The latest Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 expert community briefings, podcasts and upcoming community events.
Expert Briefings:
Microsoft Places in 2026: APIs, Desk Booking, and Copilot Context
https://empowering.cloud/microsoft-places-in-2026-apis-desk-booking-and-copilot-context/
Brennan McReynolds, Product Strategy Lead for Microsoft Places, at Microsoft, shares what changed during Places’ first full year in general availability and what is coming next as hybrid work patterns continue to shift.
- How Places supports flexible work planning in Microsoft Calendar and Microsoft Teams, including building and room context
- The evolution of desk booking on maps, location check-in signals, and improving confidence in finding the right space
- Why Places is focused on in-person connection and collaboration, not desk booking for everyone
- How the Places directory and Microsoft Graph APIs enable partners to manage buildings, floors, rooms, desks, and maps at scale
- Three integration patterns: spatial data in and out, occupancy and check-in signals, and extensible experiences like visitor management and digital signage
- How location context feeds Work IQ and future Copilot experiences for planning, scheduling, and room selection
AI Voice Agents with Azure Communication Services
https://empowering.cloud/ai-voice-agents-with-azure-communication-services/
Sean Keegan, Developer Evangelist for Azure Communication Services at Microsoft, explores communication APIs and building AI-powered voice solutions with Tom Morgan, Microsoft MVP and Software Engineer at Cloud Interact.
- Recent advances in voice AI and how Azure Communication Services enables developers to embed voice, video, chat, email, and SMS into custom applications
- Low-code and pro-code approaches to building voice agents, from Copilot Studio to custom Azure solutions
- How AI is transforming legacy IVR systems with natural language understanding and sentiment analysis
- Microsoft Teams interoperability and how developers can create branded experiences whilst maintaining familiar Teams workflows
- Real-world use cases across healthcare, retail, and customer support.
Microsoft Teams Monthly Update February 2026
https://empowering.cloud/microsoft-365-ai-workplace-update-february-2026/
MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for February 2026.
Many thanks to Neat for their continued support.
- Enhanced M365 Copilot Memory
- Copilot Chat (free) in Outlook with all emails and Calendar
- Ilya Bukshteyn's ISE keynote
- Microsoft Teams Licensing Changes April 2026
- Places Roadmap Updates
- Express voice enrolment
- Meet App Becomes Events App
- Teams Live Events and API are retiring
- Multiple phone numbers on Teams Phone Devices
- Transitioning Teams Android Device Management
- Events
Microsoft Teams Insider Podcast
Inside Microsoft’s IC3 and the future of AI Communications with Microsoft CVP Mahendra Sekaran
Mahendra Sekaran, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, leads product management and data science for IC3 (Intelligent Conversations and Communication Cloud)—the core communications platform powering Microsoft Teams.
The role AV Distribution play in Microsoft Teams Rooms with Jenny Hicks
Jenny Hicks, Technical Director at Midwich UK, joins the podcast to share insights on AV distribution and the evolving Microsoft Teams Rooms landscape.
Logitech's New Rally AI Cameras and Multi-Camera Microsoft Teams Rooms with Henry Levak
Henry Levak, VP of Product for Logitech for Business, shares exciting new product announcements ahead of ISE 2026.
Microsoft Places in 2026: APIs, Desk Booking, and Copilot Context
Brennan McReynolds, Product Strategy Lead for Microsoft Places, at Microsoft, shares what changed during Places’ first full year in general availability and what is coming next as hybrid work patterns continue to shift.
Upcoming Community Events
Teams Fireside Chat – 12th February – 08:00 PST / 16:00 GMT
Join live for Teams Fireside Chat in March with our guest Preethi Ramarathinam, Head of Product - Microsoft Teams Events, at Microsoft.
Preethi will give us the latest on developments in Microsoft Teams live events.
Teams Fireside Chat is an open community chat that is held each month. In each session, we are joined by a guest speaker who shares their insights. In the latter half, we open the floor to discussion and Q&A.
Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything
February sessions
APAC - 18 February | 16:30 AEDT Hosted by MVP Graham Walsh, Phil Clapham, Justin O'Meara and Andrew Higgs at Microsoft
EMEA/NA - 18 February | 16:00 BST / 08:00 PDT Hosted by MVP Graham Walsh, Jimmy Vaughan at Microsoft and MVP Michael Tressler
Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything is a monthly community event which gives you all an update on the important and Microsoft Teams devices news, as well as the chance to ask questions and get them answered by the experts. We have 2 sessions to cover different time zones, so there's really no excuse not to come along to at least one!
In February, April Yoho joins regular Copilot Fireside Chat hosts and Microsoft MVPs Zoe Wilson and Kevin McDonnell.
April is a senior cloud developer advocate and the DevOps practice lead at GitHub - join us and bring your questions!
February 25th 16:00 UK / 08:00 PT.
Copilot Fireside Chat is a virtual event that usually takes place on the last Wednesday of each month at 16:00 GMT. All are welcome to come along and discuss everything Copilot. Bring along your Copilot questions and get them answered by the experts, with special guest appearances alongside hosts Zoe and Kevin.
M365 Change Community Round Up
Join MVPs Darrell Webster, Daniel Glenn from the M365 Message Center show, and Tom Arbuthnot on Thursday 26th February at 13:00 UK / 08:00 ET / 07:00 CT
The M365 Change Community Round Up is a live monthly call open to all, where we take a closer look at the most impactful Microsoft updates and what they really mean for your organisation.
From urgent action items in the Microsoft 365 Message Center to exciting new features on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, many changes will significantly impact your organisation's productivity and even have implications for your security and compliance policies.
Stay in the know —no just on new, shiny features, but also on the all-important, high-admin and high-user-impacting items.
