🔥 Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of presenting two sessions at Microsoft Build 2026 in San Francisco! I’ve always enjoyed speaking at previous editions of Build, so it was great to be back again. This year, the event moved from Seattle to the beautiful Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. The waterfront location provided an incredible backdrop for a fantastic week of learning, networking, and sharing ideas.
📍 Before the event started, I spent a few days exploring San Francisco, including an early morning 15km run across the Golden Gate Bridge. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
My session on Microsoft Marketplace was scheduled for Wednesday, just after lunch. The session’s focus was demo-driven and covered the question: how do you take your infrastructure-as-code and turn it into a deployable product experience through the Microsoft Marketplace?
I took the audience on the journey from start to finish as outlined below.
Journey of the session at Microsoft Build
I had the absolute honor of meeting with Elizabeth Beals (McLaughlin) and Felipe Ospina, who reached out prior to the event to sync on the messaging of the Microsoft Marketplace and Build, and exchange ideas.
What I enjoyed most was sharing the lessons learned from real-world projects. The happy path is usually well documented. The validation failures, packaging mistakes, portal UX challenges, and certification surprises are where the real learning happens.
A big thank you to everyone who attended the session, asked questions, shared experiences, and continued the discussion afterward. It was great meeting so many people from around the world who are building on Azure and looking at Microsoft Marketplace as a way to accelerate adoption of their solutions.
One of the coolest additions this year was the physical Microsoft Marketplace on the show floor. It gave attendees a place to ask questions, learn about the latest developments, and continue conversations after sessions. They even had their own Marketplace pins! It also turned out to be the perfect call to action for my talk.
Physical Microsoft Marketplace at Microsoft Build,
Felipe Ospina did a great job presenting on Microsoft Marketplace as well, a session I did not want to miss. He also announced Intelligent Discovery for the Microsoft Marketplace, powered by AI!
I had the great pleasure of meeting the amazing Kristyn Maddox and Trenton Chavez as well. Great conversations and exchanging of ideas!
For anyone interested in the technical content, Microsoft published the session repository containing the source code, demos, and getting-started guidance: https://github.com/microsoft/Build26-DEM363-from-the-field-accelerate-your-development-for-azure-marketplac
Since a large part of the session focused on Bicep and Infrastructure-as-Code, I also brought a few copies of my book to give away. They disappeared in seconds 😊 You can find the book here https://www.amazon.com/Getting-started-Bicep-Infrastructure-Azure/dp/B098WK3MR7
A huge thank you to everyone who attended the sessions, asked questions, shared feedback, and continued the discussions afterward.
Events like Build are a reminder that while technology keeps evolving, the best part is still the people you meet and learn from along the way.
I had a blast presenting and attending at Microsoft Build and hope to be back again next year!
Didn’t attend Microsoft Build and got interested in the session? You can catch the recording here: https://build.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/DEM363?source=sessions
Special thanks to Melanie McKenna and Christine Flora (her/she) for taking these pictures! It is always great to see you!
#MSBuild #MVPBuzz
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