Episode 435: Conference Recap

In this episode of Dynamics Corner, we catch up after several weeks of conference prep and attendance.

We talk about getting the most out of conference season, even the conferences you can't attend. 

And we cover key takeaways and learnings from recent events. Some hot topics include Agentic AI, MCP Servers, Copilot Studio, Business Central's new logo, and more.

Tune in and don't have FOMO on this episode!

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage
• 0:45 Defining FOMO In Tech
• 2:30 Processing Conference Announcements
• 4:45 Community Reactions And Participation
• 5:50 Directions EMEA Highlights
• 7:55 The New Business Central Logo
• 9:55 Takeaways From Community Summit
• 11:35 Power Platform Conference Themes
• 14:10 Low Code’s Next Chapter
• 16:00 Agents Across Four Personas
• 18:10 Ecosystem Convergence With BC Online
• 20:20 Learning Pace And Human In The Loop

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner. This is a special episode. We'll do a quick recap. I'm your co-host, Chris.

SPEAKER_01: 0:14

And this is Brad. This episode was recorded on November 6th, 2025. Chris, Chris, Chris. It is a special episode. Why? It is. Because we we we had a conversation with the two of us. We haven't had a chance to do that while in a while. And I hope we continue to do that. And also, what do you think of FOMO? Do you know something that I've been thinking about? What's up? It's even more so this week. I this is what you know, it's it's part of the year where there's a lot of conferences going on. We had Community Summit, we had Power Platform, and then now we have Directions of Mir, and there's other conferences going on as well. Yeah, and sometimes you follow along and you have FOMO.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12

Don't tell me about FOMO, man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16

And FOMO, for those that don't know, FOMO is the fear of missing out.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:22

Right? And it's it's the anxious feeling that you get that other people are having fun or doing something and you're not there. And I think Yeah. Yeah. I obviously we can't all go to every single conference. It's not possible for anyone to go to every conference. Some get to go to more than others depending upon their uh profession, their responsibilities. Others it's a special treat or something to go because of their responsibilities at work. But FOMO, I think, is real because I usually I typically don't have FOMO because I've learned that I can't be everywhere at all. And I'm big on time and being able to appreciate the time that I have because again, time is finite. Your time is finite, but the number of things that you can do on the planet is infinite. So even if you wanted to travel to all these places, learn the latest languages, learn this technology, you wouldn't be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00: 2:24

But I think it's I think it's different for us though. Like at least for me, it's a little different with FOMO because like I I you know, when people travel, it's fine, right? Like it's it's fine. But it's when you're passionate about something and you're not there among your peers and having a great time and you're living through the photos. That is much worse, at least for me. I can speak for myself there. Um, because you're a learner. I mean, we're all learners, especially if you're passionate about a specific product. You want to be there, you want to be able to be in person when they announce stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

No, I understand I understand what you're saying, and typically I don't have that, but this week with seeing all of the announcements coming out of Directions Amia, I wish I were there, but in reality, it's okay that you're not because you're still digesting and hearing the news. Yeah. So this is the case of is is I I think the FOMO is for me, is seeing the announcements I'm thankful for, but sometimes not having the details of the announcements or seeing some of the sessions that were being presented by many of the talented uh speakers that they have at that conference or the individuals from the business central or the dynamics 365 community. I wish that I had the opportunity to attend some of those. But it's it's real. And I'm wondering, you know, does everybody else have that? Or does everyone have the okay, I can't be there, okay? Or those that do have it, how do they process it? It it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 3:59

Yeah, you know, I'm curious about people who either listens to our uh episodes, uh podcast episodes, or or watching the video. Um, if at some point they have FOMO uh based on our topic and conversation, I'm sure they want to chime in sometimes. They're like, no, no, no, no. That's not not my experience. Or oh yeah, that's my experience.

SPEAKER_01: 4:18

I'm certain that somebody does.

SPEAKER_00: 4:19

I've been told about that. It's like, oh, you guys were talking about that thing in in one episode, and and I was like, I wanted to just chime in and and you know, share my experience and perspective. And I was like, well, you can sign up.

SPEAKER_01: 4:31

I'm certain there are some that do, and certain that there are some that don't, because I know that I listen to many podcasts, and I often want to chime in, or I or just say, Yes, I agree with that. Oh yes, yes, well, what about this and such? But it's nice, at least at least you get a sense to be able to relate to the content that you listen to. But I think now at the time of this recording that the AMIA conference is is wrapping up, and I'm anxious to not in the FOMO sense of anxious, but to be able to see more information on what was announced and be able to digest that. I mean, there was some big things, the new Business Central logo, the the whole roadmap for 2026 wave one, which we'll have a lot of great episodes uh in the upcoming months about some of the new features, even more so as we get closer to closer and closer to the release with the preview being out and such, uh, typically one month prior to the release. So in March, everyone will be able to stop playing with it. But you know, the new business central logo, the business central MCP, the agent playground, quality, expense, and the list goes on and on and on and on. I I can't even stop, even from the development point of view, with the tools that were released from the development point of view, some of its uh uh yeah, I won't cover the whole list because we'll get into those topics, but for those that uh work with Business Central, a lot of excitement uh in this next coming uh upcoming release in April.

SPEAKER_00: 6:03

Yeah, for sure. You know, you you you were talking about the the new logo, uh, which is exciting because when I was at PowerPlatform uh community conference in Las Vegas, they also made an announcement of new logos as well on that on that Power Platform side or D365 or other products in Microsoft. And and co Copilot Studio also had a brand new logo. And it just made me think about the logo, the new Business Central logo. You remember uh some people had that maybe perhaps tattooed, or uh, I think we have some couple uh community members that they had it all up in their ceiling, um and now they're gonna have to revamp it or redo it, right? So um I don't know. Do you like the new logo? Uh let's start with that.

SPEAKER_01: 6:51

I don't know if they necessarily have to redo it, or it could be a relic. Uh look at some of the sports teams that change their logos. Individuals have old gear that they wear with the old logos and they become sort of relics of uh days of old. I I like the new I like the new logo. I often wonder why they do it, but I also understand the sense of it's theming and maybe bringing things together or just the signs of modernization in the respect of uh the content of what they have. But yeah, I I I do like the new logo. Um you know, I just get used to a new logo, it's almost like they uh with the product names. I almost wonder now, is the is the product name going to change with the logo change, or is it going to stay the same?

SPEAKER_00: 7:39

Ooh, that's gonna be uh they if they were to change the name, that would be wild, right? Business central.

SPEAKER_01: 7:48

I wouldn't put it past anyone to do it. Uh I don't know if they will, but I I think it'll probably stick around for a little while. Speaking of that in conferences, so we had both attended the summit, community summit North America conference a short time ago. Uh a very well-intended, very uh uh there's a wide range of topics, wide range of uh content to put out. There's just so much going on, so many talented speakers. Uh, what was your takeaway from that conference?

SPEAKER_00: 8:16

Uh actually that conference in Orlando felt a little bit more uh education focused for once. And I think a lot of us, uh at least at least for me, in the past people had complained that you know a lot of the content maybe re uh repeat, uh which which makes sense. If you've been in the industry for so long, it feels like I already know that stuff. But I came to realize that the people that who uh who did attend a session, my session, or even the academy, that a lot of people are new to Business Central. So we we you know I had to shift my mind to say, look, it not everyone's been going to the conference every year over year over year. And on top of that, I actually learned uh myself. I mean, I learned every year, but I felt like I learned more uh this time around, probably because there's new features and new things coming out of um out of business central. So it's not as crazy as it was, and I know we've um you know, we were out in Expo Hall and things like that. It felt a little bit more uh the the the the term intimate, like you get to spend a little bit more time, longer conversations rather than just hey, hi and buy, and then move on. So it it it that that that's one of the big takeaways. The other one is really more of the agentic space in where it's going. So it's it's definitely changed and actually not only from uh an end user side or the client side of the business central, but also from an ISV perspective and as a partner perspective, even as a consultant, right? Like which one would you focus now, now that there's gonna be all these agent tech things coming out?

SPEAKER_01: 10:01

So yes, I don't know where those agents will go, but um enjoying that whole technology uh probably a little bit more than I should. No, I agree with you. The conference was a great conference, uh, a lot of new attendees, first-time attendees, uh, a lot of end users, but I think it is that conference that everyone should attend if they have the opportunity to attend, because there is such a wide range of information shared by the speakers. Uh as you had mentioned, uh these conference, that conference is right around the release, the second wave of the year. So it's a good place to go to learn about some of the new features, functionalities, or even how to uh how to do stuff within Business Central. And I think you get a lot out of it if you shift your mindset also of trying to fill your day with content. It's great to be submerged and not really think about anything besides the content that's there. But I thought it was a great conference. And then you had a little whirlwind. I wasn't able to make it. I don't know if I'm thankful or not because I do like to rest. But then you jumped over to the power platform conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Uh what was the theme of the Power Platform conference?

SPEAKER_00: 11:15

Oh my gosh, man. You know, that that's my second or third Power Platform conference. I missed the first one. Um, but I I think I think people should go to that conference. Uh, I think they had over 7,000 people or perhaps more on the power platform conference. It it it's now there's not a lot of representative in terms of business central in our space, but the products that they have or shared really could or not could, it it will and does interact with business central. So, you know, I I wrote a little bit of um uh uh quite a bit of notes of what the power platform meant for me as a uh as a person that lives in business central world. You know, I've been dabbling quite some time with the co-pilot studio and all the power platform stuff. Um but Microsoft had made a comment and uh Charles Lamont had made a comment that low code, the quote code is low code as we know it is dead. And that to me was an eye-opener. Um uh it doesn't mean it's it gets more complicated, it just means it's a lot easier. And the low code, if you guys recall, it was more like uh puzzle pieces, right? Like you take this tools and actions and so forth, and you kind of have to build that out. I'm not saying you should not still know about that or how to how to use it, but it makes it easier now from uh citizen developers, what they were used to be called, right? To to be able to just orchestrate agents now that can just do that, just say whatever you need to say, and then they will build those out. So you no longer have to build those. So that was one big takeaway uh from the PowerPoint platform conference. Number two, they kept talking about uh the front frontier firm. Uh basically it you you have to become an AI centric uh uh you know business was one of the thing, uh one of the things they talked about. And then the the second component was you have to be intent first. So you you have to know the intent of what you're developing first before you you know start getting to the technical side and and building those uh agents.

SPEAKER_01: 13:30

That that to me is common sense. I hate to say that, that but anytime anytime you embark on some journey, you should have uh an idea of what your destination is, right? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 13:43

Yes, yes. Uh and then the third uh the last one is the MCP. So I I know they've made announcements in the MCP side of things um in directions and Mia. I don't think that's it's no longer a uh uh you know a secret. I I guess it's been posted everywhere. Um but the MCP servers world it's definitely growing. I think there's like 268 plus now MCPs. Um but man, um I I don't know. I it I'm speechless, to be honest with you, uh, of the things that you could do with Copilot Studio Um and then being being able to build agents uh quickly. I mean, you could build an agent that interacts with Business Central in like 10 minutes or less. Can you imagine that?

SPEAKER_01: 14:32

It is, but if you listen to what you're saying, uh I I think that the shape of what's occurring is that entire ecosystem is becoming closer, which uh I like because everything's becoming intertwined. So now you offer a solution to somebody and you can use multiple tools, similar to how the MCP has a number of tools that uh that it will use to help AI or the AI can use to do stuff. Uh I think it's better because now before you used to have to work within a specific product and do everything within that product, but now with Business Central, even more so with Business Central Online, you have that interconnectivity to other parts of the ecosystem so that you can take the benefits, features, and functionality and blend it all together. So now it's you're working on a platform and then you're using the pieces you talk about power platform, being able to connect to Business Central, Power Automate, Power BI, all of those wonderful things to work with it, which I know we'll have great conversations in the upcoming months about all of that. And I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. I wish I could have some more to talk about for this week, but uh unfortunately we weren't able to go.

SPEAKER_00: 15:50

Yeah. I and and just to go back on uh now I I you know I'm I'm clearly not at Directions Amia right now, but um there are four components. What does it mean for you as a listener or maybe as a partner and user or as a business, if you are a decision maker, uh what does it mean? So I I found that it it targeted four areas of uh what you call personas, um, in terms of like where does agentic or AI agent will come to play into your business? So the the first one I found, and again, I was taking notes here because it's like, man, this is so exciting. I haven't been so excited about technology in a long time. Um this is a big one, right? This is a big uh thing to be excited about. One is the data entry agent. So that typically means that you are uh uh targeting the operational teams, maybe a business user. And one of the biggest value in that is that you can automate structured data and you capture those and making sure that there's high data integrity um that that gets entered uh consistently by an AI agent. That's one persona. The other persona was data exploration um agents. If you look at your co-pilot right now, or yeah, your co-pilot in M365, there's a I think it's called research, if I recall, uh researcher uh agent, if I I'm trying to look it up right now, just for um or explore uh yes, I think it that's what it is. It's like um a researcher. So it it it's it's available for you now. Uh well, they'll do deep research. Um, I think Gemini does the same thing. Uh so that is targeted for analysts and uh and BI experts. Right? Uh now you can get data based upon your just natural language query. Uh, for example, if you're trying to get a give me my top five uh customer, I know you do that now, but it it it's not only extracting data for you, but you can also use MCPCP MCP server to package that up in a format that it will automatically email for you uh as well. Uh or you can even have it export into Excel because there's an Excel MCP server. So all those things uh uh get um orchestrated by a single agent. Um the third one was a code agent uh for developers, which uh Brad, you're already doing that. And then the the the the the fourth one is the M3C5 copilot agent for knowledge workers that are just pulling information and and and data flow. So it a lot of stuff, man. Uh it's a lot to digest.

SPEAKER_01: 18:33

And I know over the next couple of months, sometimes I wonder how much of it will still be around because things are moving rather quickly. But I think there will be a lot more of this now that these conferences are over and uh the information's out there that we'll be able to take advantage of and see the efficiency of it. And that's the thing. It's AI will help make people become more efficient, I believe, to help with some of the tasks. I don't think some things it might be able to do, some things uh it might need a little coaching, you know, that whole human in the loop. Yeah, which uh it will, it'll be exciting to see how it all gets used. I am reading a good book on this. I'm reading the book Vibecoding. Uh it's a book that I was talking with Steve Endo, and Steve Endo was reading it. We we talk about some of this stuff, and uh it's it's a good book. Uh I I recommend reading it. It's an it's an interesting book to talk about vibe coding um and to see some of the stuff they've done. The the crazy thing is I think the book was written second half of 2024.

SPEAKER_00: 19:31

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01: 19:32

And it's already outdated in a sense.

SPEAKER_00: 19:35

Yeah, that's so crazy, right?

SPEAKER_01: 19:37

Technology is moving fast. So uh with that, we have a lot of great guests lined up, and we'll have some more information on all of these topics. So I'm looking forward to getting my mind filled and blown away with some of the stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 19:53

Well, once it settles down, right? When everyone comes back from conferences, uh, I think there's a few more conferences in uh this month and next month and in January. Um, but we we're gonna get as much uh uh guests on here. Uh we're gonna get quite actually quite a lot of guests coming up. Uh and and uh we'll be talking about this in detail. Like all right, Mr.

SPEAKER_01: 20:15

Chris. I have to run and go try to absorb some more information. And then I'll talk to you soon. Chow chow. All right, take care.