It was so exciting to attend the opening reception for Directions
EMEA on Tuesday and see so many new faces and especially new women in attendance.
It appears that the efforts put forth with the Women in Dynamics committee and
the Microsoft partners in attendance are going well. The reception was a great
time to give hugs, handshakes and smile as we enjoyed yummy appetizers and
drank good wine and beer.
Tuesday night, Krzysztof, Jeremy and Venus organized and held the annual BC Beerinar down the street from the conference center in a fun place, called the Down Under. In attendance from all over the world was consultants, Microsoft MVPS, Microsoft and developers. It was a great social event, especially since the event was organized into a large variety of teams compromised of these groups of people. The quiz was both difficult and fun and the attendees had a great time learning BC through quiz questions, while enjoying snacks, wine and beer. Accelerynt was a proud sponsor of this event, and it was an excellent turnout and networking opportunity. We all knew Team Hops won (category: loudest) and Team Consultants lost (color books as prizes), but it was great fun to be had by all.
Wednesday morning, the opening session was an excellent opportunity for Microsoft to announce and show all the newly released features in 21.1. My favorite of course, was the newly announced feature, allowing all users in organizations, (with a approved Microsoft 365 license) to access Business Central data directly through Teams. This feature is in Business Central Online only and will provide users with only view only access to Business Central. This is very exciting as I feel it will put Microsoft above all our competitors in pricing and access by no longer needing a Team Viewer license. Mike Morton also announced that Business Central (BC) and the Power Platform are the largest growing business applications in the Microsoft space, with BC ranking number one.
The sessions provide at Directions EMEA are amazing and well
worth the admissions of the conference. You have a combination of Microsoft Presents,
MVP sessions, consultant sessions, technical sessions and ISV sessions running parallel.
No doubt that one of the hardest things this year, was deciding what session to
attend and when to attend. Many of my friends spoke at this conference,
including Steve Endow, Christian Lenz, Tatiana Pupko, Kristen Hosman, Krszysztof
Bialowas, Tanya Henderson, AJ Asarni, and more. One of my favorite sessions was
by Kristen and Krszysztof on Developers vs Consultants, Stop the Fight. They gave
very practical ideas on how developers and consultants can work together, learn
from each other, and work for the main team: Team Customer.
My session this year on Microsoft Teams and Business
Central: A Match Made in Heaven was an amazing hit. I was able to work with
Mike Cardona and Kennie two days before the event to add the new features in
Teams and Power BI Telemetry to my content. With these new features, I was able
to show partners how to provide amazing services to customers by introducing
them to Microsoft Teams capabilities. The ability to expand and create services
based on the application insights and telemetry through Power BI should provide
an outline for partners to maximize their Business Central services to customers.
I am offering services to the European partners to be trained on Teams and
basic Power Automate features so your staff can “wow” their customers.
The party the last evening, hosted by Microsoft. was an amazing
event. The food was fantastic (gnocchi with tomato sauce 😊)
and the music was on point. Of course, everyone’s favorite piece was when
Microsoft’s own, Soren, joined the stage with his band, the NightHogs. The whole
crowd began to dance, sing and enjoy celebrating another year of excellent
partnership with Microsoft. It was a night to remember for sure.
The last day was full of announcements, final sessions and
goodbyes. I heard lots of positive enthusiasm about the event being held next
year in Lyons, France. There was also the announcement that Directions4Partners will be
hosting several other events next year under the Days of Knowledge (DOK) umbrella.
As we said goodbye, we looked forward to what we will take out of the event and
use in our partner practices next year, including fun and amazing new ISV apps
to the portfolio. Thanks to all the sponsors for the wonderful conversation and
swag.
Thanks Directions 4 Partners with Love 💗
Thanks to: James Crowter, Torben Kragelund, Frnk Maier, Christian Sega, Leen Everaerts, Terri Paetz, Vicky Critchley, Thorsten Heid, Adela Jirousova, Jude Segerlund, Lotte Cordt Ihlemann, Mike Morton
Until next year, goodbye and….See You in Lyon.
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