As a Dynamics consultant working for a Microsoft Partner, attending Directions EMEA 2024 in Vienna was an incredible opportunity. When I was asked along with three of my colleagues if I would like to attend, I was thrilled to have been considered for the job and was keen to make the most of the opportunity.
Directions EMEA is a premier event for Microsoft Partners, focusing on the latest advancements and strategies in the SMB Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. With hundreds of sessions to choose from over three days, my three colleagues and I of course split up to cover as much of the available content as possible. Every day we each attended up to 8 or 9 of the sessions led by Microsoft staff, MVPs and ISVs on a wide variety of topics including Business Central, Copilot, Cloud solutions and Power Platform. The speakers were of course all experts and leaders in their own fields and it really was a peerless opportunity to learn from the very best and brightest at the cutting edge of the technology which occupies our day-to-day working lives.
The conference was held in the Vienna International Centre in Austria’s capital city. It was my first visit to Vienna and luckily my colleagues and I found some time in the evenings to explore the city and visit its cathedrals and Christmas markets. We were not disappointed; we found it to be a beautiful and welcoming city. The walk from our hotel to the conference centre took us through diverse neighbourhoods each with their own identity and across the mighty Danube River with ferries and ships carrying sightseers and goods to some of Eastern Europe’s largest cities and reminded us all of the geographical and historical importance of this wonderful city. Our hotel was in an area with plenty of young people as it was near University accommodation and the famous Vienna Prater: an enormous permanent fairground on the outskirts of the city centre with rides towering above the high rise buildings. The screams of delighted (or terrified) fun-seekers on the rides could be heard from our hotel rooms late into the evenings.
As for the conference itself, as a functional Business Central consultant, I was spoiled for choice in terms of what sessions I could attend. I attended sessions on the latest modules released in V25 of Business Central such as Subscriptions and Recurring Billing and Sustainability. I learned about the enhanced functionality provided in existing modules, about the exciting opportunities offered by the ever expanding and improving Microsoft Copilot and about new reporting capabilities such as the embedded Power BI reports, enhanced Word layouts and new financial reports.
The organisation of the conference by the Directions team made attending the lectures and sessions effortless. An excellent mobile app provided a timetable of events and the opportunity to network with other delegates and to provide feedback on each of the sessions. The food and refreshments were a highlight, offering delicious examples of Vienna’s culinary traditions with flavours indicative of Austria’s geography, nestled as it is in the heart of Europe with influences from all corners of the continent.
Of course, a major feature of any conference is the networking with like-minded companies and professionals and it was fascinating to meet some of the delegates working on diverse areas of the Microsoft Dynamics suite of products and to learn about their plans and their own approaches to enhancing Microsoft’s offering. Between sessions, we spent any time we had available (when we weren’t enjoying Goulash or beetroot salad) browsing the stalls attended by the bronze, silver and gold sponsors of the event and talking to the representatives of the ISVs who were keen to share their latest products and updates with us.
The keynote sessions were entertaining and inspiring, particularly the opening address by the Microsoft team, who emphasised the future of AI in business applications and the investment Microsoft is making to secure Business Central as the go to ERP system in the SMB market. I also really enjoyed the keynote on day 3 by Dona Sarkar who gave her inimitable take on AI and how we should all embrace the opportunities this exciting ever-improving tool offers.
On Thursday evening, after the conference closed, buses shuttled delegates to the conference after party, where the food and drink flowed freely and the dancing continued until the small hours. There was a great party atmosphere and excellent live music which was great to experience and was a reminder that even software geeks need to let their hair down and have fun sometimes!
The insights gained from Directions EMEA 2024 are already influencing my approach to projects. I’m looking forward to implementing the new tools and best practice techniques we learned about, and I’m confident that these will drive significant improvements for our clients.
Attending Directions EMEA 2024 was a wonderful experience for me and my colleagues. The knowledge, connections, and inspiration we gained are invaluable, and we look forward to applying these insights in our work. If you have the opportunity to attend a future Directions EMEA event, I would highly recommend it and hopefully maybe see you there!
