Event Preview: Power Platform Community Conference 2025 (#PPCC25)

The Power Platform Community Conference returns to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas from October 28 to 30 to showcase Microsoft’s latest product news, expert-led workshops, educational sessions, networking opportunities with peers, and two marquee guest appearances. 

• Note: MSDW is a media partner of Power Platform Community Conference 2025 (PPCC25). Our readers can save $150 by registering with the code MSDW150. 

Gain new perspective on Microsoft’s Power Apps roadmap

Microsoft’s recent product updates are sure to be a focus in keynotes and product update sessions at PPCC25. The event lineup includes over sixty Microsoft-led sessions and over fifty-five sessions and workshops from community experts. 

The recent introduction of generative pages and Code Apps for Power Apps is almost certain to be a topic of discussion, according to Microsoft MVP Chris Piasecki. He will be co-presenting a Power Apps workshop on October 26 focused on model-driven apps and has also been involved in early previews of Code Apps. He told MSDW that these new approaches have the potential to change the future of Power Apps. 

We may be at a fork in the road with canvas apps. A big question amongst MVPs and even some of the community is “are canvas apps dead?”. Because with the introduction of generative pages and code apps, you're seeing a lot of investment from Microsoft into focusing on AI driven development or “vibe coding”, which I guess is the buzzword, right? It's a very reasonable question: do I need to be building canvas apps when I can just prompt AI to build apps for me? It can generate the code a lot faster than me dragging and dropping. So I guarantee that's going to be a very discussed topic.

Chris will be co-presenting his workshop with fellow MVP Matthew Devaney, who told MSDW that he expects the role of AI agents in the broader Power Platform story to be central to the discussion this year. He views agents as evolving the long-running theme from Microsoft of “better together”. The elements of Microsoft’s AI vision for business applications are coalescing, he believes, and attendees at PPCC25 should expect to gain more perspective: 

We're now seeing all of these technologies being agentified. We've got agents in our model-driven apps. We can call them from our canvas apps. And there's the question of agents versus flows. Are we going to go with the deterministic runs the same way every time or are we going to be building a copilot? And I think that really starts to spark some conversations between the groups. So I think that the agents story is really what's going to have us all start to blend together.

A star performance, a champion’s message, and more to come

The PPCC25 team expects record attendance this year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, surpassing the 6,000 that attended in 2024. And the organizers just confirmed that Grammy-winning performer Christina Aguilera will headline the attendee party.

And the event has just announced that swimming legend Michael Phelps will deliver a featured guest keynote session. Widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, Phelps captured 28 medals, including a record-setting 23 gold medals, and set 39 world records over his swimming career. He established the Michael Phelps Foundation with performance bonuses earned from winning eight gold medals in the 2008 Olympics. The Foundation has gone on to implement its programs focused on water safety, healthy living, and “the pursuit of dreams” in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Special Olympics International.

The power of connection

In addition to expert-led sessions, Microsoft will be hosting more than 25 roundtable sessions at the event to gather feedback from attendees. Some will be open to all attendees, while some will be invitation-only, according to the event team.

PPCC25 will also introduce new opportunities to build relationships. Conference Speaker Manager Lyman Goodrich told MSDW that the event team has designed quieter spaces at the event where attendees can have one-on-one and small group meetings away from the crowds. He explained:

Attending a session with hundreds of people maybe isn’t the best way for everybody to learn. Sometimes it's better to have a little quiet space. There will be community spaces at the conference where you can sit down one-on-one, or in small groups to have a conversation, to ask people that are peers in this business on how they potentially resolved an issue. You can work and figure out [solutions to challenges]. And we're trying to multiply those opportunities to have smaller groups get together.

For veterans of the community, the event also serves as a valuable opportunity to see old colleagues and friends in person and making new connections. 

“In many cases, I'm less focused on necessarily the learning side of things, and more on meeting people, connecting with others, and building my network, my professional community,” said Piasecki.

Devaney and Piasecki also plan to catch some expert-led sessions and workshops on advanced themes like Power Platform governance and AI development featuring. 

“Some conference agendas tend to not go beyond the marketing,” Piasecki said. “But at PPCC25 you have a great balance between known community speakers sharing knowledge and best practices backed by years of real-world experience, and Microsoft product teams sharing the latest and greatest features while also listening to your feedback and pain points. It's a unique event with something for everyone.”