The European Cloud Summit, a conference where technologists from across Europe gather to learn about the latest AI and cloud technologies and connect with tech experts, industry leaders, and Microsoft members, was held in mid-May. This year’s event was combined with the European Collaboration Summit, offering attendees a chance to engage with the latest developments in a wide range of Microsoft technologies, including modern work, Microsoft 365, and Copilot, attracting over 3,000 participants.

This conference was a highly valuable three-day event for attendees who came to enhance their technical skills and apply them in their businesses. It offered sessions where participants could consume the latest technological information and use cases, including keynote speeches. Additionally, there were Pre-day Tutorial sessions, booth exhibits, and panel discussions at the EXPO.

Many leaders from the tech community, including Microsoft MVPs and Regional Directors (RDs), attended and significantly contributed to the conference by sharing their knowledge and insights as speakers. In this blog post, we interviewed two of these MVP and RD speakers to reflect on their conference experiences.

Damir Dizdarevic, a Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP and RD from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who spoke on the Business Stage session “New generation of cyber attacks and what businesses should know about that,” reflects on the conference as a great community event. He says, “It is driven by the passionate work of the few very enthusiastic people, all MVPs and/or RDs. This year, it was even bigger than ever before, but it is really not just about the number of people or number of sessions. For me, as a long-term speaker and an MVP, this conference is quite specific as it really covers not just a lot of topics, but also a different perspective.”

Regarding the unique aspects of this year’s conference, Damir shares his reflection, “This year, as expected, a lot of content was about AI and sessions were chosen in a way that everyone was able to learn about AI, no matter how much they know (or don’t know) about it already. Also, I liked the panels that were organized in Expo space – other attendees were also quite attracted to them. Being able to speak with quite a few Microsoft people was also one of the benefits of this conference. And this year, there were many sessions on the business stage, which means that the audience expanded to business people too.”

From his perspective as an RD with extensive business experience, Damir tells us the impact of this conference on technology users. “I noticed that most sessions on the business stage were full of people. My session was also on the business stage, and I talked about what CxO and BDM people should know about the new generation of cyber-attacks. I was quite surprised to see that there are many BDMs not aware that a lot of things have changed when it comes to security. Raising awareness about new technologies, new challenges and new opportunities is something that is the real value of having a business stage, even on community-driven conferences. While talking to attendees of my session, I realized that BDMs and CxO really need sessions where they can learn and better understand technologies that affect their core business,” says Damir.

Jussi Roine, a Security MVP from Finland and speaker of two sessions, “Microsoft Copilot(s) Powerclass” and “Copilot for Security Deep Dive,” says this conference is the highlight of his spring each year. “It’s very community oriented, and you get to meet awesome speakers and an enthusiastic audience at the same time in a beautiful setting. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve attended and delivered sessions at the event and this year was the largest so far. The highlight for me was the breadth of content from the diverse set of speakers, and I got to finally meet so many people I’ve known on social media, but this time in person.”

Jussi recalled receiving numerous questions from attendees about Copilot for Security during and after his sessions. “People are piecing together Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Defender XDR and Copilot for Security, and the questions revolved around cost management, governance and compliance. It’s a relatively new capability, so I felt that the feedback was also based on the audience wanting to try it out, once they had more information on the how’s and the what’s,” says Jussi.

The next event, the European AI and Cloud Summit, has already been announced for May 26-28, 2025, in Düsseldorf, Germany. While the detailed agenda, including session information, has not yet been released, participants can look forward to learning about the latest advancements in AI and cloud technologies at that time.

For information on this year’s conference speakers and sessions, as well as the latest updates on the upcoming conference, please visit the official website and follow the posts on European AI and Cloud Summit LinkedIn.

*MVP profile details as of June 30, 2024.

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