European Power Platform Conference 2023 (EPPC23)

Table of contents

While I’m riding a bus out to Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, I figured now would be as good of a time as any to go ahead and write up my thoughts after attending the European Power Platform Conference 2023 (EPPC23), held in Dublin, Ireland.

Kevin Monahan on stage at EPPC23 giving an intro during the opening keynote. The screen above and behind him states "Welcome to the European Power Platform Conference Dublin 23" — Kevin Monahan on stage welcoming everyone to EPPC23.

And hoo-boy what an awesome journey it has been thus far!

Day 1 | Workshop Day

I chose to attend the “Power Apps Design, Performance, and Accessibility Masterclass!” workshop being presented by Luise Freese and Robin Rosengrün. I’ve always loved Luise’s demeanor and “everyone can-do” attitude. And Robin is the King Power Apps SVGs. (I mean come on, he made it possible to use the Death Star in your Canvas Apps, for crying out loud!)

Robin Rosengrün standing at a podium on stage demoing with Luise Freese standing next to the presenters table. The presenters table is covered with stacks of crumpled papers (now uncrumpled) that had been previously thrown at Robin and Luise by the audience. — Robin and Luise on stage.

What I also love about Luise is her constant push for accessibility, and ways to make your apps accessible. Which there was a lot of talk about that during this workshop and Robin’s journey with learning why accessibility was important.

Luise and Robin also brought up the use of Vertical and Horizontal containers for making your apps responsive. There were plenty of hands-on exercises, and they even gave some folks the opportunity to show off the things they built during these exercises.

Luise Freese and I after the workshop. This time that I'm meeting her in person, I'm not in the dino suit. 😅 — Luise and I after the workshop.

Overall, the workshop was a great success and I highly recommend that if you ever get the opportunity to take a workshop, or listen to a session with Luise and/or Robin, that you do so.

Day 2 | EPPC23 Opening Keynote

Today started off with a craic (if you will 😊).

Six Irish River Dancers performing on stage at EPPC23. A woman, a man, two more women, another man, and another woman. There's also a drummer behind them. — EPPC23 opening keynote entertainment.

Before the opening keynote at 9, a drummer dude came out on stage and started just banging away. This was great fun and he helped to wake some folks up. But this was not the end of the fun. Oh no. Out onto stage comes the first River Dancer dude to do his thing. Then another. Then the both of them. And finally four women joined them, and they all danced on stage for about 10 minutes.

Afterward, Kevin Monahan came out to greet eveyone and welcome them to Ireland, Dublin, and EPPC23. He talked a bit about the EPPC team and a little history about Dublin, before introducing and welcoming Charles Lamanna to the stage.

Charles Lamanna on stage at EPPC23 discussing all things AI Copilot. — Charles Lamanna on stage at EPPC23.

Charles discussed all things AI and AI Copilot for Power Platform. He shared a video and then talked a little more before bringing out April Dunham to do a live demo of the Copilot features in Power Automate. Once April was finished, Charles returned to stage to talk some more before presenting another video and introducing Kendra Springer to the stage to show off using Copilot in Power Virtual Agents to create a Cruise booking chat bot without ever setting up topics, but simply by including a website for the AI to generate content from. This was pretty damned amazing if you ask me. Afterward, Charles wrapped up the keynote and sent everyone along to their first sessions.

Day 2 | Morning Sessions

Dona Sarkar on stage during her session, "The Best Way to Build an AI Copilot Product? Fusion Teams!" — Dona Sarkar on stage during her session, “The Best Way to Build an AI Copilot Product? Fusion Teams!”

First up, I attended Dona Sarkar’s session, “The Best Way to Build an AI Copilot Product? Fusion Teams!”. No, AI is not going to take our jobs. Neither is it going to rise up and kill us all. But we all have a job to do before we can truly begin to implement any of the 112+ Copilots in our own organizations.

Dona's 3 homework assignments for everyone to get Copilot ready. 1. Get your data in formation: cleaned, organized and sorted if you EVER want to use AI 2. Involve your company in ONE AI proj w/ skilling so they don't FOMO but keep an eye on usage rates and ROI. Think plugging not your own LFMs (Large Foundation Models) 3. Think 6 categories of humans and the safety principals when you build AI products so you can make $$$$ — Dona’s assignments for everyone to get Copilot ready.

Up next, I was off to see Nick Doleman give his session “Crash Course in Power Pages”. This was a fantastic presentation and he gave lots of great tips for getting started with Power Pages.

Nick Doleman on stage giving his presentation, "Crash Course in Power Pages". The screen behind him has a slide up that reads: What are Power Pages? * Platform to build websites, web applications and mobile apps * It IS Power Apps portals * New design studio + workspaces * New templates * Allows external stakeholders to interact (create, read, update, delete) data in Dataverse * Can be component in an overall business application or standalone There are also three screenshots of various tools. — Nick Doleman on stage giving his presentation, “Crash Course in Power Pages”

I can’t wait to get back home and get started on my first Power Pages project. He also gave a plug to his Power Platform BOOST podcast, which you should give a listen to, if you get the chance.

Rene Modery on stage presenting, "Real-Life Experiences: Power Platform Governance & Adoption for 100,000 Users Across 10 Tenants" — Rene Modery on stage presenting, “Real-Life Experiences: Power Platform Governance & Adoption for 100,000 Users Across 10 Tenants”

Finally before lunch, I caught Rene Modery’s session, “Real-Life Experiences: Power Platform Governance & Adoption for 100,000 Users Across 10 Tenants”. It was really great hearing about some of the lessons learned and tips he had for being an administrator within a large organization.

EY Kalman, Rene Modery, and I after Rene's session. — EY Kalman, Rene Modery, and I after Rene’s session.

I got to catch a quick photo with Rene and EY Kalman afterward, just before running to grab a quick bite of lunch before the next session.

Day 2 | Afternoon Sessions

Myself and Robin Rosengrün hanging out in the "Ask the Experts" section of the Expo area. — Myself and Robin Rosengrün hanging out in the “Ask the Experts” section of the Expo area.

I ran into Robin at lunch, where he was hanging out in the Ask the Experts section for folks to come up and ask questions. We quickly snuck over to find some food, then headed back to the Experts section. I got the chance to talk with him about his experience so far as a speaker, and then someone came over to ask the expert a question. I even got to make a quick suggestion to the question posed, and then I had to head out to the next session.

Jörgen Schladot giving his presentation, "Build your own Dataverse Data Model - Understanding Data Types and Relationships". On his slide it reads: About Me Jörgen Schladot * Avanade, Germany * Solution Architect Dynamics 365 CE & Power Platform Organizing Team: Dynamics Meetup Deutschland Powerthon Deutschland — Jörgen Schladot giving his presentation, “Build your own Dataverse Data Model – Understanding Data Types and Relationships”

First up after lunch was Jörgen Schladot’s session, “Build your own Dataverse Data Model – Understanding Data Types and Relationships”. I’m so glad I attended this session, because he talked a lot about some of the things I had needed clarification on with Dataverse. I saw on LinkedIn or Twitter a day or two ago, that he was off to another conference in Belgium. 😳 That hustle is real my dudes!

Yannick Reekmans on stage giving his presentation, "Secure and Harden Power Automate Flows in the Enterprise". Slide behind him reads: Yannick Reekmans Managing Partner Qubix * Solution Architect @ Qubix > a Microsoft Cloud consultancy * M365 Development MVP & Business Applications MVP blog.yannickreekmans.be Twitter @YannickReekmans — Yannick Reekmans on stage giving his presentation, “Secure and Harden Power Automate Flows in the Enterprise”

Next up, I was off to see Yannick Reekmans’ session, “Secure and Harden Power Automate Flows in the Enterprise”. It was super informative, though I had to dip out early, right as he was about to start his demo. This was because I was about to give my “Live and in person at a conference” presentation during the Power Platform Community Call, alongside Keith Atherton and Chris Huntingford.

Now, my presentation was nothing special, as I was just giving a super quick tip about how to use the pieces and parts of the output from an action in Power Automate. Turns out, though, that the information definitely had an impact, as I got this really awesome message on Twitter a few days later. 🥰

Twitter message thanking me for my presentation during the community call.

Like seriously! How awesome is that?!

Anywho, while we were waiting to get the call started, I got to meet Keith in person, and he’s genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve ever met! Then after the call, I found out that Chris being between houses at the moment meant that he didn’t have his dino suit with him, so no dino shenanigans during the conference this time.☹️

Day 2 | Afternoon Sessions (Continued)

Last up for the day, I headed to Paola Pialorsi’s session, “Extending Power Automate with APIs”. All I’ll say about his session is this, “Yes, please?!” I feel like his session was twice as long as all the others, only because the amount of information he was giving us all was incredible! So damn good!

After the final session, was drinks in the Expo area, where I got to meet so many people. And I’m not even kidding. At an event with 1251 people, you’re bound to run into a person or two.

Luise, myself, and Dona pulling faces for a picture.

I swear I took more photos with people, but all I can find on my phone are a couple I took with Luise and Dona. Still fun. But wish I had more to share.

Once drinks ran dry, I headed back to my hotel to catch up with my hubs and kiddo, who had been out galavanting all around Dublin.

Day 3 | Opening EPPC23 Keynote

Pellegrino Richardo on stage for the opening keynote on day 3 of EPPC23. Slide behind him reads: Growth Mindset Open Curious Brave — Pellegrino Richardo on stage for the opening keynote on day 3 of EPPC23.

First up today was the opening keynote from Pellegrino Richardo, titled “La Dulche Vita”. It was very inspiring, and quite the reminder. “You need the sugar and the shit”, “where’s the love?”, “You need to be open, curious, and brave”, and so, so, many more quotable remarks.

Day 3 | Morning Sessions

Michael Roth presenting his session, "Become the Best Power Platform Admin". The slide up on screen reads: What is an Administrator / tasks of an administrator Secure * Enable cross-tenant isolation * Set up DLPS * Create environments according to strategy * Manage security roles * Define data gateway strategy Monitor *Set up the CoE * Monitor new and custom connectors * Check resource usage * Set up sharing alerts * Use audit logs Alert & Act * Think of environment requests * Create compliance process * Welcome new makers Deploy * Create appropriate ALM lifecycle * Share apps with users — Michael Roth presenting his session, “Become the Best Power Platform Admin”

First session of the morning was Michael Roth’s, “Become the Best Power Platform Admin”. Excellent tips for ensuring proper security in your environments. I caught Michael afterward for a quick pic.

Michael and I then headed over to Chris Huntingford’s session, “Dataverse Security Secrets Revealed”. Chris’ most favorite thing to talk about lately is the interestingly named “Group Teams”. I’m serious, he even talked about it on the Power Platform Community Call!

Chris Huntingford presenting his session, "Dataverse Security Secrets Revealed". The slide on screen reads: Dataverse Roles & Privileges (on the left) and (on the right) The core roles are broken down as follows (with a table below) — Chris Huntingford presenting his session, “Dataverse Security Secrets Revealed”

Lots of talk about how to properly secure and manage the security of environments, along with dashes and smatterings of his good humor throughout.

Théophile CHIN-NIN on stage presenting his session, "Custom Pages: Model Driven, Canvas Apps, Better Together" — Théophile CHIN-NIN on stage presenting his session, “Custom Pages: Model Driven, Canvas Apps, Better Together”

Afterward I caught Théophile CHIN-NIN’s session, “Custom Pages: Model Driven, Canvas Apps, Better Together”. I appreciated the information in his presentation, as it cleared up some things for me.

Day 3 | Afternoon Sessions

April Dunham on stage presenting her session "Finding your voice" for the Diversity & Inclusion luncheon — April Dunham on stage presenting her session “Finding your voice” for the Diversity & Inclusion luncheon

For lunch, I attended the Diversity & Inclusion luncheon hosted by April Dunham, where she talked about her struggles with speaking/performing. Then she brought up a panel of folks (David Warner, Gomo Mohapi, Iona Varga, and Foyin Olajide-Bello) to talk about how they work to find their own voice. Truly inspiring, and wonderfully done.

Myself and April Dunham after the luncheon

I also got a quick pic after with April. She’s seriously one of my community heroes, and I’m so glad I can say I know her in real life.

Scott Durow presenting during his session, "PCF Development: 10 Pro Tips I Wish I Knew from the Start". His Slide depicts an iceberg with a flag at the top. There are three arrows pointing to different places on the iceberg, each with a different message. At the top, "The code you see 🚀", just above the water line, "The code I refactor ♻️", and below the surface, "The code I quietly delete! 🤫". — Scott Durow presenting during his session, “PCF Development: 10 Pro Tips I Wish I Knew from the Start”

After the luncheon, I ran off to get into Scott Durow’s session, “PCF Development: 10 Pro Tips I Wish I Knew from the Start”. Which was also fantastic. Lots of great tips, and even got a preview of some of his pcf controls.

This is where I feel like things get a bit fuzzier with my memory, as I know I popped down to the Expo, then to go sit in another session, but had to grab a phone call, after which I ran in to Luise and Keith and started chatting with them. Then found my way to the speakers room for a moment to chat with some others, before heading to Ben De Blanken’s session, “Exploring the New Authoring Experience of Power Virtual Agents by creating a HR Assistant Bot”.

Day 3 | Closing EPPC23 Keynote

Chris Huntingford and I, before the closing keynote.

And what a closing keynote it was! All about the beautiful thing we refer to as Community. Heather Cook talked about all the symbolic ways the Gaelic language aligned with the ideas of community.

Heather Cook on stage during the final Keynote talking about the Gaelic word "Buíochas" — Heather on stage during the final Keynote talking about the Gaelic word “Buíochas”

Then she brought out April Dunham, who talked about all the various ways someone can contribute to the community.

April Dunham on stage for the final Keynote. The slide behind her states: The Alchemy of Sharing: Turning Ideas into Community Gold — April Dunham on stage for the final Keynote

Finally, wrapping up the final Keynote was David Warner. He shared all the ways to get involved, talked about the badges you could receive, and then shared quotes from various community members. Oh look… this one here looks familiar.

David Warner presenting during the final Keynote. On screen is a quote from me stating, "I find joy and fufillment in assisting others. Which makes the community an ideal fit for me. This welcoming, informative space not only offers opportunities to learn and network but also allows me to give back in a meaningful way." — David Warner presenting all about the community during the final Keynote.

We definitely ❤️ the heck out of our community and all the contributors worldwide! Join us, won’t you? https://aka.ms/jointhecommunity

David's final slide of the final Keynote. On screen is a Community Wall of Fame with three big hearts with the text above being the url to join the community: https://aka.ms/jointhecommunity — David’s final slide of the final Keynote.

Kevin Monahan came back out on stage afterward to thank everyone for attending, thank everyone whose hard work went into getting the event up and running, and to announce that EPPC24 would be taking place in Brussels! Heck yea!

Kevin Monahan on stage wrapping up EPPC23 and announcing EPPC24 in Brussels.

Dinos in Dublin

So you didn’t think I was done, did you?! Because I brought my dino costume along with my kiddo and her dino costume, specifically for EPPC23, and I’ll be damned if we didn’t get to use them. 😅