Vegas, Baby
Lanyard on. Coffee in hand. The Expo Hall humming before the doors had even properly opened.
There’s a particular feeling you get walking into a conference like PPCC - part excitement, part “how on earth am I going to see everything”, and part quiet nerves when you know you’re speaking later in the week. This year I had all three. In Las Vegas. Which, if you’ve ever been, amplifies everything.
Ten Years On
About ten years ago, I got invited along to a community event to staff a booth. I didn’t really know what I was walking into. I certainly didn’t expect it to change the direction of my career.
Fast-forward to PPCC 2026, and I’m walking past booths thinking about that version of me - slightly lost, slightly overwhelmed, and completely unaware of how much this community would give back. It’s a strange and lovely thing to come full circle.
The People
Conferences are sold on sessions. They’re remembered for people.
The hallway conversations. The “oh, you’re that person from LinkedIn” moments. The catch-ups with friends you only ever see in conference centres around the world. It was great to see Chris Huntingford, April Dunnam, Keith Atherton, Sean Astrakhan (and so many more), and hanging out with so many people at the Makers Market party!
The Power Platform community has a way of making a giant event feel small and friendly. Everyone is making something and everyone has broken something, but everyone is happy to talk about both.
The Sessions
I tried to be disciplined with my session agenda as I had a lot of volunteering commitments as well but with up to 20 sessions going on at any single time it was hard to say no to lots of them. A few of my highlights were:
- Opening Keynote
- Getting Started with Apps in Cowork and Copilot Studio
- Forgotten Features of Dataverse: Hidden Gems That Enhance Agents, Apps, and Everything in Between!
- Reimagining Agentic Automation: Workflows and Agents Together in the Copilot Studio Designer
- Build, Secure, and Scale Power Apps & Workflows with AI Agents
- Waiter, there’s an app in my agent! Building MCP apps in Copilot Studio
What struck me most was how much of the conversation has shifted towards AI working alongside the platform rather than replacing it. Less “look at this shiny thing”, more “here’s how it saves real people real time”. That’s the bit I care about.
Of course, there’s always room for some fun amongst the incredible learning.
Power Platform News
It wouldn’t be PPCC without a few big announcements. Three stood out for me.
Vibe apps are being retired. Actually announced in the weeks leading up to the conference. The vibe.powerapps.com experience - along with the App Builder agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot - is being retired on 30 November 2026, and you can no longer create new apps there. If you’ve built anything with it, now’s the time to move it. Export the app’s source, hand it to a Copilot Studio or Copilot Cowork and ask it to rebuild it, or keep an eye out for Microsoft’s automated migration tool. It’s a wild but short ride for vibe apps, but the idea isn’t going anywhere - it’s just moving house.
Copilot Studio apps. And this is where it’s moving to. Apps in Copilot Studio are now in public preview, so you can build apps alongside your agents and workflows, all in one place. Describe what you need in plain English, refine a working app, and wire it up to the agents that support it. Microsoft says app usage in Copilot Studio has more than tripled already. Apps, agents and automation living together feels like where all of this was always heading.
A new maker conference - next year, in Chicago. PPCC is growing up. After five years in Las Vegas, the conference is merging into Maker Con and heading to Chicago on 2–4 November 2027. More makers, a new city, same community. I’m already looking forward to it. It will be a tad colder than Las Vegas though! 🥶
My Turn on Stage
On Wednesday I took to the Microsoft Theatre in the Expo Hall for my community session, Automate Your Whole Life: Power Platform at Work, at Home and at the Kitchen Table.
Twenty minutes. Three stories. One freezer.
If you want the ideas behind it, I’ve written them up in Automate Your Whole Life. But I’ll say this here: speaking on the Community Theatre is a different experience. People wander past, stop, sit down, and stay (or don’t!). You earn every seat. I had the most fun, so I’m super grateful to everyone who came and for Dave who introduced me. As always, I was a bit nervous and with about 10 minutes to go, I did seriously question my life choices but as soon as I got going, I round my rhythm. Afterwards, I felt amazing and really enjoyed a few follow-up chats with some audience members.
Ask a ‘Pro’ (and a Bit of Filming)
I did three shifts on the Power Automate “Ask a Pro” desk.
I’ll be honest - I had a little imposter syndrome going in because I’m not a professional Power Platform maker. I’m just someone who builds things because they fix problems for me, and my team. But it turns out, that’s exactly who people wanted to talk to. I had a wonderful time and met so many fascinating people. Some great questions. Some really hard questions. And loads of brilliant community chat in between. You don’t need all the answers to be useful - sometimes you just need to have experienced similar struggles.
I also did a little bit of filming with Microsoft for their various Power Platform channels. We talked about Cireson, making with Power Platform, and Experts Live UK. Watch this space for updates on that… 👀
Thank You
To the PPCC organisers and volunteers - thank you for building something this big that still feels this welcoming.
To everyone I spoke to, asked me a question, or stopped me afterward my session to talk about their own freezer - thank you.
And to the community that dragged me in ten years ago and never let go - I’m so glad you did.
See you next year in Chicago!