Event Preview: Directions EMEA 2025 planning, with Torben Kragelund

Microsoft partners received their new channel guidance at the start of Microsoft’s FY26, and SMBs still have a unique role to play in the larger AI Business Solutions’ partner strategy. Copilot and AI agents are at the top of Microsoft's list of priorities, and Dynamics 365 ERP solutions, both in the SMB and enterprise segments, could stand to benefit.

Directions EMEA 2025 (#EMEA2025), one of the key partner touchpoints of the year for Dynamics 365 Business Central partners, returns in November 2025 to Poznan, Poland for a BC-focused conference that organizers say will deliver more role-based experiences along with the mix of Microsoft product, channel, and technology updates that attendees have come to expect. (MSDW is a media partner of the event.)

The event team has taken steps to make it easy for attendees to travel to Poznan. They are working with airlines to increase direct flights from Scandinavian cities to Berlin. And attendees can also book a seat on chartered coaches that will take them from Berlin Brandenburg Airport to Poznan. 

AI and agents are the hottest and most expected topic at this year conference, but Torben Kragelund, head of Directions for Partners, the organization that runs Directions EMEA, believes SMB partners are looking more broadly at how to balance Microsoft priorities with meeting the needs of customers and prospects. He explained:

Partners are thinking about ISV solutions with standard Business Central and how they can use that combination in delivering benefits to their customers. And of course a big driver for Microsoft is to get partners enabled to deliver more BC solutions. 

And he added that the event team is seeing increasing interest in the use of AI tools at the individual level.

I think another big part of the conference and the sessions that we can see for attendees is how do you as an individual use AI. How do you as a developer use AI to be more efficient and get rid of some of the boring tasks? How do you use it as a consultant to start writing requirement documents or even help ask the right questions of your customers? 

While Microsoft will lead keynote sessions on days 1 and 2 of Direction EMEA, partners will take the stage on day 3 to share real world experiences, lessons learned, and successes related to AI scenarios in use by themselves and in their customers solutions. Scenarios will touch on the consultant and development roles, on building and executing test plans, as well as on sales and marketing scenarios that partners face today. Torben added:

There will be a lot in that partner keynote that will help individuals to become more efficient with AI. I think that that's really the big, interesting element for individuals: how does AI make their day at work different?

Directions EMEA audiences tell the organizers that they come for two main reasons: knowledge and networking. To address that, the team is allotting more time for networking experiences through new role-focused zones for Development, Consulting, Sales & Marketing, and Leadership. They have also worked to provide more workshops, as well as new session formats like an escape room concept led by the #BCTalent team at Microsoft. The overall goal, said Torben, is to broaden the event’s impact by reaching more people in partner organizations.

We are trying to expand the scope outside of just having Business Central-focused sessions, but really trying to cover everyone in a partner organization and say how can we help them make their life easier and strengthen the community?

We have more workshops and more deep technical sessions than ever before. But we also have more sessions overall than ever. I think we're up to 19 parallel tracks now. Last year we had 18 and the year before, 17 parallel tracks. Some have said that we have too many sessions, but we did not listen to that. We went the other way and increased the number of sessions to make sure we have tailored content for everyone joining us in Poznan. 

This year, people in some channel roles feel particularly vulnerable because of the potential impact of AI. The best way to manage that concern could be to learn what is possible with tools that are emerging now. 

One of the things that I noticed earlier this year was that some developers I talked to were a bit scared. They were asking what AI would mean for their jobs in the future. But I think that concern has eased a bit now. There are some very cool tools out there that actually help., so adoption has started to change. 
If you look at a partner business, the sales and marketing people were the first to pick it up because they could apply AI in so many areas, like campaigns and proposals.

But many partner leaders are still trying to figure out what AI really means to them. How do they sell AI? Who owns the IP? What are the legal responsibilities when you sell a solution like that? How do you formulate your contracts and your compliance documents? There are still a lot of open questions.