Microsoft 365 Community Conference: A Beacon for Builders, Innovators, and Icons of Intelligent Work
You’re passionate about what you do, and we’re passionate about empowering your potential. Microsoft 365 Community Conference - is your chance to keep up with AI, build game-changing skills, and take your career (and business) even further. With over 200 sessions, workshops, keynotes, and AMAs, you’ll learn directly from the experts and product-makers who are reimagining what’s possible in the workplace. Conference Details Join us in Las Vegas April 21-23. 2026 for the premier Microsoft 365 community event. We want to help you get the most out of the tools you use every day, so we’re bringing back the conference you know and love—with even more opportunities to learn, connect, and level up. Here’s what you can expect: Meet one-on-one with the people who create Microsoft products—ask questions, share feedback, and discover real-world solutions Explore Microsoft’s latest product updates and learn about what’s on the horizon Build and sharpen skills you can use immediately to be more productive, creative, and collaborative with the Microsoft tools you use every day Grow your network, dive deep, and have fun with the best community in tech How to Register Register today and get ready to transform the way you work. Save $150 with our exclusive customer code SAVE150. https://aka.ms/M365ConfWebsite Explore Sessions and Workshops There’s plenty of breadth—and depth—to the learning opportunities at the Microsoft 365 Community Conference. No matter your role or experience level, we've got something for everyone! https://aka.ms/M365ConfSessionsWebPage Meet the Speakers Our lineup of speakers includes some of the brightest minds behind the most powerful Microsoft innovations. You’ll hear from experts like: Jeff Teper | President, Collaborative Apps and Platforms Charles Lamanna | President, Business Apps and Agents Vasu Jakkal | Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security Business Rohan Kumar | Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security, Purview & Trust The Microsoft 365 Community Conference is more than an event. It’s the gateway to what’s next for your career, community, team, customers, and business—and for work itself. Claim your front-row seat to the future of work today!
Upcoming September 2026 Microsoft 365 Champion community call
Join our monthly calls to learn more about driving user enablement of Microsoft 365 services. All are welcome. Our next call is September 22, 2026, where we'll explore the OneDrive in mobile experience. Please note that our community calls are in the Teams webinar format, so you must register to receive the link to join. The join link will be sent to you in email with your webinar registration confirmation. The calls start at 5 minutes past the hour for both sessions (at 8:05 AM and 5:05 PM PT) and end at the top of the hour (9:00 AM and 6:00 PM PT, respectively). https://aka.ms/M365ChampionCallAM https://aka.ms/M365ChampionCallPM The on-demand recording will be available on our Driving Adoption > Events pages, as well as on our Microsoft Community Learning YouTube channel. While our calls are open to everyone, you must be a member of the Microsoft 365 Champion Program in order to access the presentation materials - the access link is in the initial welcome email and the monthly newsletter emails sent the week before the community calls. If you have not yet joined our Champion community, sign up here to get access to the monthly newsletters, calendar invites, and program assets (e.g., the presentations). Is there a topic you want us to bring? Share your feedback here: https://aka.ms/Microsoft365ChampionCallFeedback. REMINDER: Our community calls take a break in August and resume in September.What's new on the AMC – August 2026
August was a busy month across adoption.microsoft.com (AMC), bringing new resources, expanded skilling opportunities, fresh customer stories, and several new page launches designed to help organizations accelerate adoption, upskill employees, and maximize their Microsoft investments. From the launch of the new Digital Accelerator experience to expanded AI agent resources, Microsoft Teams content, and community-focused updates, here's a look at what's new this month. August highlights at-a-glance: Launched the new Digital Accelerator experience Released the Microsoft Teams Platform adoption page Launched the Teams and Viva Engage playbook for frontline workers Expanded the AI agent transformation stories library Added People Skills setup guidance Introduced role-based Microsoft Intune resources Added upcoming and on-demand OneDrive Customer Office Hours sessions Improved Customer Hub filtering and site navigation Added new community event resources and templates Introducing the Digital Accelerator One of the biggest additions this month was the launch of the new Digital Accelerator page. This program guides Microsoft Unified customers on a live Copilot and agent skilling journey with actionable resources and content designed to help accelerate transformation initiatives and drive adoption outcomes. Explore the new Digital Accelerator experience, find a journey that fits your needs and in your time zone, and join a live session with Microsoft experts to learn how to turn strategy into action. Expanded AI agent adoption resources Organizations exploring AI agents received several important updates throughout August, including: New customer transformation stories highlighting real-world AI agent implementations. Updates to the Agent Success Kit. New related story experiences on transformation story pages. Enhancements to the People Skills resources, including a People Skills setup section. Updates to the Agents in Microsoft 365 page to improve access to personalized AI upskilling resources. These enhancements make it easier to learn from customer successes while building organizational readiness for AI-powered transformation. New Teams resources August saw the release of several new Teams-focused experiences, including: The new Microsoft Teams Platform page. The new Teams and Viva Engage for Frontline Workers deployment playbook. Updates to featured content across Microsoft Teams experiences. These additions provide IT leaders, frontline organizations, and adoption specialists with expanded deployment and enablement guidance. New role-based Intune resources The Microsoft Intune page was updated with a new role-based resources section, making it easier for different stakeholder groups to discover content most relevant to their responsibilities. Whether you're an IT Pro/admin, leader, or solution provider, these curated resources help simplify learning and implementation. OneDrive Customer Office Hours updates To help customers stay connected with ongoing learning opportunities, the OneDrive Customer Office Hours page now includes both upcoming and on-demand sessions, making it easier to catch past events or register for future discussions. Community and communications updates The Microsoft Global Community Initiative resources received several enhancements, including: New on-demand general sessions. Event training and office hours resources. A new Event Recap Template within the Event Producer Playbook. Additionally, the Modern Employee Communications experience now includes a new News & Events section to help communicators stay informed about the latest opportunities and announcements. Resource refreshes across the site Throughout August, numerous pages received updates to ensure users have access to current guidance and experiences, including: Copilot in SharePoint updates featuring the latest "What's New in Copilot in SharePoint" content. Refreshes to the build your own Champion community playbook. Customer Hub filtering improvements. Homepage featured content updates. Document Processing experience enhancements. Navigation improvements across the site. These ongoing refinements help improve discoverability and keep content aligned with the latest Microsoft product experiences. Start exploring Whether you're planning your next adoption campaign, enabling AI agents, deploying Microsoft Teams solutions, or building employee engagement strategies, the latest updates across Adoption.Microsoft.com provide new resources to support your journey. Visit adoption.microsoft.com to explore these updates and discover the newest resources available to help your organization achieve more with Microsoft technologies.Teams Delivers a Slack Migration Tool
Microsoft announced the availability of a Slack to Teams migration tool in the Microsoft 365 admin center. The new tool exists to assist the 79 million monthly active users of Slack who might want to move to Teams and don’t know how to get there. ISVs have been helping people move off Slack to Teams for years, so other migration options exist. https://office365itpros.com/2026/01/07/slack-to-teams-migration/Copilot Chat Adoption Feedback : Model Selection Governance and Prompt Library Reusability ?
Hello, As part of several Microsoft Copilot adoption projects that I am currently leading across different organizations, two questions frequently come up from both users and administrators. The first concerns the ability to lock or enforce a specific model in Copilot Chat for certain use cases. Several customers would like to guide users toward a particular model when working on specific scenarios (Opus for example) that require a certain level of reasoning, behavior, or response quality. To date, I have not found any official documentation or roadmap information indicating whether this capability is planned. The second concerns the Prompt Gallery / Prompt Library. Saved prompts are very useful for starting a conversation, but they do not appear to be reusable directly within an ongoing conversation. In several business scenarios, users would like to chain multiple approved prompts within the same conversation in order to preserve context while applying different working methods, analysis steps, or processes. Are there any planned developments regarding these two topics? The ability to lock or enforce a specific model in Copilot Chat. The ability to use prompts from the Prompt Gallery / Prompt Library during an already active conversation. I have not found any official information on these topics in Microsoft Learn documentation or in the Microsoft 365 roadmap. However, these capabilities seem likely to facilitate user adoption and help standardize usage patterns across organizations.What if Teams isn’t too complicated — but simply being compared to the wrong product?
Many users first experience Microsoft Teams through meetings, chat, and file sharing. So it feels natural to compare Teams with messaging apps. But I’ve started to wonder whether that comparison itself shapes how people experience Teams. In markets such as Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand, LINE is deeply embedded in everyday communication. For those unfamiliar with it, LINE is a widely used consumer messaging app in these markets. When users bring that same mental model into Teams, a familiar question appears: “Why does Teams have to be so complicated?” But what if that isn’t quite the right question? I explored the idea in this short interactive page: Maybe We've Been Thinking About Teams the Wrong Way https://teams-vs-line-vinci.vinciwang.chatgpt.site/en/teams-vs-line One analogy sits at the center of it: LINE is like a speedboat. Teams is more like an aircraft carrier. I’m particularly interested in whether people here agree — or think this analogy actually proves the opposite. Is the problem mainly Teams itself, or the mental model we use to judge it?
Transforming Microsoft Teams into a Project Management Hub
If you use Microsoft Teams only for chats and meetings, you’re missing much of what it can actually do. While Microsoft Teams is often seen as a communication tool, it can also function as a central workspace for managing projects - from planning and brainstorming to execution and documentation - all in one place. When combined with tools like Microsoft Planner, SharePoint, and Microsoft Loop, Teams can become a practical project management hub that keeps work organized and reduces the need to switch between systems. This article walks through a clear, practical approach to setting up and using Teams for real-world project delivery. Why Use Microsoft Teams for Project Management? Organizations often hesitate to introduce new tools due to cost, training effort, or resistance to change. Microsoft Teams offers a strong advantage: it is already widely adopted in many organizations as part of Microsoft 365. Using Teams for project management allows you to: Centralize communication and documentation Reduce tool fragmentation Improve team visibility and collaboration Leverage existing infrastructure without additional cost Instead of switching between multiple platforms, teams can manage conversations, files, tasks, and workflows in one place. Structuring Your Project in Teams A well-structured Team is the foundation of successful project management. Create a Dedicated Team Start by creating a Team specifically for your project. Avoid mixing multiple projects in one Team, as it leads to confusion and poor organization. Recommended channels structure: General (announcements and overview) Planning (timelines, scope, requirements) Execution (daily work discussions) Risks and Issues Documentation Onboarding Lessons Learned This structure ensures clarity and separates strategic discussions from operational ones. Managing Tasks with Planner Task management is a critical part of any project. Inside Microsoft Teams, you can add a Planner tab to manage tasks visually within the same workspace where communication and files are stored. How to use Planner effectively: Create buckets (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Completed, or structured by topic) Assign tasks to team members for clear ownership Set due dates and priorities Attach files and add comments directly to tasks Use labels to categorize work (e.g., Design, Frontend, Backend, Testing) for better filtering and tracking Planner also provides multiple views beyond the basic board: Board view (Kanban-style) for workflow tracking Charts view for progress and workload overview Schedule (Calendar) view to track deadlines visually across time This combination allows teams to switch between operational tracking and higher-level planning depending on the need. This visual approach improves accountability, transparency, and makes task tracking easier even for non-technical users. Document Management with SharePoint Every Team in Microsoft Teams is backed by a SharePoint site. This means all files shared in Teams are stored and managed through SharePoint. Using SharePoint effectively allows you to: Structured storage of project documentation through folders and metadata Maintain version control Role-based access management Centralized file organization Control access permissions Enable real-time collaboration Best practices: Create clear folder & metadata structures (e.g., Contracts, Designs, Reports) Avoid duplicate files Use naming conventions Instead of sending documents via email, teams can collaborate directly within Teams, ensuring everyone works on the latest version. SharePoint Lists in Microsoft Teams SharePoint Lists in Microsoft Teams provide a structured way to store, manage, and track information directly within the collaboration workspace. A SharePoint List is essentially a flexible data table, where each item represents a record with defined fields (such as status, owner, due date, priority, or category). They are especially useful for: Project roadmaps and milestone tracking Action item tracking with ownership and status Checklists for delivery and execution steps Simple status registers and progress tracking Unlike free-form messages or documents, SharePoint Lists keep information structured, filterable, and easy to update, which makes them suitable for ongoing tracking and reporting. When used inside Microsoft Teams, Lists help teams move from discussion to execution by turning decisions into trackable items with clear ownership, status, and visibility. Embedding SharePoint Pages in Teams Beyond file storage, Microsoft 365 allows SharePoint pages to be embedded as tabs within Teams, making key project information easily accessible in one place. SharePoint pages can be added as tabs inside Microsoft Teams channels, providing structured and persistent access to key project information without leaving the collaboration space. In practice, organizations often use SharePoint pages for: Project home page with key links and overview Governance page with rules and standards Onboarding page for new team members Documentation hub for core resources Centralized knowledge hubs This helps ensure that essential information is not scattered across chats or files, but is instead organized and always available within the project workspace. SharePoint is better suited for structured, stable, and long-term information. Microsoft Loop for Real-Time Collaboration Microsoft Loop introduces a more dynamic layer of collaboration inside Microsoft Teams, designed for fast, interactive work where content is continuously evolving. Loop components (such as notes, tables, task lists, and meeting agendas) can be embedded directly into Teams conversations and edited in real time by all participants. It is especially useful for: Live meeting notes Quick decision-making and feedback collection (including simple polls or inputs) 1:1 discussions and follow-ups Brainstorming sessions and idea capture Shared task tracking during discussions In practice, teams can collaborate on meeting notes or brainstorming pages during calls, with updates visible instantly to everyone. This removes the need to switch between documents or wait for post-meeting summaries. Unlike structured tools like SharePoint, Loop is designed for fluid, real-time collaboration, where information is shaped and refined as the discussion happens. Automating Workflows with Power Automate Manual processes can slow down project execution. With Power Automate, you can streamline repetitive tasks. Common automation examples: Notify the team when a task is completed Send reminders for upcoming deadlines Automatically save email attachments to SharePoint Trigger approval workflows Example scenario: When a task in Planner is marked as “Completed,” a notification is sent to the project manager and logged in a tracking list. This reduces manual follow-ups and improves efficiency. Power BI Dashboards Power BI can be integrated into Teams as a tab, allowing teams to access real-time reporting directly within their project workspace. It is commonly used for: Project status dashboards KPI and performance tracking Resource and workload visibility Financial or delivery reporting Instead of switching to a separate reporting tool, teams can monitor progress and insights directly inside Teams, ensuring better visibility and faster decision-making. Microsoft Whiteboard Microsoft Whiteboard provides a visual collaboration space for real-time ideation and planning. It is especially useful for: Brainstorming sessions Process mapping and flow design Workshop facilitation Visual planning during meetings Whiteboard supports freehand drawing, sticky notes, and structured diagrams, making it effective for capturing ideas during live discussions and workshops. Integration with Other Tools (Microsoft & Third-Party) Microsoft Teams can be extended with a wide range of Microsoft 365 services and external applications, allowing it to function as a central hub for project work, reporting, and collaboration. Teams also supports many external tools, allowing organizations to align existing systems without fully replacing them. Common examples include: Jira – agile project and issue tracking Trello – lightweight task and board management ServiceNow – IT service management workflows GitHub – development and repository tracking Salesforce – CRM data and customer-related workflows Communication and Collaboration Effective communication is essential for project success. Microsoft Teams provides multiple ways to facilitate this: Channel Conversations Keep discussions organized by topic instead of using scattered chats. Meetings and Calls Schedule regular check-ins, sprint reviews, or stakeholder updates directly within Teams. Mentions and Tags Use @mentions to notify specific team members and ensure accountability. Practical Use Case Consider a company implementing a new internal intranet. Using Microsoft Teams: A Team is created for the project Planner tracks tasks such as design, content migration, and testing SharePoint stores documents and site assets Power Automate sends reminders for deadlines Teams meetings are used for weekly progress reviews This setup enables the team to manage the entire project lifecycle without introducing additional tools. Best Practices for Success To maximize the effectiveness of Microsoft Teams for project management: Keep your structure simple and consistent Avoid creating too many channels Encourage team members to use channel conversations instead of private chats Regularly review and clean up tasks Use automation where it adds clear value Adoption is just as important as functionality. A well-designed system only works if the team actively uses it. Limitations to Consider While Microsoft Teams is powerful, it has limitations: Not suitable for highly complex project scheduling Limited dependency management compared to dedicated PM tools Reporting capabilities are basic without Power BI For large-scale or highly regulated projects, a dedicated project management tool may still be required. Professional Context and Applied Perspective The approach described in this article reflects practical experience in designing and implementing collaboration environments using Microsoft Teams within real organizational settings. It is based on applied use of integrated Microsoft 365 capabilities, including SharePoint, Microsoft Planner, and Microsoft Loop, to support structured project execution and improve cross-functional collaboration. Rather than relying on isolated tools, this approach focuses on designing a unified digital workspace that aligns communication, task management, documentation, and automation within a single environment. Microsoft Teams is more than just a communication platform. When used strategically, it becomes a practical and efficient tool for managing projects. By combining Teams with Planner, SharePoint, and Power Automate, organizations can create a unified workspace that supports collaboration, task management, and process automation. For teams looking to simplify their toolset while maintaining productivity, Microsoft Teams offers a compelling solution for modern project management.Turn conversations into code with GitHub Copilot in Microsoft Teams
Coding where context lives and collaboration happens The best prompt may be the conversation your team has already had or is currently having. Until now, using a coding agent often meant paying context and coordination taxes. Developers had to leave the discussion, open another tool, and reconstruct the problem in a lengthy prompt: what happened, what the team decided, which constraints matter, and what needs to be built. With GitHub Copilot in Teams, teams can move directly from conversation to action. @mention GitHub Copilot when the team is ready to act, and it can use the conversation alongside repository context to understand the request, implement the change, and create a pull request for review. This makes working with a coding agent more collaborative and visible. Instead of one developer privately reconstructing the request, teammates can contribute context, correct assumptions, refine the approach in real time, and review the resulting work together. Let’s explore the new GitHub Copilot in Teams experience to see how it can streamline development tasks: If the player doesn’t load, open the video in a new window: Open video GitHub Copilot in Teams is available in Teams channels, group chats, meeting chats, and 1:1 chats. Once the GitHub app is installed and added to the conversation, @-mention GitHub Copilot to bring it into the discussion and start a task. During public preview, users can complete the following scenarios with GitHub Copilot in Teams: Build a feature based on requirements discussed in Teams Implement a fix for a bug Expand test coverage or improve documentation Create and update a pull request No copying the discussion into a CLI. No rewriting it in a desktop app. No asking one developer to translate a team decision into the perfect prompt. GitHub Copilot works where the context already lives, and because that context is shared, working with GitHub Copilot becomes a team activity. Built around the controls teams already use GitHub Copilot in Teams works within existing GitHub permissions and repository policies. Branch protections and required reviews continue to apply, and people remain responsible for deciding what gets merged, ensuring that humans stay in the loop at every step. Availability GitHub Copilot in Teams is now available in Public Preview. To try it, install the GitHub app for Microsoft Teams and check out our documentation to get started! Less context reconstruction. More progress from the conversations already happening.
