Windows Server at Microsoft Ignite 2026: Sessions, our booth, and how to join the pre-day
Start early with the Windows Server pre-day Windows Server: Secure, manage, and accelerate with AI (PREB20) Monday, November 16 | 1:00–5:00 PM PT | Moscone Center This is a demo-filled, deep-dive workshop built for Windows Server professionals and led by the engineers and product team who build Windows Server. You'll see how to manage your servers across Azure, hybrid cloud, and on-premises environments, and get an early look at what's coming in the next version of Windows Server, including local AI, security, Hyper-V, Active Directory, networking, and storage. Expect practical tips you can take back to optimize, modernize, and get the most out of your Windows Server fleet. How to sign up The pre-day was added after Ignite registration opened, and it's a paid add-on that you select during registration. That means it doesn't show up when you search the session catalog, and many people who registered early never saw it. Here's how to get a seat. If you haven't registered for Ignite yet: Visit the Microsoft Ignite registration website and select Register. Choose the in-person Conference pass. When you reach the pre-day options, add Windows Server: Secure, manage, and accelerate with AI (PREB20). The pre-day has an additional fee of $325. Finish registration. The pre-day will appear in your confirmation. Already registered for the in-person event? Sign in to your registration using the same account you used to register. Open your registration page and select "Add a Pre-Day pass". Add Windows Server: Secure, manage, and accelerate with AI (PREB20) and complete checkout; additional fee of $325 applies. Watch for an updated confirmation email. If it doesn't arrive, check your junk folder. Seats are limited, and the Windows Server pre-day has sold out in past years, so we recommend adding it soon. Windows Server sessions on Thursday, November 19 All four of our sessions are on Thursday in the Moscone Center area. The venues are close together with 30 to 45 minutes between sessions, so you can catch all of them. Add them to your schedule from the session catalog. Session Speakers What you'll see When and where BRK418 (Breakout): What's new and what's next for Windows Server Neil Hinnant, Elden Christensen The latest release news and a preview of the next version of Windows Server, covering Hyper-V, Active Directory, storage, and networking, and how the next release raises the bar for security, performance, and AI. Thursday, Nov 19 10:15 AM – 11:00 AM BRK419 (Breakout): From VMware to Hyper-V: Hyperscale virtualization in your datacenter Jeff Woolsey, Davanna White How Windows Admin Center Virtualization Mode helps you build cost-effective, cloud-connected on-premises virtualization with Hyper-V in Windows Server. Thursday, Nov 19 1:30 PM – 2:15 PM THR897 (Theater): Cloud management for every Windows Server Theo Tran, Cindy Wan Consistent management with Azure Arc wherever your servers run, plus lower ESU costs, free hotpatching, and SQL Server optimization. Thursday, Nov 19 10:45 AM – 11:10 AM TT1701 (Table talk): On-prem inferencing with Windows Server Dan Cuomo A small-group conversation on running AI workloads on-premises: planning AI-ready server hardware, and thinking through performance, security, and operational consistency. Thursday, Nov 19 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM Come find us at the Windows Server booth Windows Server has its own booth in the Hub, open November 17 to 19. Stop by to see demos, ask the product team your toughest questions, and tell us what you need from Windows Server. Bring your upgrade plans, your hotpatching questions, and your AI ideas. Can't be there in person? The digital pass is free and includes keynotes and a wide range of sessions. Breakouts and Theater sessions will be streamed or available on demand. Table talks and the pre-day are in-person only. Get hands-on before you arrive Want a head start? Join the Windows Server Insider Program to try preview builds of the next version of Windows Server and share feedback with the team. Several features you'll hear about at Ignite are already in Insider builds, and we've covered them here on Tech Community, including Trusted Launch for virtual machines, ReFS boot, and Windows NVMe-over-Fabrics initiator preview. We can't wait to see you in San Francisco. If you have questions about our sessions or the pre-day, refer to the Ignite event page for more information or leave us a comment below.Marketplace at Microsoft Ignite 2026!
Joining us at Microsoft Ignite in 2 weeks? Here are 7 Microsoft Marketplace sessions I highly recommend, all available in person, online, and on demand! 👇 🚀 Build the future of software on Microsoft — turn your AI solution into revenue 👉 BRK447 🤝 Co-sell at scale with Marketplace — the co-sell playbook 👉 BRK511 🏆 Sell more together through Marketplace — partner-led sales motions 👉 BRK512 🛠️ Build, scale, and monetize apps and agents — architect for commercialization 👉 THR863 💡 You don't have to scale cloud and AI alone — Marketplace value for customers 👉 THR941 ✅ 10 tips to maximize Marketplace success — leave with a checklist 👉 THR935 📈 Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace — maximize Microsoft's programs and benefits 👉 THR936 There are even more sessions about Marketplace, from table talks to industry-specific sessions (shoutout healthcare and manufacturing partners!). See you in San Francisco or online at aka.ms/ignite, November 17–20!SharePoint and OneDrive at Microsoft Ignite 2026: What to Expect
Microsoft Ignite returns November 17–20, 2026, at Moscone Center in San Francisco and online. SharePoint and OneDrive are the knowledge platform for Copilot and agents. This year at Ignite we're excited to show you how this foundational platform helps people securely create, share, and collaborate on content, and turn it into knowledge that people, Copilot, and agents can use in the flow of work. What: Learn more about Microsoft Ignite | Full session scheduler Where: San Francisco, CA and digital pass (free) - https://register.ignite.microsoft.com/ When: November 17-20, 2026 Engage: Stay up to date with all the latest news for OneDrive and SharePoint Microsoft Community LinkedIn @OneDrive on X @SharePoint on X Whether you are modernizing information architecture, preparing content for AI, helping people find what matters faster, or bringing OneDrive and SharePoint into the flow of work, the session lineup offers practical guidance and product insight. Start with these featured breakouts, check out the lightning talks and hands-on labs. Take a moment to explore what excites you most and add them to your Ignite schedule builder to get ready! Start with the featured breakouts Breakout Sessions Date/Time/ Location Session ID Title Summary Tuesday, 11/17 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM Moscone West Level 2 Room 2002 BRK218 SharePoint: Modernize your knowledge foundation for the AI era Most organizations already have the content they need—but it is often scattered across files, sites, and business processes. This session explores how Copilot in SharePoint can help transform that content into organizational knowledge by modernizing information architecture, enriching content with AI, scaling expertise through reusable skills, and strengthening Copilot and agent experiences across Microsoft 365. Thursday, 11/19 2:45–3:30 PM Marriott Marquis Lower B2 Yerba Buena Salon 7 BRK219 AI in the Flow of Work: OneDrive for the AI Era See how OneDrive is becoming an intelligent content layer for AI-powered productivity across Microsoft 365. Through demos and real-world scenarios, this session shows how Copilot in OneDrive can help people find knowledge faster, uncover insights, automate tasks, and collaborate more effectively—while keeping individuals and teams in the flow of work. Thursday, 11/19 4:00 – 4:45PM AMC Metreon Level 3 Theater 12 BRK217 Real-World AI Transformation with Copilot in SharePoint Organizations are moving beyond AI experiments and into production. Through real-world examples and customer stories, this session explores how Copilot in SharePoint can help modernize knowledge management, organize content at scale, automate business processes, preserve expertise, and strengthen Copilot experiences. Attendees will gain practical approaches for turning scattered content into organizational knowledge—and transforming that knowledge into action across the enterprise. Explore theater sessions, lightning talks and a hands-on lab Round out your schedule with three focused, 15-minute lightning talks, plus a hands-on Copilot in SharePoint lab. Theater, Lightning and Lab Sessions Date/Time/ Location Session ID Title Summary Tuesday, 11/17 4:40-5:05 PM Moscone South The Hub Theater D THR852 Why AI Fails Without a Knowledge Strategy Employees spend hours searching for information spread across emails, chats, meetings, documents, and business systems. AI can only be as effective as the knowledge it can access and understand. Discover how organizations can move beyond AI assistants that answer questions and toward AI systems that understand people, projects, content, relationships, and business context. Leave with actionable next steps to help your organization unlock more value from its knowledge and AI investments. Wednesday, 11/ 18 9:50–10:05 AM Moscone South The Hub Lightning Talk 8 LTG1167 Deploy OneDrive Sync with Confidence: The Desktop Playbook Learn how to successfully deploy and manage OneDrive Sync across your organization. Explore deployment best practices, configuration tips, user adoption strategies, and troubleshooting guidance to deliver a reliable and scalable file sync experience for your users. Thursday 11/19 9:00–9:15 AM Moscone South The Hub Lightning Talk 2 LTG1168 The foundation of Trusted AI: SharePoint security and resiliency Trusted AI starts with trusted content. As agents and Copilot experiences become integral to business workflows in Microsoft 365, SharePoint security and resiliency are more critical than ever. Join us to see how SharePoint, the #1 citation source of Copilot, protects organizational knowledge, ensures resilience against threats and disruptions, and provides the trusted foundation for AI at enterprise scale. Thursday, 11/19 4:15 PM - 4:30 PM Moscone South The Hub Lightning Talk 4 LTG1166 Your Work, Anywhere: The New OneDrive Experience Across Web and Mobile Work happens everywhere, and OneDrive is evolving to help you stay productive wherever you are. Explore the latest OneDrive experiences across web and mobile, designed to help you quickly find, organize, and act on content from any device. See new innovations, real-world productivity scenarios, and how OneDrive helps you stay connected, streamline tasks, and work smarter across Microsoft 365. Tuesday 11/17 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM Moscone West Level 2, Room 2007 Wednesday 11/18 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM Moscone West Level 2, Room 200 Thursday 11/19 4:30 PM - 5:45 PM Moscone West Level 2, Room 200 Friday 11/20 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM Moscone West Level 2, Room 200 LAB650 Build a Knowledge-Powered Workspace with Copilot in SharePoint Learn how to transform content into organizational knowledge and put AI to work across your team. You'll use Copilot in SharePoint to organize information, enrich content with metadata, create pages and reports, build reusable skills, and automate common processes. Along the way, you'll see how better-organized knowledge helps strengthen Copilot experiences across Microsoft 365. Leave with practical techniques you can apply immediately to build a modern, AI-powered knowledge workspace. Visit us at the OneDrive and SharePoint Expert Meet up Connect with OneDrive and SharePoint product experts, ask questions, and continue the conversation beyond the sessions. We’re excited to connect with you! Where to find us: Copilot Neighborhood | Expert Meet Up Station Look for: SharePoint and OneDrive Booth #13 Located in: The Hub, Moscone South Build your Ignite schedule Curious about what else Microsoft has in store for Ignite? There are many more sessions across the full spectrum of the Microsoft stack. So, make sure to explore the full session catalog and start selecting your list of favorites to create a personalized Ignite experience today. Learn more Microsoft Ignite 2026 session catalog SharePoint Showcase blog Copilot in SharePoint blog OneDrive blog Microsoft OneDrive: Customer Office Hours Sync Up by Microsoft 365The CISO Cheat Sheet to Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026
I know we’re all busy, so I’ve pulled the most important data from this year’s Microsoft Digital Defense Report into one short read. The full report is well worth exploring, but this article focuses on the numbers and trends most relevant to security leaders. This year’s edition shows that AI is lowering the time, expertise and cost required to discover and exploit weaknesses, enabling attackers to operate with greater speed, scale and autonomy. The report describes this as AI “changing the physics of cybersecurity”: attack timelines are compressing and agentic systems are beginning to automate more of the attack lifecycle. Trend 1: Time has collapsed The clearest finding is about speed. Vulnerability discovery is increasingly running ahead of remediation, while the time from discovery to weaponisation is shrinking. In the AI era, weaponisation can follow in hours. Vulnerability discovery and weaponisation now often needs only a well-written prompt. The median time from discovery in the wild to weaponisation is below 24 hours. Vulnerabilities were on track for a record estimated 72,000 CVEs in 2026. The report expects a multi-year period in which the number of known but unpatched vulnerabilities rises sharply before eventually declining. The median time from container start to first exploit attempt is 5.3 hours. The ransomware actor Storm-1175 moved from web-facing exploitation to deploying Medusa ransomware in as little as 24 hours. CISA added over 110 CVEs to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue between November 2025 and May 2026, most within a week of disclosure. The mismatch with enterprise reality is the uncomfortable part. The report says the disclosure-to-exploitation window has shrunk to single-digit days. Between November 2025 and May 2026, CISA added more than 110 vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue, most within a week of disclosure. In one example, Storm-1175 moved from exploiting a web-facing vulnerability to deploying Medusa ransomware in as little as 24 hours. Microsoft’s Red Team makes an important point: a patch is also a disclosure. Every fix points attackers towards the flaw it closes. As AI-assisted analysis makes reversing patches faster and more reliable, the report argues that patch velocity, not simply patch availability, becomes the control that matters. Trend 2: Attack chains are gaining autonomy The report charts a clear progression: September–November 2025: AI assists in orchestrating a campaign, as in the Anthropic-reported espionage case. April–June 2026: Full-chain autonomy is demonstrated in labs. July 2026: Real-world autonomous attacks of increasing complexity appear. Two frontier models, Mythos and GPT-5.5, completed a 32-step attack chain against an emulated enterprise with no human help. The test environment had no defenders. The UK AI Security Institute reached a similar finding independently. GPT-5.5 was the second model to solve its end-to-end corporate network attack simulation, a task AISI estimates would take a human about 20 hours. Open-weight models lag closed models at orchestrating attacks by about seven months. In the wild, early July 2026 saw the first documented automated ransomware extortion attack, named JADEPUFFER by Sysdig. Microsoft has seen AI-orchestrated intrusions that share elements with it. Initial access consistently came from internet-exposed services running known-vulnerable software. The report is measured on this point. Volumes of AI-orchestrated activity remain low. In most observed real-world operations, complex end-to-end intrusions still retain meaningful human direction. The Red Team's framing is the most useful one: AI doesn't create a new class of attack, it collapses the effort needed to find and exploit existing attack paths. Trend 3: AI has become an attack surface The report's second takeaway is that attackers are already targeting AI itself. The adoption numbers explain why. 88% of enterprises are experimenting with agents, and 82% of leaders plan broader rollouts within 12–18 months. The report cites industry projections of roughly 1.3 billion agents in production by 2028. What attackers are doing to AI systems: Four techniques accounted for roughly 90% of observed attack activity in telemetry from Azure AI workloads: malicious link injection (52%), jailbreaks (16%), tool and agent abuse (12%), and identity and credential abuse (10%). Memory poisoning: An attacker who can place content anywhere an agent reads can often place it where the agent remembers. Email is the dominant pathway the Red Team has observed. Human-in-the-loop isn't a complete control: Red team testing saw approval prompts ignored, or bypassed by a policy stored in poisoned memory. Developer tools turned against their owners: The "s1ngularity" malware hijacked locally installed AI command-line tools to hunt for secrets. It leaked about 2,000 secrets and 20,000 files across 225 victims. AI browsers: In daily use at more than 40% of organisations in Microsoft's dataset, they were the initial infection vector in incidents involving 57 malware families in a May 2026 analysis. Chat histories as a target: Malicious AI-assistant extensions reached nearly 900,000 installs and more than 20,000 enterprise tenants, harvesting AI chat histories that often contain code, architecture and credentials. The identity implications are direct. Each agent needs its own identity, not one borrowed from an employee, and a named human sponsor. The report also treats revocation latency, the time to cut off a compromised agent, as a measured outcome. Trend 4: The front door is still identity AI changes the speed and personalisation of social engineering. It hasn't changed where attacks start. Initial access in Defender Experts data: User execution: 30% Valid accounts: 20% Malicious copy-and-paste: 13% Phishing: 11% Together, user execution and valid accounts account for over half of observed activity. In incident response engagements, phishing as an initial access vector jumped from 7% to 23% year on year. The standout numbers: ClickFix: Defender saw user-pasted malicious commands on more than 1.1 million unique devices between February and early May 2026, roughly an 8x increase. AiTM: URLs accounted for 45% of the identified phishing techniques in the report’s breakdown. Separately, the share of AiTM phishing and token-theft attacks more than doubled during the first six months of 2026, although the report notes that their overall share remained comparatively small. Teams vishing: Weekly confirmed malicious volume increased 502% year on year. Per attempt, 48% of vishing calls kept the victim engaged for more than 20 seconds, and 30% lasted more than one minute. When a call succeeds, attackers can persuade the victim to install a remote-management tool and complete reconnaissance in two minutes or less. Business contact impersonation (BCI): The report introduces this term for conversations that start with a trusted-looking contact. Microsoft detected more than 46 million attacks in 12 months, with a 121% spike in April 2026. The share of first-contact messages that explicitly asked for money or documents fell from 17% to 3%. The first message is deliberately bland, like "Are you at your desk?" Password attacks declined 26% year on year, which the report describes as strong evidence that MFA and passkeys are forcing attackers to pivot. That pivot includes techniques such as fatigue attacks, AiTM phishing and token theft designed to circumvent conventional MFA. Trend 5: Attackers are inheriting trust rather than breaking in The report's headline theme is that risk is increasingly interconnected. Threats travel through the trusted relationships between identities, software supply chains, partners and cloud platforms. The numbers: Supply chain: Major open-source ecosystems saw attacks roughly every ten days, accelerating through Q2 2026. Shai-Hulud 2.0 affected 25,000 repositories. Megalodon backdoored 5,561 GitHub repositories in under six hours. Trusted signing: In May 2026, Microsoft disrupted Fox Tempest, a "malware-signing-as-a-service" operation that obtained genuine certificates for ransomware loaders and infostealers. Microsoft revoked over a thousand fraudulent code-signing certificates. Legitimate access: An unsanctioned remote monitoring tool is now one of the most reliable mid-stage indicators of a human-operated intrusion. Cloud identity: Cloud identity abuse was the most observed technique against critical infrastructure, representing 78% of the technique mix in Microsoft’s data for March to June 2026. Hybrid intrusions: The Storm-2885 case showed an attacker using a privileged cloud identity to close and downgrade security alerts. The report says identity governance and alert-handling workflows deserve Tier 0 treatment. Dwell time: DART data shows a statistically significant increase in dwell time year on year, meaning organisations took longer to detect intrusions. Ransomware shows the same ecosystem pattern. Qilin led leak-site data with 16.4% of victims, up 386%. Defender detections tell a different story, with Akira at 22%. Trend 6: Defence works best when it's connected The report is not only a catalogue of threats. The strongest defensive evidence: Disruption works. Following the March 2026 disruption, Tycoon2FA activity had fallen 95% from its November 2025 peak by June. Its share of CAPTCHA-gated phishing declined from 76% in December 2025 to 12% in June 2026. Correlation is the highest-leverage variable. The report argues that how well defenders share and correlate signals across endpoint, identity, cloud, email and network is one of the highest-leverage strategic variables under their control. AI is also changing defensive operations. The report describes AI-assisted triage, incident summarisation, hunting-query generation and detection engineering as ways to accelerate investigations and allow analysts to concentrate on higher-value work. Automated disruption can compress response time. The report says that when a correlated incident reaches a defined confidence threshold, defensive systems can automatically isolate devices, disable compromised accounts, revoke sessions or quarantine affected cloud resources. It also stresses the importance of appropriate governance and human oversight for high-risk AI actions. The report also recommends changing what leaders measure. It suggests moving from patches deployed to exposure reduced, detection coverage increased and time-to-mitigate compressed. What the MDDR recommends: ten security priorities The report starts its recommendations with the foundations: Secure by Design, Secure by Default and Secure Operations, applied through identity-centric Zero Trust. Microsoft says these keep the priorities below durable as AI adds more identities, applications, agents and dependencies to govern. Govern cyber risk at leadership level. Report identity exposure, patch latency, agent permissions, critical dependencies, dwell time and recovery readiness to the board. Defend identity as the primary control plane. Deploy passkeys and phishing-resistant MFA, reduce privilege and govern human and non-human identities. Invalidate and rotate tokens and session credentials quickly. Establish governance, visibility and data controls for AI. Keep visibility of approved AI tools, services and agents, and monitor for unauthorised or unmanaged use. Apply sensitivity-aware access and data protection to the data those systems can reach. Reduce exposure and edge risk. Continuously discover internet-facing assets and patch edge devices quickly. Centralise high-fidelity logging, enforce strong authentication and combine network visibility with threat intelligence. Focus on cross-signal correlation. Correlate endpoint, identity, cloud, application, email and network signals to detect intrusions earlier. Correlation also helps defenders anticipate attack paths and likely targets. Enact a continuous threat and vulnerability management model. Combine asset visibility, vulnerability identification, threat detection and AI-accelerated insight into a single continuous programme. Validate exposure through proactive testing. Run assume-breach exercises on cloud services, SaaS platforms, APIs and workflow automation. Prioritise them by where your highest-value data is stored, accessed or aggregated. Secure software dependencies. Harden software installation, keep a software inventory and validate provenance. Monitor packages and prepare for rapid containment. Participate in collective defence. Share actionable threat indicators and victim-informed intelligence with trusted partners and law enforcement. This supports coordinated tracking, investigation and disruption. Prepare for long-horizon technology transitions. Build a cryptographic inventory and advance post-quantum planning alongside AI governance. Read together, the numbers tell one story: the attacker’s workflow is becoming faster and less expensive. AI can shorten vulnerability discovery, exploitation, secret discovery and lateral movement, while organisations still face the slower operational work of testing, coordinating and deploying safe changes across complex environments. At the same time, agent identities can proliferate faster than organisations can inventory, govern and revoke them The defining question for boards today is not whether disruption will occur, but whether the organization can continue operating, contain harm, recover quickly, and maintain trust when it does. Source: Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026, Version 1.1. Reporting period: July 2025–June 2026.Choose your path: Start or grow your Microsoft partnership
Ready to start or grow your Microsoft partnership? As a software development company, you can choose the step-by-step course built for your stage of growth. New to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program? The Software Development Company (SDC) Onboarding course shows you how to: Sign up and establish your business relationship with Microsoft. Activate partner benefits to reduce operating costs. Access Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace assistance to develop, test, and package your solution for a Microsoft Marketplace launch. Take your solution to market and use Microsoft benefits as you scale with Microsoft support. Access free skilling for your team. Already an established Microsoft partner and ready to grow? The Build and Advance course provides: Step-by-step information to publish to Marketplace or join Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace. Guidance according to company roles, with specific steps to drive revenue and growth. Technical skilling and recommendations. Guidance for co-selling with Microsoft and using Partner Center as your main hub to interact with Microsoft. Choose your course and take your next step. Just getting started? Register for the SDC Onboarding course. Already established and ready to grow? Register for the Build and Advance course.How software companies can expand their SMB reach with Microsoft Marketplace and AI
How can software companies turn a Microsoft Marketplace presence into greater customer reach and growth? Explore how Microsoft Marketplace can help software companies connect with more small and medium business (SMB) customers, support scalable sales, and expand into new markets in the age of AI. The article highlights Ntegral’s evolution from a traditional systems integrator to a software company with more than 300 enterprise solutions and deployments in more than 150 countries. You’ll also get a preview of what Ntegral President and CTO Dexter Hardy will bring to Ultimate Partner LIVE Reston, including practical perspectives on building beyond a Marketplace listing, developing pipeline, reaching SMB customers, and incorporating AI into a broader growth strategy. Read the full article to discover how Marketplace, AI-powered innovation, and an SMB-focused product strategy can work together to create new opportunities for software companies. 👉 Explore now: How software companies can reach more SMB customers through Microsoft Marketplace in the age of AIMarketplace trainings and events calendar (updated 10/9/26)
-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 10/9/2026**** Partner and Channel Partner sessions Recorded Partner Office Hour Sessions Date Area Title Description Link 10/7/26 (US) 10/8/26 (HKT) Regional session Multiparty private offers: Channel growth in Hong Kong Explore multiparty private offers in Hong Kong and learn how Microsoft Marketplace can accelerate channel-led sales and growth. View the recording 10/7/2026 Guest office hour Marketplace co-sell playbook: From co-sell ready to closed-won Join this partner-focused session with speaker Kevin Flitcroft of Spektra Systems to learn how successful organizations turn co-sell opportunities into closed-won business. View the recording 9/10/26 Partner session How leading partners drive co-sell success with Marketplace Learn how successful software companies use Microsoft Marketplace to expand reach, strengthen co-sell relationships, and drive repeatable revenue growth. Join Reis Barrie of Carve Partners for insights into building Marketplace momentum and creating co-sell opportunities across the Microsoft partner ecosystem. View the recording 08/06/2026 (JAPAN) Regional session Multiparty private offers through Marketplace: channel growth in Japan Discover how multiparty private offers can help software companies and channel partners pursue new channel-led growth opportunities in Japan. This session conducted in Japanese explains the deal flow, eligibility requirements, first steps, and customer value including how eligible purchases can contribute toward Azure consumption commitments. View the recording 07/15/2026 (AUS) Regional session Multiparty private offers through Marketplace: channel growth in Australia Microsoft Marketplace offers multiple ways for partners to work together and grow through the channel. With multiparty private offers launching in Australia on July 16, alongside resale enabled offers, join us to learn how can you can activate channel-led sales. View the recording ********** FY26 ********** 06/17/26 Office Hour The Marketplace playbook for channel-led sales Get a practical playbook for scaling channel-led sales through Microsoft Marketplace, including how to recruit and activate partners using resale-enabled offers and multiparty private offers. Learn proven best practices, go-to-market resources, and real-world lessons. View the recording 05/19/26 Office Hour Multi-currency private offers in Microsoft Marketplace Join a practical walkthrough to learn how multi-currency transaction are managed through Marketplace. Gain confidence in creating private offers in local currency and get foundational knowledge to support sales of resale enabled offers. View the recording 05/07/26 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. View the recording 4/28/26 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. View the recording 04/15/26 Office Hour 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 Hour (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 Hour (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 Hour (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 Hour (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 Hour (Partner) Certified software designations: FY26 benefits updates Overview of certified software designations and FY26 benefit updates. View recording Recorded Customer Office Hour sessions Date Area Title Description Link 09/2/2026 Office Hour (Customer) Evaluate and buy solutions with Microsoft Marketplace Help customers evaluate and buy solutions with greater confidence. This Microsoft Marketplace session explores intelligent discovery, free trials, private offer requests, flexible contract durations, and practical ways partners and sellers can create purchasing arrangements aligned to customer priorities. View the recording 07/29/2026 Office Hour (Customer) Accelerating AI development with Microsoft Marketplace Learn how Microsoft Marketplace helps software development companies simplify procurement, streamline integration, and access AI models and developer tools through a single platform. Find out how to accelerate time to market, enhance operational efficiency and scale customer reach across Azure, Microsoft 365, and the Microsoft global partner ecosystem. View the recording ********** FY26 ********** 06/24/26 Office Hour (Customer) Microsoft Marketplace as FinOps platform Learn how Marketplace can help organizations simplify procurement, centralize billing, and better align software investments to optimize cloud and AI spend. Discover actionable strategies to improve cost visibility and ROI and leverage Marketplace as a key component of your FinOps approach. View the recording 05/28/26 Office Hour (Customer) Dragon Copilot AI apps and agents in Microsoft Marketplace Healthcare organizations discover how Dragon Copilot can help accelerate time to value by connecting with trusted partner solutions that streamline workflows and embed AI directly into daily operations. View the recording 04/29/26 Office Hour (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. View the recording 03/25/26 Office Hour (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 Hour (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 Hour (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 Hour (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 Hour (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. ``ESPC Microsoft 365 and AI 2026 Event Guide
Event at a Glance ESPC is Europe's premier Microsoft 365 and AI conference. It brings together IT professionals, business leaders, developers, architects, partners, MVPs, community leaders, and Microsoft experts to learn, connect, and explore the latest innovations across Microsoft 365, Copilot, Teams, SharePoint, and more. Microsoft is a lead partner and headline sponsor, using ESPC as a key opportunity to engage with customers, partners, and the Microsoft community. Dates: November 30 - December 3, 2026 Location: RAI Amsterdam, Netherlands Venue: RAI Amsterdam, Europaplein 24, 1078 GZ Amsterdam, Netherlands (Entrance C) Hashtag: #ESPC26 Microsoft Role: Headline Sponsor Sessions: 35+ Microsoft-led Speakers: 100+ (MVPs, RDs, Microsoft and community members) Why Attend ESPC 2026? ESPC is where the Microsoft community comes together to learn, connect, and shape what’s next. From Microsoft keynotes and product-maker sessions to hands-on demos, community meetups, and networking opportunities, attendees gain direct access to the people building the technologies they use every day. ESPC is known for its welcoming community atmosphere, making it easy to learn from peers, share ideas, and build meaningful professional relationships. Learn from Microsoft - Hear directly from Microsoft leaders, engineers, product makers, and customer experience experts as they share the latest developments across Microsoft 365, Copilot, Teams, SharePoint, Power Platform, Security, Fabric, Azure, and AI. Explore What's New in AI and Copilot - Discover how organizations are adopting AI, deploying Copilot, building agents, and transforming productivity. Gain practical guidance, real-world insights, and technical knowledge you can take back to your team. Get Hands-On with Innovation - Visit the Microsoft Innovation Hub to experience live demos, engage with product experts, explore new capabilities, and participate in interactive experiences designed to help you learn by doing. Connect with the Community - Meet MVPs, partners, customers, developers, architects, IT professionals, and community leaders from around the world. Whether in a session, the Community Lounge, a meetup, or a networking event, ESPC creates opportunities to build lasting connections. Return with Actionable Ideas - Beyond inspiration, ESPC focuses on practical learning. Attendees leave with new skills, proven approaches, and fresh perspectives they can immediately apply to modernize collaboration, accelerate adoption, strengthen governance, and drive AI-powered transformation within their organizations Microsoft Presence Microsoft will have a significant presence throughout the conference, including: Microsoft keynotes and product announcements Product makers, engineers, and customer experience leaders Microsoft-led breakout sessions Innovation Hub experience on the expo floor Innovation Stage lightning talks Ask the Expert opportunities Executive engagement activities Women in Tech & Allies programming Community meetups and networking experiences Meet the Microsoft Keynote speakers Jeff Teper, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Apps & Agents Karuana Gatimu, Director, Microsoft SCALE Experience Group, AI & Collaboration Vesa Juvonen, Principal Product Manager Keynotes Microsoft Opening Keynote | Tuesday, December 1 | 9:00 AM The AI-Powered Enterprise Speaker: Jeff Teper, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Apps & Agents Microsoft's opening keynote will explore how the biggest AI value gains extend beyond individual applications and personal productivity gains. They emerge when organizations connect people, knowledge, business processes, data, workflows, and agents into a unified operating model. You can expect valuable insights into business transformation trends, product innovation, and demos to show how everyday work is evolving. Whether you're a decision maker, business leader, or technology professional, this session will offer practical perspectives on navigating the next wave of digital transformation. Demonstrations Miceile Barrett, Principal Group Product Manager, Michel Bouman, Senior Program Manager, Kendra Springer, Principal Group PM Manager Microsoft Product Keynote | Wednesday, December 2 | 9:00 AM Leading Through Change: Fireside Conversations on AI, Productivity, and Business Transformation Speaker: Karuana Gatimu, Director of the Microsoft SCALE Experience Group, AI & Collaboration A product-focused keynote highlighting customer adoption, community innovation, and practical approaches for leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot, agents, and modern workplace technologies. Known for translating complex technology into actionable guidance, Karuana will share practical insights, real-world examples, and best practices that you can take back to your teams. From collaboration and productivity to AI-powered innovation, this keynote will provide valuable inspiration for organizations looking to maximize their Microsoft investments. Closing Keynote | Thursday, December 3 | 9:00 AM Crafting the Next Era of Work with AI and Empathy Speaker: Vesa Juvonen, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft As organizations continue to embrace AI, one question becomes increasingly important: how do we balance technological advancement with human connection? In this keynote, Vesa Juvonen will explore how innovation and empathy can work together to shape the future workplace. Through practical examples and relatable insights, Vesa will share ideas for embracing new technologies while keeping people at the center of transformation efforts. Whether you're leading organizational change, building solutions, supporting users, or exploring ways to work smarter, this session will provide actionable ideas to help you navigate the evolving world of work. Microsoft sessions Tuesday: 10:15-11:15 - Frontier transformation with Microsoft Copilot and Work IQ with John Mighell, Microsoft / Shanna Bosmans, Microsoft 10:15-11:15 - Microsoft Teams: Harnessing agents where work gets done with Matt Slomka, Microsoft 11:45-12:45 - Agent 365: Securing, Governing, and Managing the Agentic Enterprise with Sesha Mani, Microsoft / Vinod Kurpad, Microsoft 11:45-12:45 - Extending Microsoft Copilot: Understanding Your Options with Vesa Juvonen, Microsoft / Paolo Pialorsi, Microsoft 11:45-12:45 - OneDrive: Your Hub for Productivity and Collaboration Excellence (Product Team Overview) with Arjun Tomar, Microsoft / Lincoln DeMaris, Microsoft 14:00-15:00 - Harnessing Connectors to Power Intelligent Agents in Microsoft 365 with Manas Biswas, Microsoft 15:15-16:15 - Modernize Legacy Systems for the Copilot Era with SharePoint Embedded with Marc Windle, Microsoft / James Eccles, Microsoft 15:15-16:15 - Copilot Cowork in Action: What It Is, How to Get It & What You Can Do With It with Melissa Hale, Kerv / Daniel Laskewitz, Microsoft 16:45-17:45 - Giving your office eyes, ears and a brain with Michel Bouman, Microsoft / Matt Slomka, Microsoft 16:45-17:45 - Build Once, Ground Everywhere: Developing Agents with the WorkIQ API with Shyam Narayan, Microsoft / Yogesh Ratnaparkhi, Microsoft Wednesday: 10:15-11:15 - SharePoint: The Knowledge Platform for Copilot & Agents (Product Team Overview) with Zach Rosenfield, Microsoft / Miceile Barrett, Microsoft 11:45-12:45 - OneDrive: Your Hub for Productivity and Collaboration Excellence (Product Team Overview) with Arjun Tomar, Microsoft / Lincoln DeMaris, Microsoft 14:00-15:00 - Secure your Copilot Era: 3Rs you should care: Readiness-Relevancy-Resiliency with Brad Gussin, Microsoft / Kartik Pullabhotla, Microsoft 15:15-16:15 - Unlocking Business Value with Copilot, Agents, and Content Automation with Bryan Wofford, Microsoft / Karuana Gatimu, Microsoft 16:45-17:45 - Digital Me: Meet Your Microsoft Scout with TBA, Microsoft 16:45-17:45 - M365 Content Governing Agent powered by SAM. Governing Content at the Speed of AI with Sanjoyan Mustafi, Microsoft / Jill McClenahan, Microsoft Thursday: 11:45-12:45 - How to avoid “(fin)Ooops” in AI: practical tokenomics for Copilot agents with Hanna Engel, Microsoft 11:45-12:45 - MCP in Power Platform: One Year Later – Building Custom MCP Servers with Low Code with Daniel Laskewitz, Microsoft / Mats Necker, MVP, dhino 15:15-16:15 - From Conversation to Action: Building Copilot Apps That Transform Work with Vesa Juvonen, Microsoft / Bert Jansen, Microsoft Community Sessions There are over 100 sessions presented by the Microsoft Community – Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), Regional Directors, Microsoft Global Community Initiative Board Members and Regional Leads, Microsoft Partners and more. ESPC also has a Programme Team that curates all of the content for the event. Thank you Luise Freese, Maarten Eekels, Rik Hepworth, and Chris O’Brien for your curation, partnership and working so hard to architect a fabulous programme for 2026. Learn more about the team here: European SharePoint Conference 2026 | ESPC 2026 Microsoft Innovation Hub The Innovation Hub serves as Microsoft's home on the ESPC expo floor and gives attendees opportunities to interact directly with product teams through demos, conversations, and hands-on experiences. We are excited to announce that Dona Sarkar, Principal CX Program Manager, Microsoft will be leading a learning promptahon workshop in the Ideation Lab. More info and a few other activations with names you know to be announced. Innovation Hub Zones Innovation Stage Lightning talks Live demos Product-maker presentations Demo Stations Microsoft Copilot Copilot Studio and Agents OneDrive & SharePoint AI Adoption Surface + AI Skilling Bar Surface devices with AI integration AI skilling experiences Practical learning scenarios Ideation Lab Interactive workshops Community collaboration Future-of-work discussions Planned Hours Tuesday: 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM Wednesday: 10:15 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Community Activities Microsoft is partnering closely with the broader Microsoft community to deliver: Community Lounge meetups Ask the Expert activities Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) engagement Microsoft Global Community Initiative (MGCI) engagement Innovation Stage presentations Community networking opportunities Community activities are integrated directly into the Innovation Hub and Community Lounge experience, creating opportunities for attendees to engage with Microsoft leaders, MVPs, partners, and community organizers. Women in Tech & Allies Activities WIT Community Lounge Meetup Calling all Women in Tech and Allies! Join us during lunch on the first day of ESPC to say hello, make new connections, and perhaps find an ESPC show buddy. This is a casual meetup with no formal agenda. Simply pick up your lunch and join us at the tables marked with WITA signs. Date: Tuesday, December 1 Time: 12:45 –2:00 PM CET Location: Community Lounge Inspire Stage breakout Leading with Allyship: Building Inclusive Communities in the Age of AI Date: Wednesday, December 2 Time: 10:15–11:15 AM CET Location: Inspire Stage Hosts: Heather Cook, Principal Customer Experience Manager, Microsoft and Femke Cornelissen, Chief AI Transformation Officer, Wortell Panelists: Jayshree Ostwal, MVP, Manager, AI Solution Architect, Avanade, Lindsay Shelton, MVP, Digital Workplace Advisor, Epiq, Merethe Stave, MVP, Chief Customer Officer and Senior Cloud Architect, CloudWay, Onyinye Madubuko,MVP, Senior M365 Consultant, Ergo, Reshmee Auckloo, MVP, Modern Workplace Associate Manager, Avanade Women in Tech & Allies Lunch Shaping the Future Together: Women in Tech and Allies Driving Change Date: Wednesday, December 2 Time: 12:45-2:00 PM CET Location: Elicium 1 Host: Heather Cook, Principal Customer Experience Manager, Microsoft Panelists: Danielle Moon, Sr. Specialist – AI Business Process, Women in Power Platform, Microsoft, Karuana Gatimu, Director of the Microsoft SCALE Experience Group, AI & Collaboration, Microsoft, Jessie Hwang, Customer Experience Product Manager, Microsoft, Hanna Engel, Cloud Solution Architect | Azure & AI, Microsoft, Dona Sarkar, Chief Troublemaker | Enterprise AI Advocacy, Microsoft, Ioana-Cristina Sbiera, Field Integrated Marketing Manager, Microsoft Microsoft Event Team Executive Producer - Heather Cook, Principal Customer Experience Manager, Microsoft Content Narrative Lead – Bryan Wofford, Principal Customer Experience Manager, Microsoft Community & Innovation Hub Lead – Jonathan Jones, Customer Experience Program Manager, Microsoft ESPC Organizers Thank you to our event producers: Bridgette Robertson, Partnership Development & Programme Executive, Ella Murphy, Marketing Manager, Joanne Mangan, Product & Partner Manager, John Carroll, Business Development Lead, Katie Boland, Events Administrator, Kevin Monahan, General Manager, Sarah Grech, Events Coordinator, Sean Colleran, Marketing Executive Links and Social Event Resources - ESPC Website Social Media Hashtag – #ESPC26 X/Twitter – ESPC Community LinkedIn – ESPC LinkedIn Instagram – ESPC_Community See you there! ESPC 2026 represents an important opportunity to connect product makers, customers, partners, MVPs, and the broader Microsoft community in one of the most engaged Microsoft ecosystems in the world. Across four days of learning, networking, hands-on experiences, and community-led conversations, Microsoft will showcase the latest innovations in Microsoft 365, Copilot, AI, Teams, SharePoint, Power Platform, Fabric, Security, and Azure while creating meaningful opportunities for attendees to learn, connect, and share what’s next. We look forward to welcoming the community to Amsterdam and making ESPC 2026 a memorable, inclusive, and impactful experience for everyone involved. See you at ESPC 2026. #ESPC26New Resource Available: Event Recap Template for Event Producers
Creating post-event content just got easier. To help Event Producers quickly share highlights, key takeaways, and community impact after their events, we've created a standardized Event Recap template for you to leverage (and/or make it your own) - it is a great way to continue to amplify and thank your speakers, sponsors and volunteers. These templates are designed to save time, ensure consistency, and make it easier to amplify the success of your event across Microsoft channels and social platforms. Simply customize the content with your event details, highlights, and resources, then publish. Whether you're recapping a CommunityDays event, workshop, meetup, or larger conference, the templates provide a great starting point for sharing your event story with attendees and the broader community. Access the templates in the MGCI Event Producer resources and use them as part of your post-event communications workflow. Thank you for helping showcase the incredible work happening across our community programs. https://aka.ms/MGCIResources - Check the Event Producers Playbook and all the templates are there. Let us know below what other templates you would like us to create and post up for download! Cheers Heather Photo from Experts Live NYC, October 2025.
