylan McCarthy saw the same enthusiasm in the makerspace, where developers lined up to build custom keyboards and GitHub lamps. “They were so popular that supplies ran out before I even managed to make one myself!” he says.

Some of the best moments happened between sessions. MVP and Regional Director Esteban Garcia points to “the conversations in between everything else,” talking with people about “what they were building, what was working, and what they were still trying to figure out.” MVP Josh Garverick agrees. His favorite part of attending is “getting to talk with my friends in the community, Hubbers, and new contacts.”

“This continues to foster my appreciation for the community and fuels me to do as much as I can to contribute.” - MVP Josh Garverick

Ideas you can put into practice

MVPs also brought their expertise to the stage. In “Shut the context window! You’re letting the tokens out,” MVP Dylan McCarthy explored how Copilot uses context and tokens. His advice: “moving away from large, monolithic GitHub Copilot instruction files and instead using smaller, targeted instructions with applyTo patterns.”

“It’s not simply about reducing token consumption, but about making sure the information we’re providing is relevant, useful, and helps the model deliver better results.” - MVP Dylan McCarthy

Zooming out to a bigger question, MVP Kent C. Dodds took the Main Stage to ask, “What’s worth building when AI can build anything?” Joined by Dr. Sue Black of Durham University, he made the case for building deliberately rather than reflexively, exploring responsible software, the daily reality of shipping, choosing between tools, and maintaining what’s already built. The conversation continued at a Session After Party in GitHub Central, an informal Q&A for attendees’ questions. 

Watch Kent and Sue’s Main Stage conversation to bring a sharper set of questions to your own work.

Building deliberately also means deciding what AI agents are allowed to do. In “Open PRs, don’t merge them: Fine-grained authorization for hosted MCP servers,” MVP Nick Taylor showed an identity-aware proxy that adds per-identity authorization in front of a hosted MCP server, with no changes upstream. In a live demo, Copilot opened a pull request and left the merge to a reviewer, enforced per user. Nick also pointed to Martin Woodward’s closing keynote, a reminder that AI is a tool and people still bring the ideas. Watch Nick’s session to see the live demo and the pattern for your own MCP servers.

“You can improve your security posture immediately with an identity-aware proxy, whether that be putting a legacy app behind it or building out an MCP gateway with it.” - MVP Nick Taylor

Policy matters just as much. What happens when a prototype starts handling real customer payments but its repository still carries its launch-day merge requirements? In “When a prototype becomes critical, does your GitHub policy know?,” MVP Baruch Sadogursky showed how he syncs ownership and business criticality from Port into GitHub as custom properties, so teams can find repositories by owning team and point a GitHub ruleset at critical services. The pattern is repeatable: Port supplies the context, and GitHub turns it into enforced policy. Watch Baruch’s session to see the gap close live.

Context ties these sessions together. Sam Basu spoke about bringing context to AI tools through Skills, MCP tools, and custom agents, and his “full room with engaged audience” showed how much this is on people’s minds. Honest conversations about balancing enterprises’ privacy and cost concerns with AI’s benefits were among the best things he took from GitHub Universe. Esteban Garcia offers a simple way to start:

“Build something. Try it with your team. Pay attention to where it works and where it falls apart, and then share what you learn.”

- MVP & RD Esteban Garcia

Keep building. Keep sharing.

Curious about GitHub Universe? Explore the recorded sessions or browse the session catalog, pick an idea that interests you, and invite someone to try it with you. Then share what you learn with your own community. Whether you are a developer, engineer, IT professional, or simply curious about technology, there is a conversation you can contribute to. What could you build, or help someone else learn, before the next conference? 

Want to learn more about the MVP Program?

To find an MVP and learn more about the Microsoft MVP Program, visit the MVP Communities website and follow program updates on LinkedIn or through #MVPBuzz.