Announcing the 2026 Microsoft 365 Community Conference Keynotes
The Microsoft 365 Community Conference returns to Orlando this April, bringing together thousands of builders, innovators, creators, communicators, admins, architects, MVPs, and product makers for three unforgettable days of learning and community. This year’s theme, “A Beacon for Builders, Innovators & Icons of Intelligent Work,” celebrates the people shaping the AI‑powered future — and the keynote lineup reflects exactly that. These leaders will set the tone for our biggest, boldest M365 Community Conference. Below is your first look at the official 2026 keynote order and what to expect from each session. Opening Keynote Jeff Teper — President, Microsoft 365 Collaborative Apps & Platforms Building for the future: Microsoft 365, Agents and AI, what's new and what's next Join Jeff Teper, to discover how AI-powered innovation across Copilot, Teams, and SharePoint is reshaping how people communicate, create, and work together. This session highlights what’s new, what’s fundamentally different, and why thoughtful design continues to matter. See the latest advances in AI and agents, gain insight into where collaboration is headed, and learn why Microsoft is the company to continue to bet on when it comes to building what’s next. Expect: New breakthroughs in collaboration powered by AI and agents Fresh innovations across Teams, Copilot, and SharePoint Practical guidance on how design continues to shape effective teamwork Real world demos that show how AI is transforming communication and content Insight into what is new, what is changing, and what is coming next Business Apps & Agents Keynote Charles Lamanna — President, Business Apps & Agents In this keynote, Charles Lamanna will share how Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Power Apps, and Agent 365 come together to help makers build powerful agents and help IT teams deploy and govern them at scale. We’ll share how organizations can design, extend, and govern a new model for the intelligent workplace – connecting data, workflows, and systems into intelligent agents that move work forward. Copilot, apps, and agents: the next platform shift for Microsoft 365 Microsoft 365 Copilot has changed how we interact with software. Now AI agents are changing how work gets done – moving from responding to prompts to taking action, across the tools and data your organization already relies on. Expect: A clear explanation of how to leverage and build with Copilot and agents How agents access data, use tools, and complete multi-step work A deeper look at the latest capabilities across Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Power Apps End-to-end demos of agents in action Security, Trust & Responsible AI Keynote Vasu Jakkal — Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security & Rohan Kumar — Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security, Purview & Trust In our third keynote, Vasu Jakkal and Rohan Kumar join forces to address one of the most urgent topics of the AI era: trust and security at scale. As organizations accelerate into AI‑powered work, safeguarding identities, data, compliance, and governance is mission‑critical. Securing AI: Building Trust in the Era of AI Join Vasu Jakkal and Rohan Kumar as they unveil Microsoft’s vision for securing the new frontier of AI—showing how frontier firms are protecting their data, identities, and models amid rapid AI adoption. This session highlights how Microsoft is embedding security and governance into every layer of our AI platforms and unifying Purview, Defender, Entra, and Security Copilot to defend against threats like prompt injection, model tampering, and shadow AI. You’ll see how built-in protections across Microsoft 365 enable responsible, compliant AI innovation, and gain practical guidance to strengthen your own security posture as AI transforms the way everyone works. Expect: Microsoft's unified approach to secure AI transformation Forward‑looking insights across Security, Purview & Trust Guidance for building safe, responsible AI environments How to protect innovation without slowing momentum Future of Work Fireside Keynote Dr. Jaime Teevan — Chief Scientist & Technical Fellow, Microsoft Closing out the keynote lineup is Dr. Jaime Teevan, one of the foremost thought leaders on AI, productivity, and how work is evolving. In this intimate fireside‑style session, she’ll share research, real‑world insights, and Microsoft’s learnings from being both the maker and the first customer of the AI‑powered workplace. Expect: Insights from decades of workplace research The human side of AI transformation Practical guidance for leaders, creators, and practitioners Why collaboration is essential to unlock the true potential of AI. More Than Keynotes: Why You’ll Want to Be in Orlando The M365 Community Conference brings together: 200+ sessions and breakouts 21 hands‑on workshops 200+ Microsoft engineers and product leaders onsite The Microsoft Innovation Hub Ask the Experts, Meet & Greets, and Community Studio Women in Tech & Allies Luncheon SharePoint’s 25th Anniversary Celebration And an epic attendee party at Universal’s Islands of Adventure Whether you create, deploy, secure, govern, design, or lead with Microsoft 365 — this is your community, and this is your moment. Join Us for the Microsoft 365 Community Conference April 21–23, 2026 Loews Sapphire Falls & Loews Royal Pacific 👉 Register now: https://aka.ms/M365Con26 Use the SAVE150 code for $150USD off current pricing Come be part of the global community building the future of intelligent work.Microsoft 365 innovations for small and medium business in 2023
Brenna Robinson, General Manager, Modern Work, Small and Medium Business We’ve been busy building new products and features for Microsoft 365—all so you can be more productive, creative and grow your customer base. From enabling payments right in the Teams app to enhancing security for your small business, we’ve covered lots of areas this year—and hope to provide even more innovations in 2024. Expand your business Microsoft Teams Payments app In May, we added the Payments app to Microsoft Teams. Getting paid for appointments, classes, and webinars becomes much easier with the Payments app—letting you easily manage and collect your funds from inside a Teams meeting. To make the app a seamless experience, we partnered with leading players in the payments space—a necessary step, since Payments combines collaboration capabilities with ecommerce. The partner support from PayPal, and Stripe mean easier interactions with customers and faster payments for you. Find out how to get started Microsoft Teams In November, we expanded our support for service-oriented small businesses by adding Microsoft Bookings to Microsoft Teams Essentials. Using the Bookings app your customers can easily book a meeting with you or one of your employees, freeing you up from the routine task of scheduling. The schedule synchs for all your Teams users and integrates seamlessly with Teams to enable virtual meetings, too. Of all the apps in the Microsoft 365 portfolio, our customers consistently identify Teams as one of its most indispensable resources once they use it for the first time. If you’re not yet a Teams user, try Microsoft Teams Essentials now without commitment—it's free for 30 days for all US customers. 1 We also made it easier for admins to set up Teams without having to navigate the Teams Admin Center or the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. There’s now an easy and intuitive Admin app inside Microsoft Teams that provides recommendations for your specific settings needs. You can enable or disable features or ask for Microsoft support all without leaving Teams. The app is automatically installed and available to admins in businesses with less than 25 users. This experience is being rolled out gradually to users. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can download in the Teams app store. Unlock the power of Microsoft Teams by connecting with industry experts to get your questions answered about how to integrate Teams into your operations. Use the following links to learn more about each webinar and register. North and South Americas, Europe time zones January 16, 9:00 am PST: Protect and enhance meeting experience with Microsoft Teams Premium January 17, 9:00 am PST: Empower your business with Microsoft Teams devices January 18 9:00 am PST: Collaborate with enterprises using M365 MTO and MTMA Boost your brand recognition Microsoft Clipchamp One of our exciting additions to the Microsoft 365 family in 2023 is the new Clipchamp video editor. If you’ve tried to use video editing software before and given up because the learning curve was too steep, then we challenge you to give Clipchamp a try. We designed Clipchamp with ease of use at the top of our priority list, but we didn’t skimp on functionality. It has all the basic editing tools you probably know, such as trimming, cropping, and speed control. But what sets Clipchamp apart is that you’ll be able to use these tools immediately without having to pore over manuals or deal with a lot of trial and error. Clipchamp lets you make high-quality recordings right out of the box. You’ll go from raw footage to a fully edited video smoothly and quickly. When you’re ready to level up your editing, there are more advanced features available like timeline editing and audio processing. Best of all the app is integrated with all your other Microsoft 365 apps and it will even auto-format your video for third-party delivery channels, including Facebook and YouTube. Find out how to access Microsoft Clipchamp Working even smarter and faster Microsoft Loop Another exciting addition to the Microsoft 365 app family is Microsoft Loop. Think of it as an essential co-creation app, supercharged by AI. Loop keeps your work organized by bringing all the parts of your project together in one place—all while giving you and your team the flexibility to collaborate in your preferred app using Loop components. These are portable pieces of content that you can add to any other Microsoft 365 app, including Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and more. Once they’re added, they’ll keep all of your Loop updates synced inside your favorite app so there’s no need to learn another app. The Loop app is available for all Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Microsoft 365 Business Premium customers at no additional charge and you can add it on a mobile app for iOS or Android. Microsoft Teams Phone We’ve added useful new features to Microsoft Teams Phone. First, there’s shared calling, which allows admins to enable a group of licensed users to make and receive phone calls using a single number and calling plan. For example, a single phone number can be shared by all store personnel at a small hardware to be able to make outbound calls to customers and receive incoming calls to the same number. We also included the reverse, namely a private line feature. This lets you set up a second phone number for a single user or group that bypasses any admins, assistants, or delegates. Think of it as a hotline for your most important calls. You can also receive alerts for protected voicemail (encrypted voicemails left by either internal or external callers.) There’s also the new click-to-call feature, which makes it easy for customers to reach your sales and support teams directly from your web page or app. Developers can add, customize, and program the widget to connect customers to a specific Teams user, call queue, or auto attendant. We want you to know about our promotional offer that includes both Microsoft Teams Essentials and Teams Phone with a choice of calling plans. Discover more online or visit your preferred reseller. 2 Join us for an engaging and informative webinar as we delve into the world of the Microsoft Teams Phone and discover how it can revolutionize communication and collaboration for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs). January 15, 9:00 am PST: Grow your business with Microsoft Teams Phone (North and South Americas, Europe time zones) Reliable security in Microsoft 365 Microsoft Defender for Business Cyberattacks are constantly growing more sophisticated and your security needs to keep pace. 3 Traditional security layers like antivirus and antimalware just aren’t enough, which is why we enhanced Microsoft Defender for Business throughout the year. Defender for Business now has next-gen Defender Antivirus which not only protects against known threats, but also identifies and helps protect against emerging dangers. We’ve also added post-breach technologies such as Endpoint Detection and Response, and AI powered Automated Investigation and Remediation and Automatic Attack Disruption. These technologies both detect and respond to threats. We’ve simplified mobile security so employees using Android or iOS devices can stay secure on the go without the need for add-ons or device management. Finally, the new monthly security reports in Defender for Business make it easier to gauge your business’ security status across the entire threat landscape, including access and identity, devices, information control and apps. They also provide recommendations for outstanding issues and closing any gaps that might still be open. Find out more on the Microsoft security web page for small and medium business. Microsoft 365 Business Premium brings the Office apps, Microsoft 365 services and Teams, with a comprehensive security suite to SMBs—offering protection across identity and access with Microsoft Entra ID Plan 1 (formerly Azure AD Premium Plan 1), endpoint security with Defender for Business, protection across email, Teams, OneDrive with Defender for Office 365, data protection with Azure Information protection and device management with Microsoft Intune. Find out more about Microsoft 365 Business Premium Always evolving These are just a few of the new features and capabilities we added to the Microsoft 365 platform in 2023, and we’ve already got more in the works for 2024. We are committed to providing tools that help you move your business forward. Keep current on what’s coming to Microsoft 365, by visiting the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Resources Find the right Microsoft 365 business plan for you. Learn more about how to set up and use your Microsoft 365 subscription and find tips and templates to help you accomplish your business tasks. Get free resources, tech training, and guidance to keep your business thriving and growing. Partners can access training resources, customer decks and deployment checklists to do more with Microsoft 365. After your one-month free trial, you will be charged the applicable subscription fee. Credit card required. Cancel any time to stop future charges. The discount offer is available to new and existing customers who license a 12-month Microsoft Teams Essentials and Microsoft Teams Phone bundle (with or without a Microsoft Teams calling plan) through Direct and CSP direct channels between July 17, 2023, and June 30, 2024. This promotion is valid in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This annual subscription automatically renews and is subject to recurring billing at the regular price and selected term. Customers can cancel at any time to stop future charges. Microsoft reserves the right to cancel, change, or suspend this offer at any time without notice. 82 percent of ransomware attacks target small businesses per The Devastating Impact of Ransomware Attacks on Small Businesses and cost of cybercrimes to small businesses reached $2.4 billion worldwide in 2021 per Accelerating Our Economy Through Better Security: Helping America’s Small Businesses Address Cyber Threats May 2, 2023.Boost digital event engagement with Voting and Archiving in Teams Q&A
Managing and delivering effective town halls is key to enabling two-way dialogue with leaders in today’s hybrid world. Microsoft Teams Q&A makes meetings like town halls, webinars, or training sessions more interactive and productive. We’re excited to announce two new features that help town hall admins better manage the Q&A experience.SharePoint News Connector Retirement
SharePoint News connector has been a valuable tool in our Microsoft Teams experience, seamlessly integrating SharePoint news into our team channels. As we strive for innovation and collaboration, we are transitioning away from the SharePoint News connector to embrace alternative, more integrated solutions.
