Community Summit NA 2026: Recap

If you work with Microsoft Dynamics 365, Business Central, Power Platform or Copilot, Community Summit North America is the one week a year when the whole community is in the same building. I attended the 2026 edition at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, and this post covers what the conference is, how the week works, and what I’d tell anyone thinking about going.

Summit is run by Dynamic Communities, not Microsoft, and that shapes everything. It’s a user conference first: most sessions are taught by customers, consultants and MVPs who use these products every day. Microsoft is very present, especially in the keynotes and General Sessions, but the focus is on what actually works in the real world.

(I also took a three-day Academy class on Business Central AL development before the conference)

Summit NA 2026 at a glance

The organizers called Nashville their biggest Community Summit yet.

Keynotes and General Sessions

The keynote and General Sessions are where you hear Microsoft’s direction firsthand, and in 2026 the clear theme was AI agents moving into everyday ERP and CRM work.

The Monday keynote program mixed customer stories with Microsoft leadership. It featured transformation stories from Everon and Barry-Wehmiller with their partners, conversations with Georg Glantschnig, Microsoft’s CVP for Dynamics 365 Agentic ERP Applications, and a Microsoft keynote from Dona Sarkar and Leon Welicki, VP and GM of Power Platform.

Each product line then gets its own General Session. The Business Central session, for example, covered BC 2026 updates and demos, agent updates in Business Central from the Microsoft product team, and a customer conversation about why staying current on upgrades matters. Other General Sessions covered Finance & Supply Chain, Customer Experience, and Agents & Copilot + Power Platform.

Education sessions, roundtables and Academy

With more than 600 sessions, the challenge is choosing, not finding something useful. Content is organized by product and spans business, functional and technical levels. A single track like Business Central covers everything from end-user productivity tips to financial reporting, manufacturing, AP/AR, Power BI and AL development.

Three formats stood out:

• Breakout sessions. One-hour sessions led mostly by practitioners. Many speakers share their materials afterward; Mariano Gomez Bent, for example, posted his session on agent architecture with MCP on GitHub.
• Roundtables and Ask the Experts panels. Small-group discussions on topics like AI in manufacturing and distribution for Business Central, AI in the Office of the CFO, and D365 integration. You bring the questions, and peers and experts answer them.
• Academy classes. Paid, hands-on classes before the conference, taught by MVPs, partners and Microsoft staff. They run one to three days and earn NASBA CPE credits.

The expo floor

The Ryman Hall expo is where 300+ partners and ISVs set up shop, from large systems integrators to specialist Business Central add-on vendors for payments, EDI, tax, AP automation and reporting. It’s the most efficient way to evaluate solutions. In an hour you can compare several vendors side by side and ask questions specific to your own setup. Daily Partner Solution Showcases give ISVs a short stage to demo their products. The floor is also built for fun: arcade games, axe throwing, a golf simulator, pickleball, a headshot booth and puppy snuggles.

Don’t miss the Tech Medic help desks. You can walk up with a real problem and work through it with an expert on the spot.

Networking, community and Nashville

The people are Summit’s biggest strength. Users, partners, ISVs, MVPs and Microsoft product teams are all in one place, and almost everyone is open to a conversation. Many partners say the same thing: Summit feels less like a trade show and more like a community meetup where hallway chats turn into lasting relationships.

The agenda builds in plenty of ways to connect:

• First-timer meetings and reception on Sunday, organized by product track
• Opening Reception on the expo floor Monday night, with the Legends Awards
• Women in Tech “She Builds” program, a three-hour Monday block plus eight more sessions during the week
• Lunch roundtables and dozens of partner-hosted evening events
• Grand Ole Opry closing event on Wednesday for All-Access attendees

Tips for first-time attendees

1. Start with your problems, not the catalog. Write down two or three things your organization needs to solve, then build your agenda around them.
2. Use the Summit app. Build your schedule, find rooms, and see who else is attending.
3. Attend your product’s General Session for the roadmap straight from Microsoft.
4. Go to the first-timer meeting. It’s the easiest way to meet people on day one.
5. Block real time for the expo, with a short list of vendors and questions.
6. Consider an Academy class if you want deep, hands-on training. They fill up early.
7. Leave gaps in your schedule. Some of the best conversations happen between sessions.

Looking ahead to 2027

Community Summit North America 2027 heads to Columbus, Ohio, October 17–21, 2027, and registration is already open. If you work in the Microsoft business applications world and haven’t been, I’d put it on your calendar.