In case you’re interested, here’s a quick view on what I’ll be covering. Both events provide a great platform to delve into the latest advancements, network with Microsoft AI implementers, and gain valuable knowledge.
European Collaboration Summit 2025
The first event on my calendar is the European Collaboration Summit 2025, scheduled for May 26-28 in Düsseldorf, Germany. This is the largest Microsoft-focused event in Europe by attendee count (around 3,000), with a great line-up of sessions, workshops, expos, and networking opportunities. I have two talks here:
Understanding Microsoft AI options – comparing Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio agents, SharePoint agents, and building on Azure OpenAI
Navigating the Microsoft AI landscape and making good
choices is complex. There are many aspects to consider including the focus of
different options, AI capabilities, consumption or licensing costs, possible data
integrations, user experience factors, boundaries and limitations, potential to
automate business processes and more. Crafting an appropriate AI strategy with even
just these options (and nothing outside of Microsoft) is certainly not trivial
for most businesses:
Copilot agents in SharePoint - understanding AI capabilities, governance, costs, and more
SharePoint agents are so far one of the lesser-known parts
of Microsoft’s AI story but could revolutionise how we work with documents
forever. After all, SharePoint is the platform which stores the world’s
documents and collectively we add 2 billion documents there per day. Something
has to change in how interact with this information, and with generative AI
being woven into SharePoint in this way, SharePoint agents are absolutely part
of the answer.
This talk will focus on understanding the AI capabilities
within SharePoint, including governance, costs, and other important factors. We
will examine how Copilot agents can enhance your SharePoint experience and what
to keep in mind while leveraging these powerful tools.
Conference link: https://collabsummit.eu/
European Power Platform Conference 2025
Following the European Collaboration Summit, I will be heading to Vienna in June for the European Power Platform Conference 2025 (the event is June 16-19 specifically). With the Power Platform’s new role as a core pillar in Microsoft's AI strategy, particularly in terms of Copilot Studio agents, this is a great time for an event with this focus. I’ll be presenting on:
Techniques for Autonomous Agents (Copilot Studio)
It’s certainly fair to say there’s a lot of noise around
autonomous agents - and as many apps and automations essentially evolve to be
agents - generative AI can absolutely simplify how solutions are defined and
implemented, where it’s no longer necessary to specify every last line of code
or step in a process. With enough guidance on the outcome you're trying
to achieve, AI can often plan the actions required and the specific tasks to
execute. It's a new world now!
But can you really say "follow up on each marketing
lead by sending a personalised e-mail to the client and update our back-end
systems appropriately" and AI magically does all the right things? Where
are the boundaries? How autonomous can autonomous agents be? In this session
we'll show the top techniques for success, and where you need to draw the line
between instructions and specific items for your agent to call.
Conference link: https://www.sharepointeurope.com/european-power-platform-conference/
Summary
These conferences offer a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in the latest AI developments, learn from experts, and network with like-minded professionals. As far as I know, some tickets are still available for both events at the time of writing (early May 2025), so it’s not too late if you want to take the opportunity. I’m excited to be part of these events – very much looking forward to some great conversations, sharing some insights, and learning a lot myself from the incredible sessions and discussions.
Hopefully see you at one of them!
