You know what they say, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”.. unless you go there for Microsoft’s Power Platform Conference (MPPC). Such is the case for Jay Xiong, Ante Simunic, and Keiran Mott, who have come back with lots of key Microsoft take aways that they’ve already shared with the rest of the Factor crew—and now can share with all of you.

Last year’s inaugural MPPC conference was attended by Jacques Le Grange, Suzy Weatherfield and Ethan Weatherfield in Orlando, Florida. With 2023 being only the second iteration of this conference, Jay, Ante, and Keiran were a mix of shock and awe at the sheer magnitude of attendees. What was even more surprising was the diversity of attendees, from customers, to partners, to countries of origin, to MVPs, and to Microsoft people.

4,000 people gathered at Las Vegas for MPPC23 

With over 4,000 people spanning 5 days of Microsoft events, one theme reigned supreme: Co-Pilot. Co-Pilot is Microsoft’s AI feature that now touches almost all facets of the Microsoft ecosystem. So much so, there are now 155 Copilots. This is a stark contrast to last year’s MPPC event when Copilot was still in its early stages. After only 1 years’ worth of development, Co-Pilot’s growth says a lot about how revolutionary AI technology is and will continue to be.

Let’s take a closer look at what features were presented:

Power Apps:

1. Modern controls using Fluent UI: This enhancement introduces more aesthetically pleasing design elements, including button and radio controls. It helps app creators design more visually appealing and user-friendly applications.
2. Theming engine: The theming engine provides a more cohesive way to style apps. It streamlines the process of applying consistent themes throughout your applications, making it easier to maintain a coherent look and feel.
3. Offline for mobile: This feature allows Power Apps to work even when there is no internet connection. Users can access and interact with their apps offline and synchronise data when they are back online.
4. Co-authoring for Power Apps: Like collaborative editing in Word documents, co-authoring enables multiple users to work on Power Apps simultaneously, making it easier for teams to collaborate on app development.
5. Environment routing: This addition enhances security controls by allowing administrators to route app data and requests through specific environments, ensuring data protection and compliance.
6. Co-Pilot for app makers: Co-Pilot in Power Apps lets you communicate in natural language, describing what you want to create and how it should function. Co-Pilot then assists in generating the app based on your instructions, simplifying the app development process.
7. Adaptive cards: This feature allows you to create adaptive cards in Power Apps with a sort-of drag-and-drop functionality, making it easier to design and customize cards for various purposes.

Power Pages:

1. Co-Pilot for Power Pages: Like Co-Pilot in Power Apps, this feature assists in creating and designing Power Pages with natural language commands and guidance.
2. DocuSign integration (preview): DocuSign integration is available for preview. Soon users will be able to seamlessly incorporate e-signature capabilities into their Power Pages, streamlining document signing processes.
3. Bootstraps v5 (preview): Power Pages introduces a preview of Bootstrap v5, which includes new modern controls and design features to enhance the visual appeal and functionality of your pages.

Power Automate:

1. Automation kit: This kit provides pre-built templates and automation workflows to help users streamline and accelerate their automation processes.
2. New look and feel of Power Automate: The updated interface includes FX controls, offering a refreshed and more intuitive user experience for creating and managing workflows.
3. Process mining and Co-Pilot in Power Automate: Process mining capabilities allow users to analyse and optimise their automation workflows. Co-Pilot in Power Automate assists in explaining the functionality of your flows, making it easier to understand and collaborate on automation tasks.

Fabric and OneLake

Microsoft Fabric is essentially an integrated analytics solution that covers the entire spectrum—from data engineering to real-time analytics and business intelligence. It operates on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, making it a one-stop-shop for your analytics needs. OneLake, its data lake foundation, is like the backbone, eliminating the chaos of scattered data silos and simplifying storage. Think of it as a cohesive platform where components from Power BI, Azure Synapse, and Azure Data Factory seamlessly come together. The idea is to offer a user-friendly, integrated solution for enterprises, saving you the trouble of juggling different services. Microsoft Fabric is more about streamlining data management and analytics, making your life easier in the process.

Power Up Skilling Program

With the rise of low-code technologies alongside AI technologies, the barriers to entry into programming is lower than ever, yet the pace in which technology is moving is also increasing. Therefore, Microsoft is pushing their Power Up Skilling Program to teach more people how to use the technology available to them and is aimed at those who are transitioning from a non-technical background.  After all, a low-code tool like Power Apps is only as powerful as the developer’s ability to use it!

Overall

This was another successful MPPC conference for The Factor! The sessions were incredibly valuable, but so were the connections that were cultivated. Being able to talk directly to the people who built the platform and vendors who have used it to create their own unique products and services such as Click Dimensions was a golden opportunity to trade insights. It was also great to understand the unique challenges that other organisations face at different levels of scale.

Looking Ahead

Co-pilot is a huge play for Microsoft. We’re keen to utilise Co-Pilot moving forward, especially when it gets released in Australia by roughly the end of this year. There’s a lot of potential for Co-pilot to improve everyday workflows not only for our developers but for our clients as well.

We can only imagine the huge strides in innovation between now and next year’s Microsoft Power Platform conference which is set to take place in Europe. Although Vegas’s version of the Eifel Tower is impressive, we’re certainly keen to see the real thing! See you again next year, MPPC!