Thrilled to be with you for my first blog post on our Community sites and our channels. I just passed my 90-day mark back at Microsoft full time leading our Power Platform Community Success Team and am excited to be partnering with our internal teams and revving up the engines on our community websites, user groups, events and monthly calls with all of you. Last year I was a community reporter at Ignite and I loved running around the event interviewing amazing colleagues, executives, community members, and fellow MVPs for my ‘Ignite on the fly’ video series.
I am not speaking this year at Ignite but I’m available for one on one meetings and am supporting our Power Platform teams and partnering with our Modern Workplace teams connecting our content into our community websites. I’m excited to see more and more of our better together stories with Microsoft Teams and Power Platform coming together for a ton of sessions and motions this year.
See below for a guide to Power Platform at Ignite and a few of our other teams who have put together guides for their communities as well:
Keith Barnett, Sr. Marketing Communications Manager - Business Applications Group
Miguel Martinez, Sr. Program Manager – Power BI @Ignite
Debraj Ghosh, Sr. Product Marketing Manager – Power Automate @Ignite and Power Virtual Agents @Ignite
Clay Wesener, Principal Group Program Manager - Power Apps @Ignite
Michael Crump, Azure Application Development,- the Developer’s Guide to Ignite (Azure)
More details below on Power Platform presence at the event and please feel free to connect with me out on the Twitterverse @ heddanewman.
See you online at #MSIgnite.
Cheers,
Heddanewman
Join the Low Code Revolution in our Power Platform Communities
If you are not already a member of our Power Platform Communities please join our forums, solution galleries, conversations, community calls and social media channels for our low-code application platform. And on the Microsoft Adoption Virtual Hub join us starting Tuesday September 22 for even more training content curated from a myriad of Microsoft properties in collaboration with our Modern Workplace teams.
Follow and chat with all Power Platform product accounts on Twitter: Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Virtual Agents.
Here is a handy Power Platform Twitter list with all of our products. And one more for our Power Platform Community Success Team.
Charles Sterling – Power Apps
Jon Levesque – Power Automate and Power Virtual Agents
Sandy Rivas and Kelly Kaye – Power BI
Fawad Khan and Purvin Patel – Dynamics 365
Our Community Success Team is always happy to hear ideas, feedback and ways we can improve how we support you. Please feel free to reach out to us via message on the Power Platform community, Dynamics 365 Community or through our social DMs.
Are you registered for Microsoft Ignite?
We are just a few days away. This year’s all-digital event will bring together a global community of technology professionals to learn where Power Platform is heading, and the tools and resources available to help you solve the toughest challenges facing businesses today.
With Ignite being virtual and free to attend, many of you may be first time attendees – WELCOME to the Ignite experience.
Across three days—September 22-24—our team of experts will share technical and hands-on content across Microsoft Power Platform, as well answer your questions—all streaming live in your time zone, so you won’t miss a thing. To help you navigate the volume and variety of content available, we’ve compiled some essential presentations, sessions, and viewing tips below.
Tune in to the Power Platform key segments
To kick things off, we invite you to join us at the Microsoft Business Applications opening key segments on September 22, where James Phillips, Alysa Taylor, and special guests will announce new features and capabilities, demonstrate capabilities in action, and share real-world stories of innovation enabled by Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
Click on the linked titles below to learn more and add each event to your session scheduler.
Tuesday, September 22 | 9:30 AM – 9:50 AM Pacific Time
Microsoft Power Platform: Fill the app gap and supercharge organizational agility
At 9:30 AM, Microsoft Business Applications President James Phillips and a team of Power Platform experts, Charles Lamanna, Kim Manis and Julie Strauss will kick off Microsoft Ignite by sharing the latest Power Platform innovations that give you a comprehensive, “no cliffs” platform for modern application development.
Tuesday, September 22 | 10:20 AM – 10:40 AM Pacific Time
Microsoft Dynamics 365: Reimagine how you can meet the needs of tomorrow
With a few minutes between key segments to grab a coffee or snack, Alysa Taylor, Corporate Vice President, Business Applications & Industry, will catch you up on upcoming updates and resources for technical and business professionals to create value faster, break through barriers, and adapt to new opportunities.
Tuesday, September 22 | 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Build Agile Business Processes with Power Apps
And right after, catch up with Charles Lamanna, Corporate Vice President, Power Platform, to hear how to enable greater development speed with Power Apps, an industry leading low-code application development platform.
In addition to the live streams above, each segment will be rebroadcasted throughout the event. The key segments are open to everyone, but we encourage you to register in advance to unlock the full Microsoft Ignite experience—from digital breakout sessions with live Q&As to conversations with Microsoft experts and your global community.
More to explore
Microsoft Ignite 2020 programming will include live segments and Q&A, available across time zones. Check out the dozens of Business Applications-specific sessions hosted by our team of experts:
- Digital Breakouts: informative lectures delivered live with interactive Q&As. Learn how to build agile business process with Microsoft Power Apps, build an organizational data culture with Microsoft Power BI, create an end-to-end customer support experience, and activate digital selling to turn raw data into insights, and more.
- Ask the Expert: featured speakers drill down into a variety of topics with interactive Q&As. Learn how to responsibly scale Power Apps with a Low Code Center of Excellence, build systems of insights for enterprise scale with Power BI and Microsoft Azure, custom fit Microsoft Business Applications for your industry, gain insights into usage and performance of your Power BI reports, and more.
- Pre-recorded sessions: on-demand consumption that gives you a deep dive look at the latest Dynamics 365 solutions, including Customer Voice, Supply Chain Management, Project Operations, Commerce and Connected Store; as well as Power Platform capabilities, such as Microsoft Power Virtual Agents and Microsoft Teams integration, enterprise-grade ETL and data preparation using dataflows, and end-to-end intelligent automation with Power Platform. Explore the full list of pre-recorded sessions.
- Learning Zone: Explore learning modules to sharpen existing skills or add new ones, no matter your experience level. Get started with introductions to Power Platform, Power Apps, and Dynamics 365.
Teams Virtual Photo Booth
Staying true to an all-digital theme, we’re very excited to offer a Teams Virtual Photo Booth where you can share your Teams spirit with a selfie! The photo booth will be available from Friday, September 18 at 8:00am PDT to Thursday, September 24.
Bookmark this photo booth link and get ready to start sharing selfies and what you’re learning at Ignite on your favorite social media platforms. Don’t forget to use the #MicrosoftTeams #MSIgnite #PowerPlatform hashtags so we can see what your Teams @ Ignite 2020 experience looks like.
Digital SWAG
Some digital swag and fun for downloads and sharing.
- Buzzword Bingo: Listen for buzzwords and share your progress on social
- Tech Stretch: A quick visual guide for desk workers who need a break
- Kid's Activity Pack: A printable pack of fun activities full of tech characters. Engaging kids while allowing caretakers to engage with sessions.
- Desktop wallpapers: Show off your desktop with branded wallpapers
- Digital badge: Let everyone know you participated by printing your all access badge
- Social backgrounds (LinkedIn, Twitter): Background images to use on all your social platforms
- Social stickers
- Microsoft Teams backgrounds: Become a presenter in your next meeting with branded backgrounds
Microsoft Ignite On-Demand and Post Event Experience
There’s more to explore after the event is over! Our post-event, on-demand content will give you hours of breakout sessions, learning resources, and key segments to boost your skills and get inspired. You can learn from the experts and engineers behind your favorite tools, download presentations to review at your own pace, ask questions in forums, collaborate with the broader community, and more.
Below is a list of resources where you can learn more and bookmark to reference later:
- Access the Virtual Hub for deep-dive technical training for IT pros, developers, and community champions available on September 22nd and get access to interactive guides, community resources and more.
- Check out the Microsoft Tech Community Video Hub launching on September 22nd to view videos and join conversation.
Be sure to follow Microsoft Ignite on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up to date and connected with the community and register for Microsoft Ignite today. And use the hashtags #MSIgnite #PowerPlatform on your posts.
The Microsoft Virtual Event Playbook and Community are here!
We have partnered with the Microsoft Teams Customer Advocacy Group and are excited to share this Community Virtual Events Playbook With the shift to virtual/digital/online events, we are excited to announce a new Virtual Event Playbook: https://aka.ms/VirtualEventPlaybook, if you are a community member looking to produce a virtual event using #MicrosoftTeams give this a look and download and read more about it on the Microsoft Tech Community blog by Karuana Gatimu.
Helpful resources
Dear Community Members, We'd like to let you know of an upcoming change to the community platform: starting July 16th, the platform will transition to a READ ONLY mode until July 22nd. During this period, members will not be able to Kudo, Comment, or Reply to any posts. On July 22nd, please be on the lookout for a message sent to the email address registered on your community profile. This email is crucial as it will contain your unique code and link to register for the new platform encompassing all of the communities. What to Expect in the New Community: A more unified experience where all products, including Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio, and Power Pages, will be accessible from one community.Community Blogs that you can syndicate and link to for automatic updates. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this transition. Stay tuned for the exciting new features and a seamless community experience ahead!
We are excited to announce the Summer of Solutions Challenge! This challenge is kicking off on Monday, June 17th and will run for (4) weeks. The challenge is open to all Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio & Power Pages) community members. We invite you to participate in a quest to provide solutions to as many questions as you can. Answers can be provided in all the communities. Entry Period: This Challenge will consist of four weekly Entry Periods as follows (each an “Entry Period”) - 12:00 a.m. PT on June 17, 2024 – 11:59 p.m. PT on June 23, 2024 - 12:00 a.m. PT on June 24, 2024 – 11:59 p.m. PT on June 30, 2024 - 12:00 a.m. PT on July 1, 2024 – 11:59 p.m. PT on July 7, 2024 - 12:00 a.m. PT on July 8, 2024 – 11:59 p.m. PT on July 14, 2024 Entries will be eligible for the Entry Period in which they are received and will not carryover to subsequent weekly entry periods. You must enter into each weekly Entry Period separately. How to Enter: We invite you to participate in a quest to provide "Accepted Solutions" to as many questions as you can. Answers can be provided in all the communities. Users must provide a solution which can be an “Accepted Solution” in the Forums in all of the communities and there are no limits to the number of “Accepted Solutions” that a member can provide for entries in this challenge, but each entry must be substantially unique and different. Winner Selection and Prizes: At the end of each week, we will list the top ten (10) Community users which will consist of: 5 Community Members & 5 Super Users and they will advance to the final drawing. We will post each week in the News & Announcements the top 10 Solution providers. At the end of the challenge, we will add all of the top 10 weekly names and enter them into a random drawing. Then we will randomly select ten (10) winners (5 Community Members & 5 Super Users) from among all eligible entrants received across all weekly Entry Periods to receive the prize listed below. If a winner declines, we will draw again at random for the next winner. A user will only be able to win once overall. If they are drawn multiple times, another user will be drawn at random. Individuals will be contacted before the announcement with the opportunity to claim or deny the prize. Once all of the winners have been notified, we will post in the News & Announcements of each community with the list of winners. Each winner will receive one (1) Pass to the Power Platform Conference in Las Vegas, Sep. 18-20, 2024 ($1800 value). NOTE: Prize is for conference attendance only and any other costs such as airfare, lodging, transportation, and food are the sole responsibility of the winner. Tickets are not transferable to any other party or to next year’s event. ** PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED RULES for this CHALLENGE** Week 1 Results: Congratulations to the Week 1 qualifiers, you are being entered in the random drawing that will take place at the end of the challenge. Week 1: Community MembersSolutionsSuper UsersSolutionsCopilot StudioDuncanWebb1pstork12oyvind1 Week 2 Results: Congratulations to the Week 2 qualifiers, you are being entered in the random drawing that will take place at the end of the challenge. Week 2: Community MembersSolutionsSuper UsersSolutionsCopilot StudioSharon1 dopitz1 Zilver1 C. Johnson1 Week 3 Results: Congratulations to the Week 3 qualifiers, you are being entered in the random drawing that will take place at the end of the challenge. Week 3:Community MembersSolutionsSuper UsersSolutionsCopilot StudioJahawni Y. Khandelwal Expiscornovus C. Johnson SpongeYe Xiguadefeixang Week 4 Results: Congratulations to the Week 3 qualifiers, you are being entered in the random drawing that will take place at the end of the challenge. Week 4:Community MembersSolutionsSuper UsersSolutionsCopilot StudioS. Ghorai1 K. Lam1 M Chintha1
On July 16, 2024, we published the 2024 release wave 2 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. These plans are a compilation of the new capabilities planned to be released between October 2024 to March 2025. This release introduces a wealth of new features designed to enhance customer understanding and improve overall user experience, showcasing our dedication to driving digital transformation for our customers and partners. The upcoming wave is centered around utilizing advanced AI and Microsoft Copilot technologies to enhance user productivity and streamline operations across diverse business applications. These enhancements include intelligent automation, AI-powered insights, and immersive user experiences that are designed to break down barriers between data, insights, and individuals. Watch a summary of the release highlights. Discover the latest features that empower organizations to operate more efficiently and adaptively. From AI-driven sales insights and customer service enhancements to predictive analytics in supply chain management and autonomous financial processes, the new capabilities enable businesses to proactively address challenges and capitalize on opportunities.
We're embarking on a journey to enhance your experience by transitioning to a new community platform. Our team has been diligently working to create a fresh community site, leveraging the very Dynamics 365 and Power Platform tools our community advocates for. We started this journey with transitioning Copilot Studio forums and blogs in June. The move marks the beginning of a new chapter, and we're eager for you to be a part of it. The rest of the Power Platform product sites will be moving over this summer. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer to the launch. We can't wait to welcome you to our new community space, designed with you in mind. Let's connect, learn, and grow together. Here's to new beginnings and endless possibilities! If you have any questions, observations or concerns throughout this process please go to https://aka.ms/PPCommSupport. To stay up to date on the latest details of this migration and other important Community updates subscribe to our News and Announcements forums: Copilot Studio, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages
