An ad for Microsoft Build, featuring an image of Bit the Raccoon.

What to catch up on from Build 2022

An ad for Microsoft Build, featuring an image of Bit the Raccoon.

This year’s Microsoft Build has come to a close, but despite the event being over there’s still plenty of content for you to enjoy. There are a wealth of on-demand sessions and supplemental content that cover everything from announcements to tech deep-dives, so it’s absolutely worth your time to dig into the session catalogue.

What our MVPs thought

With so many sessions available, it might be hard to know where to start. Fortunately, we had the perfect group of people to ask for pointers!

Following the conclusion of this year’s Microsoft Build, we spoke to some of the Microsoft MVPs in the UK about what they thought about the event, as well as their personal highlights.

A photo of Kevin McDonnellKevin McDonnell, Microsoft 365 Solutions Architect and co-host of the GreyHatBeard podcast, said:

Options are what helps us feel better mentally, and Build brought those in abundance. Whether it was to enjoy from the comfort of home or to head into TVP to attend in person (including a great choice of food). Whether it was to focus on dev in Azure, GitHub pipelines, the best of Graph or the magic of Power Platform. Whether it was tech content, how to build a community or the emotional Humans of IT track. There was content for all and how you wanted it. I learnt, I chatted with old friends and I met new people – exactly what I want from a conference!

Chris Hoard, Partner Education Lead at Vuzion, said:

This year’s Microsoft Build was the first major post-pandemic event which truly embraced hybrid, and one which I think will be the template for events moving forward. On the one hand, we had the digital core delivered out of the Microsoft Media Hub in Redmond, and on the other we had regional spotlights where you had the opportunity to meet up and attend sessions in person. Whether you want to watch remote, attend in real life or even watch sessions remotely whilst being there in real life: this event showed us that the choice is yours, which is far more inclusive and personalises how each of us like to consume content.

Attending in person, I met many of my friends and fellow MVPs, we enjoyed street food and had a great time delivering and supporting each other’s sessions. The hospitality was second to none, the atmosphere and organisation was second to none – and at the end of the day it was easy to be without – let’s admit – all the drawbacks and cost of the old events. Looking forward to Build 2023!

Thomas Thornton, Azure Technical Specialist at Kainos, said:

It was an awesome event for my first in-person event after two+ years! There was a great mixture of content for all, and a lot of getting to meet those who I have spoken to/communicated with for over two years and not met! A really great event – looking forward to the next!

It terms of being a hybrid event, it worked well. The expert sessions in particular had a good collaboration between both those online and in-person.

Marcel Lupo, Cloud Solutions and DevOps Architect at Avanade, said:

The event was awesome!! Great content and speakers, plus it was great to just get together and meet so many people from the community and other MVPs I’ve not spoken to in person. As a connection zone speaker at the event, I think the hybrid sessions went down really well. The event was super awesome and I’m looking forward to doing this again!

Thoughts from other viewers

During the two-day event, viewers from all over the world were sharing their thoughts on the #MSBuild hashtag on Twitter. Here’s a small selection of what sessions and announcements people were talking about:

With over 300 sessions it’s impossible for us to cast a spotlight over each and every one, however the session catalogue is a great way of finding the right talks for you. With filters for session language, type and solution area, you’ll be able to find sessions to boost your existing skills, as well as kickstart new ones. Be sure to check it out!

Useful links

A photo of Chris Walden.
Chris Walden
Editor for TechNet UK

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