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Microsoft 365 Community Conference 2026 brought together technologists, community leaders, builders, admins, architects, and product teams for three days of learning and connection in Orlando, Florida. Across the event, Microsoft MVPs helped make the experience practical, welcoming, and community-powered. They led sessions, answered questions, supported demos, sparked hallway conversations, and created moments of belonging that extended well beyond the agenda. For anyone curious about becoming an MVP, the conference offered a clear reminder: community impact often starts by showing up, sharing generously, and helping others grow.
“Seeing so many fellow MVPs… sharing knowledge, leading sessions, answering questions, recording podcasts, building connections, and making the whole event better was something else.” – MVP Diego Domingos da Silva
MVPs at the Center of the Community
At the conference, MVP participation was visible everywhere – from keynote moments and technical sessions to meetups, podcasts, booth conversations, and peer support. More than 60 MVPs participated as speakers, representing communities from the US, Canada, Italy, the UK, Germany, Austria, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, and Finland. MVPs also delivered all 14 pre-conference workshops and led more than 65 sessions across the week, bringing trusted, real-world expertise to topics including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Graph, governance, compliance, accessibility, Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Dataverse, neurodiversity, and women in tech.
That practical depth came through especially in the pre-conference workshops. MVP Galen Keene approached his hands-on Copilot workshop with a high bar: attendees invested a full day, and he wanted them to leave with far more than a slide deck. His workshop focused on the real-world work of preparing an enterprise for Copilot, including secure-by-default deployment, gotchas, hard-won lessons, and practical assets attendees could use immediately when they returned to the office. For Galen, the most rewarding part was that the workshop became less of a presentation and more of a conversation, shaped by real environments, real challenges, and a shared commitment to helping each other do the work well.
“I wanted attendees to leave my workshop feeling like they invested a day and walked away with a month’s worth of value.” – MVP Galen Keene
Some moments showed the unique bridge MVPs create between Microsoft and the broader technical community. MVPs Susan Hanley and Laura Rogers joined Microsoft President of Collaborative Apps and Platforms, Jeff Teper, on stage, helping connect product vision with practitioner perspective. For Susan, the conversation was a meaningful reminder of how deeply her career has been tied to SharePoint and how long she has been part of the SharePoint community, even before becoming an MVP. It also reinforced the role MVPs play in representing community experience, sharing product feedback, and helping others get more from the technologies they use every day.
“SharePoint wouldn’t be SharePoint without the community – not just MVPs, but all of us who use the product, share what we learn, and tell Microsoft what works and what doesn’t!” – MVP Susan Hanley
MVP Charles Lakes II brought that same spirit to his Dataverse session, using the stage to demystify low-code and help attendees see what was possible. His message was clear: Dataverse is not something to fear, but a tool that can help people reimagine existing solutions and build with more confidence. For Charles, speaking as an MVP was also an opportunity to inspire future MVPs by sharing the lessons he had learned from the community that helped him grow early in his career. He knew the session had landed when he could see attendees connecting the dots, and when follow-up conversations turned into ideas for rebuilding solutions with Dataverse.
“Dataverse isn’t scary, it’s here to help.” – MVP Charles Lakes II
When Community Is Worth the Journey
That commitment to community also showed up in the distance MVPs traveled to be there. MVP Toni Pohl traveled from Austria to Orlando, roughly 5,400 miles one way, to deliver a workshop and connect with the Microsoft 365 community in person. For Toni, the value of the conference came from its unique mix of learning, inspiration, and genuine human connection. The travel felt worth it because the event created space to meet the community face-to-face, exchange experiences, and turn shared ideas into practical knowledge. MVP and RD Ståle Hansen brought that same global commitment, traveling thousands of miles from Norway to speak at the conference and share practical field experience on Copilot adoption. For Ståle, part of what makes Microsoft 365 Community Conference meaningful is the strong Microsoft product group presence, paired with the opportunity for community experts to bring real-world adoption lessons to the stage.
“Being together with this community in person reminded me that we move faster when we learn together.” – MVP Toni Pohl
MVP Eric Marsi brought a different kind of community experience with him – literally – driving his podcast studio more than 2,200 miles roundtrip from Ohio to Orlando. For Eric, the goal was to add something attendees might not typically see at a large conference and to create a space where speakers and community members could be themselves, focus on their message, and not worry about the technology.
“What I like about the M365 Conference is the strong Microsoft product group presence to discuss the latest new, and it is an honor to be invited to share my own practical experiences from the field on Copilot adoption as a speaker.” – MVP and RD Ståle Hansen
There were also deeply human moments. Heather Cook partnered with MVP Diego Domingos da Silva on a new LGBTQ+ meetup, helping create space for identity-based connection, inclusion, and belonging alongside technical learning. For Diego, speaking at community events is also about making the experience more welcoming and less intimidating for others, especially for people who are still finding their place in the community. As MVP and RD Sharon Weaver reflected from the front row of the keynote, the experience felt both personal and communal: “Grateful for the journey. Grateful for the people. Grateful and excited for what’s ahead.”
How MVP Voices Shape the Community
MVPs helped define the tone of Microsoft 365 Community Conference by turning announcements and product strategy into practical, scenario-based guidance attendees could take back to their organizations. Their impact was not limited to formal sessions. They were active in the hallway track, at the Microsoft booth, in meetups, at meals, and in follow-up conversations where attendees could ask candid questions and get grounded advice from people using Microsoft technologies every day. Galen’s workshop showed how MVP-led learning can go beyond theory by giving attendees hands-on guidance, practical tools, and space to work through real enterprise challenges together. Charles described the value of MVP-led sessions as helping the community better grasp practical applications, not just theory, especially when speakers share real-world experiences and lessons learned. MVP Heather Severino echoed that point, noting that when MVPs share real-world experience on stage, they help the community build practical skills on emerging Microsoft technologies and understand what is new, changing, and worth adopting. As Copilot continues to evolve quickly, she emphasized, MVPs play a vital role in helping the community apply adoption best practices with ease. Eric’s podcast room extended that impact by helping people with smaller individual reach tap into the broader Microsoft Community audience, while giving speakers a simple way to create live, authentic content that showed what the community can do together.
“I wanted speakers and community members to have a place where they could be themselves, not worry about the technology, and show what they were truly capable of.” – MVP Eric Marsi
Their presence also made the event more approachable for people exploring the MVP path. Through AMA-style conversations about the MVP Program, community storytelling, and informal mentoring, attendees could see that MVP recognition is not about having all the answers. It is about sharing knowledge, creating inclusive spaces, supporting peers, and contributing consistently in ways that help others succeed. Toni’s journey from Austria underscored how far MVPs are willing to go to learn together, exchange practical knowledge, and strengthen the global Microsoft 365 community. Susan described the relationship between Microsoft and the community as one built on listening, mutual respect, and shared outcomes, noting that MVPs help shape the products Microsoft creates while also helping the community get the most out of those products. Diego’s reflections reinforced that same responsibility: MVPs do more than teach features or explain platform decisions. They share real lessons, hard-earned advice, and practical encouragement that helps others feel less alone in the work. When MVPs show up at events like this, they do more than fill sessions – they create momentum, deepen relationships, and help Microsoft feel more connected to the communities it serves.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If you are a developer, engineer, IT pro, community organizer, or technologist wondering whether the Microsoft MVP path might be for you, let this be encouragement to keep showing up. Share what you know. Ask questions. Welcome someone new. Lead a session, write a post, mentor a peer, or help make a technical space more inclusive. Community grows through everyday contributions, and those contributions make a difference. Learn more about the next Microsoft 365 Community Conference 2027 in Las Vegas and consider how you might help your own community learn, connect, and grow.
Want to learn more about the MVP Program?
To find an MVP and learn more about the MVP Program visit the MVP Communities website and follow our updates on LinkedIn.
Join us for a future live session through the Microsoft Reactor, where we walk through what the MVP Program is about, what we look for, and how nominations work. These sessions are designed to help you connect the dots between the work you are already doing and the impact the MVP Program recognizes – with time for questions, examples, and real conversations.