April 21, 2025 • 31 mins
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We dive deep into the journey of Wim Coorevits, Microsoft's Community Lead for Business Apps, exploring his evolution from Belgian developer to global Microsoft innovator and the changing landscape of business applications.
TAKEAWAYS
• Started career as a developer in a marketing agency, discovering his passion for bridging technology and business
• Became a .NET trainer surrounded by MVPs who inspired his community involvement
• Earned MVP status in the Dynamics CRM space through sharing knowledge and expertise
• Transitioned to pre-sales, leveraging broad Microsoft technology knowledge to solve business problems
• Joined Microsoft as a Partner Technology Strategist before making the leap to product marketing
• Relocated from Belgium to the US for a role with Office 365 before finding his way to Power Platform
• Became known for creating demos shown "on every single stage in the world" during Power Platform's early days
• Now leads the Business Apps community team overseeing evangelism, community forums, advocacy programs, and events
• Team builds demos for keynotes and major events, focusing on real customer scenarios rather than fictional companies
• Currently developing an event tiering strategy to objectively determine how to support the many community events worldwide
Today, Wim's team not only builds the demos you see in major keynotes and launch events but also manages the forums, advocacy programs, and community engagement that sustain the vibrant Business Apps ecosystem. His insights into how Microsoft determines which community events to support and the challenges of scaling community engagement provide a rare glimpse into the strategy behind Microsoft's community presence.
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Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark Smith (00:01):
Welcome to the Co-Pilot Show, where I interview
Microsoft staff innovating withAI.
I hope you will find thispodcast educational and inspire
you to do more with this greattechnology.
Now let's get on with the show.
My guest today is Wim, someoneI've had the privilege of
knowing since 2012.
(00:23):
He was already a Microsoft MVPand I was just starting my
journey.
Wim is a remarkable individual,a gentle yet strong soul with
incredible technical expertisepaired with a kind and humble
spirit.
He's a master storyteller,using software as his canvas to
craft compelling narratives.
With years of experience, Wimhas been the creative force
(00:46):
behind some of the mostmemorable on-stage demos at
Microsoft Technology events.
I'm excited to dive into thisjourney and insights today.
You can find links to his bioand socials in the show notes
for this episode.
Welcome to the show, Wim.
Wim Coorevits (01:01):
Wow, mark.
Thank you, Good to have you on,mate.
I'm not sure how I'm going tolive up to all those
expectations from that intro,but thank you so much.
I'm happy to be here.
Mark Smith (01:11):
It's so good to have you on the show and as I've
known you for quite a long timeand I've seen your journey both
as an MVP and then, of course,inside Microsoft, where you have
had a massive impact over theyears, both behind the scenes
and, of course, on stage, doingsome amazing big event demos in
the business application spacewith Microsoft.
(01:31):
Before we get into your journey, your tech career and what
you're up to nowadays and what'stop of mind for you going into
2025, tell me a bit about food,family and fun.
Wim Coorevits (01:41):
Let me start with family.
It's basically my wife, my sonand myself here, all based in
the area of Seattle.
Family and fun.
Let me start with family.
It's basically my wife, my sonand myself here, all based in
the area of Seattle, washington.
As you can probably hear fromthe accent, I'm originally
actually from Belgium, so allthe rest of our family is still
back there and I guess we kindof abandoned them in a way to
have this role here at Microsoftat headquarters.
(02:02):
So that's the family part Iwould guess.
Like, what I like to do with myfamily is like we like to cycle
up, like there's lots ofmountain bike parks here in the
area, so we really enjoy that.
And since about a year and ayear and a half ago, I really
got into like Zwift as well.
So this indoor cycling it'slike e-gaming or e-sports as
they call it, and so I'veactually lost a lot of weight
(02:25):
just cycling Indoor.
It's safe, it's warm, it's cozy, compared to, of course, the
Seattle weather, which is, like10 months, 12 months, really bad
.
So that's the fun part Lots ofcycling, lots of mountain biking
, getting outdoors.
We have a dog as well, sothat's outdoors as well.
And then the food part likebeing Belgium, I think the
safest choice, of course, isgoing to be chocolate.
Mark Smith (02:48):
Absolutely.
And what about beer?
Wim Coorevits (02:50):
Belgium beer is pretty famous yeah it is, but
I'm not really a beer drinker,so I'll stick to chocolate,
stick to chocolate.
Chocolate works all the time,any time of the day, any
occasion.
Chocolate is a good go-to foranyone, so true.
How often do you get back toBelgium?
I think as a family, like we,would try to go every two years,
(03:12):
but I end up more often therebecause of like sometimes events
or being in the neighborhoodbecause of like work reasons.
I'll try to kind of squeeze ina visit to my family back in
Belgium as well.
Mark Smith (03:25):
Are you going back in 2025?
That's giving away thesurprises for the family, I
guess, oh of course, yes, no,I'm kidding, here's the thing I
could twist your arm, see, isthat I'm going from New Zealand
up to Slovenia for a conferencecalled Dynamics Minds, and I
went last year and they invitedme the first year.
(03:45):
This will be the third yearit's running, and I tell you
what it is the best conferenceexperience you will ever
experience in your life.
Wim Coorevits (03:54):
Like so many questions, as a result of that
I've been to a lot ofconferences.
Mark Smith (03:58):
Right, the difference with this conference
is that it's in Slovenia.
Most people can't say thatthey've been to Slovenia and
it's kind of like your hardcoretech sessions all through the
day, but the night turns intolike a carnival atmosphere and
they go hard out.
It's right on the Adriatic Sea,beautiful sunsets, you know the
(04:22):
sailboats out on the harbor.
They put up this massive stage,they bring in DJs, food, just
amazing, amazing food, andmusical and theatrics and
everything experience and it's abig deal.
Wim Coorevits (04:41):
Is it like a great vacation with there
happens to be some technicalcontent?
Mark Smith (04:46):
It's hardcore Microsoft right.
The whole thing is all around.
You know, dynamics Minds is aplay on Dynamics right 365.
The originators were more as inthe company that puts it on is
an ISV in the truest sense ofthe word.
But there's a full powerplatform track.
There's a full dynamics, ce,fno and which have also covers.
(05:08):
You know NavVision history atVC, of course, now and then
there's a business track andthere's a partner track.
It's a really robust, you know,conference.
I should see if I can get youon the invite list.
Wim Coorevits (05:21):
Yeah, how important do you think is the
location there, like, can youreplicate this somewhere else?
No, do you feel?
Mark Smith (05:26):
No Location's critical.
This ISV has done one of thesmartest things that all ISVs
over the world should take aleaf out of their playbook.
Rather than going and having abooth at any number of
conferences, right where you'rejust one in a crowded booth hall
of many people, they didsomething quite unique and that
they were like hang on, how canwe flip this on this head?
(05:47):
Could we bring all ourcustomers to us by putting on a
high value event that peoplewould want to attend, which we
will host?
And the beauty is, you know,the cost of things in Slovenia
is, I think, more economicalthan other.
But, like, if you try to runthe same event in London or
Paris or something like that, itwould be X-y, it would be quite
(06:08):
a pricey event.
So they've probably got anadvantage.
On accommodation, transportation, you know you've got planes,
trains, automobiles, ship youcan take any of those scenarios
to get there.
They all work.
I took them all last time,apart from ship.
Did I get it on a boat?
Yeah, all work.
(06:30):
I took them all last time,apart from ship.
Did I get it on a boat?
Yeah, it's the only one I did.
Ah, I did.
I did because I was in Venicebefore the event and, of course,
the only way around Veniceright is on the canal boat, so I
did do actually all modes oftransport last year.
Anyhow, highly recommend.
I'm actually going to talk tothe organizers and see if we can
get you a spot, maybe thekeynote address or something
like that.
I think there's probably muchbetter speakers for a keynote
there than I am you would lovethis, but I appreciate it and
you can go to Belgium, you know,on your way home, type thing,
(06:52):
or do your stopover throughthere.
Anyhow, I digress, I digress, Idigress.
Tell me I gave a bit in theintro of your tech career as a
Microsoft MVP and then goingblue badge and working for
Microsoft.
But take us just a little bitbefore that.
How did you become an MVP?
What were you doing at the time?
And then why did you choose togo into Microsoft?
(07:14):
And then a bit of yourMicrosoft journey.
That would be awesome.
Wim Coorevits (07:19):
Sure, I mean, I started my career as a developer
building web applications in amarketing agency and the main
thing I learned there was that Ilove to combine like technology
and business, like making thatbridge between like these
business problems and thensolving it with technology ASP,
(07:39):
vbscript, super basic and itbecame a little like after a few
years first job, like I waslike ready for the next
challenge and I accepted a roleas a trainer for NET development
so I taught other people how tobuild Windows applications, web
applications with NET and thecolleagues there.
(08:00):
They were really amazing.
There was a company called U2U.
They're based in Belgium.
They did trainings across theworld and we had multiple MVPs
for SharePoint and for othertechnologies within that company
.
So they were great examples forme on what they did During the
day they were teaching classes,but then they used that
(08:20):
knowledge as well to educate thecommunity and connect to the
community and learn them aboutgreat new technology that Max
was bringing up, and so I thinkthat kind of inspired me to go
do the same and it took a whileto kind of find kind of where I
wanted to do that but like Ilanded in, like as you know, as
an MVP in the dynamics in thebusiness apps world.
(08:40):
Again, going back to what Ilearned in my first job really
loving that combination oftechnology and business and I
was looking in how to translatethat I thought like there's no
better place than to do thatthan with business applications,
because that's what they'redesigned to do.
And so that's how I landed indynamic CRM back that day like
(09:02):
CRM 3.0.
And then we went to 4.0.
And that's when I startedreally kind of engaging in the
business app space and I starteddoing like sessions, like for
the local community in Belgiumand like starting to get engaged
in the community there.
And that's how I became an MVPreally is like out of this
passion of I'm using technologyday in, day out and then
(09:25):
leveraging that to share it withthe world.
I never thought of it that way.
I never started with, oh, Iwant to become an MVP.
It's just something that I lovedoing.
I love talking about all thestuff I learned and all the
things you could do with it, andso that's kind of how I rolled
into.
And now I'm doing this sessionfor Microsoft and now I'm going
to speak at an event, and nowI'm going to do this and I'm
(09:45):
writing a blog post orwhatsoever, and so I almost
rolled into it without trulyrealizing it, but it was all
driven by this passion formaking that bridge from
technology to the business, andthat's kind of how I ended up
becoming an MVP in that contextof being a trainer as a next
step, because we could talkprobably the entire podcast
(10:05):
about all the steps in my career.
But I think that the commonthread is really that
combination of technology andbusiness, because, like what I
learned doing those, like as aNET trainer, I started training
like Dynamics RAM courses aswell.
What I learned there was that Ilove to do introductions
(10:26):
courses as well.
What I learned there was that Ilove to do introductions.
Like I noticed in the course,like, oh, we're gonna talk about
all these amazing things andthis is what you can do with it
and that's the value.
And then, okay, now we have togo do it.
Oh, no, like, this is so boring, like all the little steps to
actually make it happen.
And then the next chapter oh,this is gonna be amazing because
there's all these amazingthings and you can do these
different types of applicationswith it and it's going to be so
(10:49):
cool and then okay, now we haveto look at the details to do it.
And so I really learned frommyself that I love to do
introductions and kind ofevangelize technology.
And that brought me intopre-sales, like when I was
looking at my next challengelike, oh well, maybe pre-sales
is my thing, because it'sexactly this type of thing where
I will look at a businessproblem that a customer has and
(11:12):
then I'll look at technology andsee how this technology can fit
to solve that problem.
And that's how I landed inpre-sales.
I was an MVP there, like Icontinued to be like an MVPvp
for dynamic serum at that time.
But my biggest plus or mybiggest value at a time was that
because of being a dot nettrainer, I had a very broad kind
(11:32):
of exposure to my acts oftechnology, a lot of colleagues
who did sharepoint, lots ofculture, pure dot net
development, and so my valuereally that I thought of as a
pre-sales was like you know,some people like if you have a
hammer, everything is a nailright.
So my value really that Ithought of as a pre-sales was
like you know, some people likeif you have a hammer, everything
is a nail right, and my valuewas like that was not my
situation because, yes, I lovedand I was super passionate about
(11:53):
dynamics, but I knew that somecases like maybe SharePoint was
better or in some cases, maybecustom development was better,
and so that was awesome in mytime as a pre-sales consultant
was really that I could look ata problem and translate or build
a solution that was reallyfitting to what the problem was,
and maybe that meant dynamicswith SharePoint or maybe that
(12:16):
meant something else.
So that's kind of what Ienjoyed doing for a while and
that's really also the pointwhere I got exposed a lot to
Microsoft and how I ended upwith Microsoft as a technology
strategist.
I was for partners, which was apartner technology strategist
basically doing the same how doI help partners do pre-sales,
how do I help partners kind oflike scale and how do I like
(12:40):
make sure that they learn allthe new capabilities and
possibilities?
And so, interestingly enough,like, all these steps in my
career is always a buildup.
Like, if you would look at myLinkedIn, it's like some people
I'm sure would think like thisis so random from a developer to
a trainer, to pre-sales, tothen a partner technology
strategist to then a productmarketing manager in Office 365
(13:04):
for data center expansion.
How did that happen?
What's the connection there?
And for me there's a superclear connection, but like
someone looking at it withoutany context, I'm sure it's a bit
more challenging and the linkthere is really pretty simple,
like when I was a pts, when Iwas a part of technology
strategist.
Like you always look at the bigevents and you see Microsoft and
(13:26):
during the keynotes there'ssomeone doing a demo, and that
someone was typically a productmarketing manager or a technical
product marketer and I was likethat's awesome, that's the job
I want to do, because it'sclosed on technology and it
takes new technology andtranslate it into the value for
all those customers listening.
This is like the next level ofpre-sales.
(13:48):
That's what I want to do.
And so I simply looked at thetitle of these people and I
started looking at microsoftcareer side, like are there any
jobs that are this specific role?
Because I want to go do this.
I want to be that person doingthe demo, and so that was for me
, the next level of resales wasbecoming a product marketer and
doing those demos, but withinthe business app space.
(14:11):
Like that role never opened andto me that makes sense because
it was, of course, the best jobin the world, so no one would
want to leave that right.
And so I had a mentor at thattime that said, like maybe you
should like open up your eyes alittle bit more and look beyond
just Dynamics.
And that's how I ended up inOffice 365 as like a technical
product marketer there.
(14:32):
It was fun, I learned a lot.
Like it was crazy move, becausethat's the move that made me go
from Belgium to the US.
It moved me from Dynamics intothe Office 365 space.
It's a place where I had nonetwork at all, like the network
I had was all MVPs in businessapps, was all the Microsofties
in business apps.
So it was a crazy move Newcountry, new job, like new
(14:55):
technology.
But I learned a lot and it wasgreat.
I would do it again.
But I learned after a year likeokay, this isn't perfect,
because I was missing myconnection to the business,
because I was talking about datacenter expansion.
It was mostly about is my datagoing to be stored in my country
or in my region?
Because I care about thatcompliance or whatever reasons,
(15:16):
and so it was a checkbox and,while I learned a lot about
messaging this type of stuff, itwas like, yeah, I can be
passionate about it.
Messaging this type of stuff,like it was like, yeah, I can be
passionate about it.
And that's when I came back tobusiness apps, really, because I
realized, like my next job andany next job after that.
I need to make sure that it'salways around something which I
can be passionate about, andthat's going back to the common
(15:37):
thread technology and businesssomehow combined.
So I landed in the PowerPlatform space.
Like Power Apps was brand newat that time.
Power Automate was new.
They were still calleddifferent at that time, like
Flow and those type of things,and I started building demos for
like Power Platform and I likelooking back at that period and
(15:58):
then I never looked at it thatway.
But Ryan Cunningham onceintroduced me to like another
part of the team and he said hey, everyone, this is whim.
Whim has been representing thepower platform for two years
straight on every singleplatform in the like any single
stage in the world.
And I was like, well, like thatsounds exaggerated.
(16:18):
And then I started thinkingabout it.
I was like, well, maybe, butmaybe it is true in some way
right, like, yes, like at thattime I was traveling the world
with James Phillips doing hiskeynotes, doing the demos there,
either being on stage myself,either being backstage
supporting someone else to dothe demo, or someone was doing
the demo that I built for thekeynote purposes.
(16:39):
So, in a way, like Ryan, asusual, was right and like, even
though it sounded like anexaggeration, it it was in a way
, true, so it was interesting tohear someone else talk about it
that way and like get thisperspective that I didn't have
before that.
Actually, yeah, I've beenbuilding a lot of demos that
(17:00):
have been used, especially onthose early days, every single
stage across the world, andthat's kind of a fun memory to
think back of and a lot of goodkind of experiences came out of
that period as well, doing demosand doing keynotes at that
level in your mind what was thebiggest catalyst between
dynamics, crm or, you know,dynamics 365 CRM that we had
(17:24):
back then?
Mark Smith (17:26):
And I mean because at the end of the day it was low
code, right, we could easilyproduce other apps without being
customer relationshipmanagement.
But you would have seen thedifferent leaders, as I saw
right, go through pre-JamesPhillips and I feel like we were
on a steady curve.
I remember being in the Advantacampus and the kind of inside
(17:48):
joke was biz apps paid for theMicrosoft end of the year
barbecue, right.
In other words, the revenues itproduced was like it might
cover a group lunch.
You know, kind of joking,joking, joking.
And then we saw Dynamics 365come into play, the unification
(18:09):
of a lot of the applicationsfrom a go-to-market perspective,
and we saw the kind of between2016 and 2019, the coming
together of the power platformreally gotten its name power
platform 2019.
But in 2016 we saw you know itwas power apps and flow etc.
Back then, what was the biggestcatalyst going on behind the
scenes that created almost thishockey stick effect of then
(18:34):
growth and adoption around theworld?
In your mind, looking from theinside, what do you think were
the big catalysts, thattransformational piece inside
microsoft and its go-to-marketI'm not sure if you have a good
view on that.
Wim Coorevits (18:51):
I'm not sure if it's something that is actually
a decision that's made atMicrosoft right Product market
fit.
That kind of happened at somepoint with like Very important,
this technology now works for alarge amount of people.
My expertise, if I may say so,like back when I was working in
Dynamics Firm, was not salesmarketing or service Like.
(19:12):
I was super gung-ho on likethis is XRM.
You can build any relationshipmanagement with this thing, and
that was my like.
I was a strong believer in XRMback in the day and it was
always a fight to convinceothers about like hey, you're
not buying a sales tool, you'rebuying a platform.
Like that was my message all thetime and so, but it didn't pick
(19:35):
up at that time and I think alot of it was well, because the
world wasn't ready for it, thatback then because everything
needed to be bespoke or neededto be built or was better if it
was like perfect, fit orwhatsoever, and I think it's
just kind of like the worldalmost got ready for it because
of like I mean, there's multiplefactors there, right, like
(19:57):
there's oh, like it's reallyhard to get the right people to
build things.
Building things takes a longtime.
It's like that entire samestory that we had back then
around the xrm, like the buyversus built and kind of how
this is the perfect thing inbetween.
Like yes, you can buy a bus togo from a to b, but it's not
going to get you exactly from ato, exactly to b.
Or you can buy a car, which Icompared to building, like yes,
(20:20):
you buy the super expensive car,you can do everything you want
with it.
You can drive exactly a,exactly b.
Or you can do xrm buy someplatform which is like a taxi
and you pay for, like exactlywhere you get picked up and
where you get drunk guys.
So that's kind of how I used tocompare it and I think, because
of all the challenges and theworld, kind of thinking at that
(20:42):
time and kind of the need aroundresources and things need to go
faster.
I think that helped kind ofaccelerate a lot of those things
.
And Power Apps became thelow-code platform.
Part of that is just how thingsevolved and how it came
together.
In those early days withProject Sienna I considered it a
(21:05):
nice tool.
It was a pre-sales tool.
Like hey, you're going to do aCRM pre-sales or a demo for a
customer Great, why don't youstart with Project Sienna?
Because if you show like acustomized mobile app that does
exactly the specific tasks thatyou wanted to do, that the
customer wants, the customer islike this is amazing, this is
(21:27):
exactly what I need, I want itand like, yeah, but if you want
this, you first have to, ofcourse, build the platform and
buy.
Mark Smith (21:34):
CRM.
Wim Coorevits (21:34):
Yes, yes Do all these extra things on top of it,
but like it's similar to howPower BI was ICANN in the
beginning, also in pre-sales.
Oh, let's show the numbers whatit could be and what the
outcome could be and then like,okay, how do I get there?
Well, you need to do like youropportunities and your leads and
qualified things and whateverit is, whether it's like in a
(21:55):
sales scenario or salesmarketing service, or whether
it's in an XRM, like anyrelationship type of scenario.
Sorry, not direct answer toyour question.
No, that's good.
That's good.
Mark Smith (22:06):
And I learned a good thing there, because I had
never, when I always did thebuild versus buy, I never used
that analogy that you used ofbus, taxi and car, and I find
you know, because I've had beenin that pre-sales role myself
most of my career is that yourability to translate into
real-world scenarios forbusiness people is so, so, so
(22:29):
important than you know justtalking about tech.
And I love that because whatI've noticed in the co-pilot
world of the last six months andto a year that I've been
involved in it, is that thisbuild versus buy is coming into
play again, which we hadn't Ihadn't seen since 2012, 2013,
(22:49):
right where now they're going.
Co-pilot m365 is your buy,extend is another little play in
there, which is Copilot Studio,and then, of course, your build
is Foundry, and it'sinteresting that little nuance
of play and ways of thinkingabout it we can upcycle and use
it again.
Wim Coorevits (23:08):
You'll find those slide decks again.
Yes, yeah.
Mark Smith (23:11):
I've still got them in some old archives.
You know, I'm sure I have someexternal disks somewhere.
Wim Coorevits (23:16):
On OneDrive.
Mark Smith (23:22):
As I try to get everything onto one drive once
it came out and I often, youknow, I've got like 15 odd years
, I think.
Now I've stuffed back in there,and every now and again I see
something come up in apresentation.
I'm like I've got a good way ofdiagramming this, because it's
in this old slider.
We can just modernize thegraphic and and it Tell me about
what's your role now.
Wim Coorevits (23:37):
Before I answer that I was thinking when you
said like that.
One of the changes that Iwitnessed more closely to home
was when you said somethingaround like how important it was
to translate it into real kindof cases for customers.
I think that was a change thatwe did, for example, with demos
as well, where every time webuild a demo, like the
(23:57):
requirement was like start froma customer and not like Contoso
or Northwind Traders or whateverStart from an actual customer.
Yes, and then like take that andlike yes, sometimes you need to
up level that, or sometimes youneed to add like a new feature
to that, because no one has seenit yet.
But like start from an actualbusiness case to that because no
one has seen it yet.
But like start from an actualbusiness case, and that's
(24:20):
something we still do in my roletoday is like we start from a
real case, from a real customer,so good.
And then we kind of go fromthere and that's maybe a tie
into like your questions, likewhat do I do now?
Right now I'm the communitylead for business apps, so
everything which is Dynamics 365and Power Platform, and that
sounds super ambiguous, probably, but what that means is like in
(24:42):
my team I have a set ofevangelists, or really product
experts, who build demos, demosfor keynotes, the release wave
videos that you see they'rebuilt on my team together with
the studio.
Like business applicationlaunch event, all the demos that
are in kind of the presentationthere, like, are all built by
those evangelists.
So we have a set of experts,product experts, who build
(25:03):
demonstrations for keynote levelevents, let's say whether
that's a video online or whetherthat's an in-person event.
That's one set.
And then we have communityengagement.
So everything which iscommunity sites, the forums,
like for Dynamics and for PowerPlatform, are managed in my team
as well.
So that's again a set ofmanaging kind of the sites and
(25:24):
kind of the engagement we do onthat, making sure the monitoring
, moderation around the forumsand so forth.
Then you have advocacy programs.
The MVP program is one of theprograms we run in there.
Of course, mvp is a broadMicrosoft program, but we fit
into that as kind of thebusiness apps, mvps and kind of
support for that.
But also other programs likesuper users, who are most active
(25:48):
users on the forums, or usergroup leaders like you and
others who kind of have theirown local kind of user groups
and kind of want to distribute,be an evangelist as well for
Microsoft.
And then events everythingaround kind of community events,
is supported by my team as well.
So that's already like fourbuckets, if you were going
through it.
You have like evangelism, whichis really content creation.
(26:11):
You have the community forums,the site there kind of how do we
engage with the community onlike an online kind of presence,
and what comes with that aswell is like LinkedIn and
YouTube and all our social mediachannels for community.
Then you have the events likehow do we take all that content
that we created and bring it tothe people through community
(26:32):
events and support content andsend speakers, for example, for
Dynamics Mines or any of theother events like Power Platform
.
Community is really big for us.
And then all the advocacyprograms which are somehow
related to the community as wellthe MVPs, the user groups, the
super leaders, the super usersand so forth.
So that's kind of the scope asa community lead.
(26:53):
All that stuff kind of fitsinto the things that my team
does here.
Mark Smith (26:57):
So, if you look at your schedule for the year and
the big events that are on,which ones are you directly
involved in?
Because, like I see moreBizApps content in Build these
days Ignite, of course, and thenyou've got the big community
conference, like the PowerPlatform Conference in Vegas.
Are there any others that youhave your finger in, so to speak
(27:18):
?
Wim Coorevits (27:18):
Yeah, we get involved in first-party events.
We don't run them on my team,it's a marketing team that
organizes those and we typicallyget involved like oh, we need
kind of a keynote type of stuff,so we're kind of fairly
hands-off for those.
It's mostly the communityevents.
So the big ones for us, likeour Platform Community
(27:39):
Conference is our biggest one.
If you think about the Dynamicsexample, you would have like
the UG one.
What is it called Dynamics Con?
Yeah, anything in Europe LikeEuropean Power Platform
Conference.
Mark Smith (27:52):
Oh, you're involved in that as well.
Wim Coorevits (27:53):
Yes, we were last year Like every year is kind of
a new decision.
Mark Smith (27:57):
Yeah.
Wim Coorevits (27:57):
But, yes, like that's our bigger one in Europe
for Power Platform and I'minvolved, for example, in the
BizApp Summit which is happeningin Germany.
So we get involved in differentkind of levels.
And actually one of the thingswe're working on right now is
have this more like an eventtiering strategy, because
there's so many community eventsand we have limited scale on
(28:20):
the teams.
Like how do we decide whichevent you go support exactly?
And like it's not that one isbetter than the other or worse
than the other.
It's like, okay, what is kindof an objective way to make a
decision like this is one thatwe as a community are going to
get involved in more than another, and why.
And so that's something thatwe're actively, for example,
working through.
(28:40):
Like what is that frameworkthat we can use so that anytime
someone comes ask us, hey,Microsoft, can you support my
community event?
We can go to the framework andsay, oh, like looking at this,
you're a tier three communityevent.
This is how we can support you.
Or you're something else, likemaybe you should reach out to
the local Microsoft office.
(29:01):
It's never a decision about isthis a good or a bad event.
It's typically, if we could, wewould support everyone, but we
don't have the scale, we don'thave those resources.
So we need a way and we try tomake that as objective as
possible.
For the really big ones it'skind of obvious because you can
look at some of their sizes andthe outcomes they run and kind
(29:22):
of support them from there.
But we get a lot of requestsand so it's always a challenge
to kind of it's never fun to sayno.
Unfortunately, we have to sayno a lot because there's a lot
of events, which is great.
Mark Smith (29:35):
Well, with that, Wim , thank you so much for coming
on the show.
It's been a pleasure.
Wim Coorevits (29:40):
Thank you, Mark.
This was awesome.
Thank you for having me.
Mark Smith (29:43):
Hey, thanks for listening.
I'm your host, mark Smith,otherwise known as the NZ365 guy
.
Is there a guest you would liketo see on the show from
Microsoft?
Please message me on LinkedInand I'll see what I can do.
Final question for you how willyou create with Copilot today,
ka kite?
Welcome to the Co-Pilot Show, where I interview
Microsoft staff innovating withAI.
I hope you will find thispodcast educational and inspire
you to do more with this greattechnology.
Now let's get on with the show.
My guest today is Wim, someoneI've had the privilege of
knowing since 2012.
(00:23):
He was already a Microsoft MVPand I was just starting my
journey.
Wim is a remarkable individual,a gentle yet strong soul with
incredible technical expertisepaired with a kind and humble
spirit.
He's a master storyteller,using software as his canvas to
craft compelling narratives.
With years of experience, Wimhas been the creative force
(00:46):
behind some of the mostmemorable on-stage demos at
Microsoft Technology events.
I'm excited to dive into thisjourney and insights today.
You can find links to his bioand socials in the show notes
for this episode.
Welcome to the show, Wim.
Wim Coorevits (01:01):
Wow, mark.
Thank you, Good to have you on,mate.
I'm not sure how I'm going tolive up to all those
expectations from that intro,but thank you so much.
I'm happy to be here.
Mark Smith (01:11):
It's so good to have you on the show and as I've
known you for quite a long timeand I've seen your journey both
as an MVP and then, of course,inside Microsoft, where you have
had a massive impact over theyears, both behind the scenes
and, of course, on stage, doingsome amazing big event demos in
the business application spacewith Microsoft.
(01:31):
Before we get into your journey, your tech career and what
you're up to nowadays and what'stop of mind for you going into
2025, tell me a bit about food,family and fun.
Wim Coorevits (01:41):
Let me start with family.
It's basically my wife, my sonand myself here, all based in
the area of Seattle.
Family and fun.
Let me start with family.
It's basically my wife, my sonand myself here, all based in
the area of Seattle, washington.
As you can probably hear fromthe accent, I'm originally
actually from Belgium, so allthe rest of our family is still
back there and I guess we kindof abandoned them in a way to
have this role here at Microsoftat headquarters.
(02:02):
So that's the family part Iwould guess.
Like, what I like to do with myfamily is like we like to cycle
up, like there's lots ofmountain bike parks here in the
area, so we really enjoy that.
And since about a year and ayear and a half ago, I really
got into like Zwift as well.
So this indoor cycling it'slike e-gaming or e-sports as
they call it, and so I'veactually lost a lot of weight
(02:25):
just cycling Indoor.
It's safe, it's warm, it's cozy, compared to, of course, the
Seattle weather, which is, like10 months, 12 months, really bad
.
So that's the fun part Lots ofcycling, lots of mountain biking
, getting outdoors.
We have a dog as well, sothat's outdoors as well.
And then the food part likebeing Belgium, I think the
safest choice, of course, isgoing to be chocolate.
Mark Smith (02:48):
Absolutely.
And what about beer?
Wim Coorevits (02:50):
Belgium beer is pretty famous yeah it is, but
I'm not really a beer drinker,so I'll stick to chocolate,
stick to chocolate.
Chocolate works all the time,any time of the day, any
occasion.
Chocolate is a good go-to foranyone, so true.
How often do you get back toBelgium?
I think as a family, like we,would try to go every two years,
(03:12):
but I end up more often therebecause of like sometimes events
or being in the neighborhoodbecause of like work reasons.
I'll try to kind of squeeze ina visit to my family back in
Belgium as well.
Mark Smith (03:25):
Are you going back in 2025?
That's giving away thesurprises for the family, I
guess, oh of course, yes, no,I'm kidding, here's the thing I
could twist your arm, see, isthat I'm going from New Zealand
up to Slovenia for a conferencecalled Dynamics Minds, and I
went last year and they invitedme the first year.
(03:45):
This will be the third yearit's running, and I tell you
what it is the best conferenceexperience you will ever
experience in your life.
Wim Coorevits (03:54):
Like so many questions, as a result of that
I've been to a lot ofconferences.
Mark Smith (03:58):
Right, the difference with this conference
is that it's in Slovenia.
Most people can't say thatthey've been to Slovenia and
it's kind of like your hardcoretech sessions all through the
day, but the night turns intolike a carnival atmosphere and
they go hard out.
It's right on the Adriatic Sea,beautiful sunsets, you know the
(04:22):
sailboats out on the harbor.
They put up this massive stage,they bring in DJs, food, just
amazing, amazing food, andmusical and theatrics and
everything experience and it's abig deal.
Wim Coorevits (04:41):
Is it like a great vacation with there
happens to be some technicalcontent?
Mark Smith (04:46):
It's hardcore Microsoft right.
The whole thing is all around.
You know, dynamics Minds is aplay on Dynamics right 365.
The originators were more as inthe company that puts it on is
an ISV in the truest sense ofthe word.
But there's a full powerplatform track.
There's a full dynamics, ce,fno and which have also covers.
(05:08):
You know NavVision history atVC, of course, now and then
there's a business track andthere's a partner track.
It's a really robust, you know,conference.
I should see if I can get youon the invite list.
Wim Coorevits (05:21):
Yeah, how important do you think is the
location there, like, can youreplicate this somewhere else?
No, do you feel?
Mark Smith (05:26):
No Location's critical.
This ISV has done one of thesmartest things that all ISVs
over the world should take aleaf out of their playbook.
Rather than going and having abooth at any number of
conferences, right where you'rejust one in a crowded booth hall
of many people, they didsomething quite unique and that
they were like hang on, how canwe flip this on this head?
(05:47):
Could we bring all ourcustomers to us by putting on a
high value event that peoplewould want to attend, which we
will host?
And the beauty is, you know,the cost of things in Slovenia
is, I think, more economicalthan other.
But, like, if you try to runthe same event in London or
Paris or something like that, itwould be X-y, it would be quite
(06:08):
a pricey event.
So they've probably got anadvantage.
On accommodation, transportation, you know you've got planes,
trains, automobiles, ship youcan take any of those scenarios
to get there.
They all work.
I took them all last time,apart from ship.
Did I get it on a boat?
Yeah, all work.
(06:30):
I took them all last time,apart from ship.
Did I get it on a boat?
Yeah, it's the only one I did.
Ah, I did.
I did because I was in Venicebefore the event and, of course,
the only way around Veniceright is on the canal boat, so I
did do actually all modes oftransport last year.
Anyhow, highly recommend.
I'm actually going to talk tothe organizers and see if we can
get you a spot, maybe thekeynote address or something
like that.
I think there's probably muchbetter speakers for a keynote
there than I am you would lovethis, but I appreciate it and
you can go to Belgium, you know,on your way home, type thing,
(06:52):
or do your stopover throughthere.
Anyhow, I digress, I digress, Idigress.
Tell me I gave a bit in theintro of your tech career as a
Microsoft MVP and then goingblue badge and working for
Microsoft.
But take us just a little bitbefore that.
How did you become an MVP?
What were you doing at the time?
And then why did you choose togo into Microsoft?
(07:14):
And then a bit of yourMicrosoft journey.
That would be awesome.
Wim Coorevits (07:19):
Sure, I mean, I started my career as a developer
building web applications in amarketing agency and the main
thing I learned there was that Ilove to combine like technology
and business, like making thatbridge between like these
business problems and thensolving it with technology ASP,
(07:39):
vbscript, super basic and itbecame a little like after a few
years first job, like I waslike ready for the next
challenge and I accepted a roleas a trainer for NET development
so I taught other people how tobuild Windows applications, web
applications with NET and thecolleagues there.
(08:00):
They were really amazing.
There was a company called U2U.
They're based in Belgium.
They did trainings across theworld and we had multiple MVPs
for SharePoint and for othertechnologies within that company
.
So they were great examples forme on what they did During the
day they were teaching classes,but then they used that
(08:20):
knowledge as well to educate thecommunity and connect to the
community and learn them aboutgreat new technology that Max
was bringing up, and so I thinkthat kind of inspired me to go
do the same and it took a whileto kind of find kind of where I
wanted to do that but like Ilanded in, like as you know, as
an MVP in the dynamics in thebusiness apps world.
(08:40):
Again, going back to what Ilearned in my first job really
loving that combination oftechnology and business and I
was looking in how to translatethat I thought like there's no
better place than to do thatthan with business applications,
because that's what they'redesigned to do.
And so that's how I landed indynamic CRM back that day like
(09:02):
CRM 3.0.
And then we went to 4.0.
And that's when I startedreally kind of engaging in the
business app space and I starteddoing like sessions, like for
the local community in Belgiumand like starting to get engaged
in the community there.
And that's how I became an MVPreally is like out of this
passion of I'm using technologyday in, day out and then
(09:25):
leveraging that to share it withthe world.
I never thought of it that way.
I never started with, oh, Iwant to become an MVP.
It's just something that I lovedoing.
I love talking about all thestuff I learned and all the
things you could do with it, andso that's kind of how I rolled
into.
And now I'm doing this sessionfor Microsoft and now I'm going
to speak at an event, and nowI'm going to do this and I'm
(09:45):
writing a blog post orwhatsoever, and so I almost
rolled into it without trulyrealizing it, but it was all
driven by this passion formaking that bridge from
technology to the business, andthat's kind of how I ended up
becoming an MVP in that contextof being a trainer as a next
step, because we could talkprobably the entire podcast
(10:05):
about all the steps in my career.
But I think that the commonthread is really that
combination of technology andbusiness, because, like what I
learned doing those, like as aNET trainer, I started training
like Dynamics RAM courses aswell.
What I learned there was that Ilove to do introductions
(10:26):
courses as well.
What I learned there was that Ilove to do introductions.
Like I noticed in the course,like, oh, we're gonna talk about
all these amazing things andthis is what you can do with it
and that's the value.
And then, okay, now we have togo do it.
Oh, no, like, this is so boring, like all the little steps to
actually make it happen.
And then the next chapter oh,this is gonna be amazing because
there's all these amazingthings and you can do these
different types of applicationswith it and it's going to be so
(10:49):
cool and then okay, now we haveto look at the details to do it.
And so I really learned frommyself that I love to do
introductions and kind ofevangelize technology.
And that brought me intopre-sales, like when I was
looking at my next challengelike, oh well, maybe pre-sales
is my thing, because it'sexactly this type of thing where
I will look at a businessproblem that a customer has and
(11:12):
then I'll look at technology andsee how this technology can fit
to solve that problem.
And that's how I landed inpre-sales.
I was an MVP there, like Icontinued to be like an MVPvp
for dynamic serum at that time.
But my biggest plus or mybiggest value at a time was that
because of being a dot nettrainer, I had a very broad kind
(11:32):
of exposure to my acts oftechnology, a lot of colleagues
who did sharepoint, lots ofculture, pure dot net
development, and so my valuereally that I thought of as a
pre-sales was like you know,some people like if you have a
hammer, everything is a nailright.
So my value really that Ithought of as a pre-sales was
like you know, some people likeif you have a hammer, everything
is a nail right, and my valuewas like that was not my
situation because, yes, I lovedand I was super passionate about
(11:53):
dynamics, but I knew that somecases like maybe SharePoint was
better or in some cases, maybecustom development was better,
and so that was awesome in mytime as a pre-sales consultant
was really that I could look ata problem and translate or build
a solution that was reallyfitting to what the problem was,
and maybe that meant dynamicswith SharePoint or maybe that
(12:16):
meant something else.
So that's kind of what Ienjoyed doing for a while and
that's really also the pointwhere I got exposed a lot to
Microsoft and how I ended upwith Microsoft as a technology
strategist.
I was for partners, which was apartner technology strategist
basically doing the same how doI help partners do pre-sales,
how do I help partners kind oflike scale and how do I like
(12:40):
make sure that they learn allthe new capabilities and
possibilities?
And so, interestingly enough,like, all these steps in my
career is always a buildup.
Like, if you would look at myLinkedIn, it's like some people
I'm sure would think like thisis so random from a developer to
a trainer, to pre-sales, tothen a partner technology
strategist to then a productmarketing manager in Office 365
(13:04):
for data center expansion.
How did that happen?
What's the connection there?
And for me there's a superclear connection, but like
someone looking at it withoutany context, I'm sure it's a bit
more challenging and the linkthere is really pretty simple,
like when I was a pts, when Iwas a part of technology
strategist.
Like you always look at the bigevents and you see Microsoft and
(13:26):
during the keynotes there'ssomeone doing a demo, and that
someone was typically a productmarketing manager or a technical
product marketer and I was likethat's awesome, that's the job
I want to do, because it'sclosed on technology and it
takes new technology andtranslate it into the value for
all those customers listening.
This is like the next level ofpre-sales.
(13:48):
That's what I want to do.
And so I simply looked at thetitle of these people and I
started looking at microsoftcareer side, like are there any
jobs that are this specific role?
Because I want to go do this.
I want to be that person doingthe demo, and so that was for me
, the next level of resales wasbecoming a product marketer and
doing those demos, but withinthe business app space.
(14:11):
Like that role never opened andto me that makes sense because
it was, of course, the best jobin the world, so no one would
want to leave that right.
And so I had a mentor at thattime that said, like maybe you
should like open up your eyes alittle bit more and look beyond
just Dynamics.
And that's how I ended up inOffice 365 as like a technical
product marketer there.
(14:32):
It was fun, I learned a lot.
Like it was crazy move, becausethat's the move that made me go
from Belgium to the US.
It moved me from Dynamics intothe Office 365 space.
It's a place where I had nonetwork at all, like the network
I had was all MVPs in businessapps, was all the Microsofties
in business apps.
So it was a crazy move Newcountry, new job, like new
(14:55):
technology.
But I learned a lot and it wasgreat.
I would do it again.
But I learned after a year likeokay, this isn't perfect,
because I was missing myconnection to the business,
because I was talking about datacenter expansion.
It was mostly about is my datagoing to be stored in my country
or in my region?
Because I care about thatcompliance or whatever reasons,
(15:16):
and so it was a checkbox and,while I learned a lot about
messaging this type of stuff, itwas like, yeah, I can be
passionate about it.
Messaging this type of stuff,like it was like, yeah, I can be
passionate about it.
And that's when I came back tobusiness apps, really, because I
realized, like my next job andany next job after that.
I need to make sure that it'salways around something which I
can be passionate about, andthat's going back to the common
(15:37):
thread technology and businesssomehow combined.
So I landed in the PowerPlatform space.
Like Power Apps was brand newat that time.
Power Automate was new.
They were still calleddifferent at that time, like
Flow and those type of things,and I started building demos for
like Power Platform and I likelooking back at that period and
(15:58):
then I never looked at it thatway.
But Ryan Cunningham onceintroduced me to like another
part of the team and he said hey, everyone, this is whim.
Whim has been representing thepower platform for two years
straight on every singleplatform in the like any single
stage in the world.
And I was like, well, like thatsounds exaggerated.
(16:18):
And then I started thinkingabout it.
I was like, well, maybe, butmaybe it is true in some way
right, like, yes, like at thattime I was traveling the world
with James Phillips doing hiskeynotes, doing the demos there,
either being on stage myself,either being backstage
supporting someone else to dothe demo, or someone was doing
the demo that I built for thekeynote purposes.
(16:39):
So, in a way, like Ryan, asusual, was right and like, even
though it sounded like anexaggeration, it it was in a way
, true, so it was interesting tohear someone else talk about it
that way and like get thisperspective that I didn't have
before that.
Actually, yeah, I've beenbuilding a lot of demos that
(17:00):
have been used, especially onthose early days, every single
stage across the world, andthat's kind of a fun memory to
think back of and a lot of goodkind of experiences came out of
that period as well, doing demosand doing keynotes at that
level in your mind what was thebiggest catalyst between
dynamics, crm or, you know,dynamics 365 CRM that we had
(17:24):
back then?
Mark Smith (17:26):
And I mean because at the end of the day it was low
code, right, we could easilyproduce other apps without being
customer relationshipmanagement.
But you would have seen thedifferent leaders, as I saw
right, go through pre-JamesPhillips and I feel like we were
on a steady curve.
I remember being in the Advantacampus and the kind of inside
(17:48):
joke was biz apps paid for theMicrosoft end of the year
barbecue, right.
In other words, the revenues itproduced was like it might
cover a group lunch.
You know, kind of joking,joking, joking.
And then we saw Dynamics 365come into play, the unification
(18:09):
of a lot of the applicationsfrom a go-to-market perspective,
and we saw the kind of between2016 and 2019, the coming
together of the power platformreally gotten its name power
platform 2019.
But in 2016 we saw you know itwas power apps and flow etc.
Back then, what was the biggestcatalyst going on behind the
scenes that created almost thishockey stick effect of then
(18:34):
growth and adoption around theworld?
In your mind, looking from theinside, what do you think were
the big catalysts, thattransformational piece inside
microsoft and its go-to-marketI'm not sure if you have a good
view on that.
Wim Coorevits (18:51):
I'm not sure if it's something that is actually
a decision that's made atMicrosoft right Product market
fit.
That kind of happened at somepoint with like Very important,
this technology now works for alarge amount of people.
My expertise, if I may say so,like back when I was working in
Dynamics Firm, was not salesmarketing or service Like.
(19:12):
I was super gung-ho on likethis is XRM.
You can build any relationshipmanagement with this thing, and
that was my like.
I was a strong believer in XRMback in the day and it was
always a fight to convinceothers about like hey, you're
not buying a sales tool, you'rebuying a platform.
Like that was my message all thetime and so, but it didn't pick
(19:35):
up at that time and I think alot of it was well, because the
world wasn't ready for it, thatback then because everything
needed to be bespoke or neededto be built or was better if it
was like perfect, fit orwhatsoever, and I think it's
just kind of like the worldalmost got ready for it because
of like I mean, there's multiplefactors there, right, like
(19:57):
there's oh, like it's reallyhard to get the right people to
build things.
Building things takes a longtime.
It's like that entire samestory that we had back then
around the xrm, like the buyversus built and kind of how
this is the perfect thing inbetween.
Like yes, you can buy a bus togo from a to b, but it's not
going to get you exactly from ato, exactly to b.
Or you can buy a car, which Icompared to building, like yes,
(20:20):
you buy the super expensive car,you can do everything you want
with it.
You can drive exactly a,exactly b.
Or you can do xrm buy someplatform which is like a taxi
and you pay for, like exactlywhere you get picked up and
where you get drunk guys.
So that's kind of how I used tocompare it and I think, because
of all the challenges and theworld, kind of thinking at that
(20:42):
time and kind of the need aroundresources and things need to go
faster.
I think that helped kind ofaccelerate a lot of those things
.
And Power Apps became thelow-code platform.
Part of that is just how thingsevolved and how it came
together.
In those early days withProject Sienna I considered it a
(21:05):
nice tool.
It was a pre-sales tool.
Like hey, you're going to do aCRM pre-sales or a demo for a
customer Great, why don't youstart with Project Sienna?
Because if you show like acustomized mobile app that does
exactly the specific tasks thatyou wanted to do, that the
customer wants, the customer islike this is amazing, this is
(21:27):
exactly what I need, I want itand like, yeah, but if you want
this, you first have to, ofcourse, build the platform and
buy.
Mark Smith (21:34):
CRM.
Wim Coorevits (21:34):
Yes, yes Do all these extra things on top of it,
but like it's similar to howPower BI was ICANN in the
beginning, also in pre-sales.
Oh, let's show the numbers whatit could be and what the
outcome could be and then like,okay, how do I get there?
Well, you need to do like youropportunities and your leads and
qualified things and whateverit is, whether it's like in a
(21:55):
sales scenario or salesmarketing service, or whether
it's in an XRM, like anyrelationship type of scenario.
Sorry, not direct answer toyour question.
No, that's good.
That's good.
Mark Smith (22:06):
And I learned a good thing there, because I had
never, when I always did thebuild versus buy, I never used
that analogy that you used ofbus, taxi and car, and I find
you know, because I've had beenin that pre-sales role myself
most of my career is that yourability to translate into
real-world scenarios forbusiness people is so, so, so
(22:29):
important than you know justtalking about tech.
And I love that because whatI've noticed in the co-pilot
world of the last six months andto a year that I've been
involved in it, is that thisbuild versus buy is coming into
play again, which we hadn't Ihadn't seen since 2012, 2013,
(22:49):
right where now they're going.
Co-pilot m365 is your buy,extend is another little play in
there, which is Copilot Studio,and then, of course, your build
is Foundry, and it'sinteresting that little nuance
of play and ways of thinkingabout it we can upcycle and use
it again.
Wim Coorevits (23:08):
You'll find those slide decks again.
Yes, yeah.
Mark Smith (23:11):
I've still got them in some old archives.
You know, I'm sure I have someexternal disks somewhere.
Wim Coorevits (23:16):
On OneDrive.
Mark Smith (23:22):
As I try to get everything onto one drive once
it came out and I often, youknow, I've got like 15 odd years
, I think.
Now I've stuffed back in there,and every now and again I see
something come up in apresentation.
I'm like I've got a good way ofdiagramming this, because it's
in this old slider.
We can just modernize thegraphic and and it Tell me about
what's your role now.
Wim Coorevits (23:37):
Before I answer that I was thinking when you
said like that.
One of the changes that Iwitnessed more closely to home
was when you said somethingaround like how important it was
to translate it into real kindof cases for customers.
I think that was a change thatwe did, for example, with demos
as well, where every time webuild a demo, like the
(23:57):
requirement was like start froma customer and not like Contoso
or Northwind Traders or whateverStart from an actual customer.
Yes, and then like take that andlike yes, sometimes you need to
up level that, or sometimes youneed to add like a new feature
to that, because no one has seenit yet.
But like start from an actualbusiness case to that because no
one has seen it yet.
But like start from an actualbusiness case, and that's
(24:20):
something we still do in my roletoday is like we start from a
real case, from a real customer,so good.
And then we kind of go fromthere and that's maybe a tie
into like your questions, likewhat do I do now?
Right now I'm the communitylead for business apps, so
everything which is Dynamics 365and Power Platform, and that
sounds super ambiguous, probably, but what that means is like in
(24:42):
my team I have a set ofevangelists, or really product
experts, who build demos, demosfor keynotes, the release wave
videos that you see they'rebuilt on my team together with
the studio.
Like business applicationlaunch event, all the demos that
are in kind of the presentationthere, like, are all built by
those evangelists.
So we have a set of experts,product experts, who build
(25:03):
demonstrations for keynote levelevents, let's say whether
that's a video online or whetherthat's an in-person event.
That's one set.
And then we have communityengagement.
So everything which iscommunity sites, the forums,
like for Dynamics and for PowerPlatform, are managed in my team
as well.
So that's again a set ofmanaging kind of the sites and
(25:24):
kind of the engagement we do onthat, making sure the monitoring
, moderation around the forumsand so forth.
Then you have advocacy programs.
The MVP program is one of theprograms we run in there.
Of course, mvp is a broadMicrosoft program, but we fit
into that as kind of thebusiness apps, mvps and kind of
support for that.
But also other programs likesuper users, who are most active
(25:48):
users on the forums, or usergroup leaders like you and
others who kind of have theirown local kind of user groups
and kind of want to distribute,be an evangelist as well for
Microsoft.
And then events everythingaround kind of community events,
is supported by my team as well.
So that's already like fourbuckets, if you were going
through it.
You have like evangelism, whichis really content creation.
(26:11):
You have the community forums,the site there kind of how do we
engage with the community onlike an online kind of presence,
and what comes with that aswell is like LinkedIn and
YouTube and all our social mediachannels for community.
Then you have the events likehow do we take all that content
that we created and bring it tothe people through community
(26:32):
events and support content andsend speakers, for example, for
Dynamics Mines or any of theother events like Power Platform
.
Community is really big for us.
And then all the advocacyprograms which are somehow
related to the community as wellthe MVPs, the user groups, the
super leaders, the super usersand so forth.
So that's kind of the scope asa community lead.
(26:53):
All that stuff kind of fitsinto the things that my team
does here.
Mark Smith (26:57):
So, if you look at your schedule for the year and
the big events that are on,which ones are you directly
involved in?
Because, like I see moreBizApps content in Build these
days Ignite, of course, and thenyou've got the big community
conference, like the PowerPlatform Conference in Vegas.
Are there any others that youhave your finger in, so to speak
(27:18):
?
Wim Coorevits (27:18):
Yeah, we get involved in first-party events.
We don't run them on my team,it's a marketing team that
organizes those and we typicallyget involved like oh, we need
kind of a keynote type of stuff,so we're kind of fairly
hands-off for those.
It's mostly the communityevents.
So the big ones for us, likeour Platform Community
(27:39):
Conference is our biggest one.
If you think about the Dynamicsexample, you would have like
the UG one.
What is it called Dynamics Con?
Yeah, anything in Europe LikeEuropean Power Platform
Conference.
Mark Smith (27:52):
Oh, you're involved in that as well.
Wim Coorevits (27:53):
Yes, we were last year Like every year is kind of
a new decision.
Mark Smith (27:57):
Yeah.
Wim Coorevits (27:57):
But, yes, like that's our bigger one in Europe
for Power Platform and I'minvolved, for example, in the
BizApp Summit which is happeningin Germany.
So we get involved in differentkind of levels.
And actually one of the thingswe're working on right now is
have this more like an eventtiering strategy, because
there's so many community eventsand we have limited scale on
(28:20):
the teams.
Like how do we decide whichevent you go support exactly?
And like it's not that one isbetter than the other or worse
than the other.
It's like, okay, what is kindof an objective way to make a
decision like this is one thatwe as a community are going to
get involved in more than another, and why.
And so that's something thatwe're actively, for example,
working through.
(28:40):
Like what is that frameworkthat we can use so that anytime
someone comes ask us, hey,Microsoft, can you support my
community event?
We can go to the framework andsay, oh, like looking at this,
you're a tier three communityevent.
This is how we can support you.
Or you're something else, likemaybe you should reach out to
the local Microsoft office.
(29:01):
It's never a decision about isthis a good or a bad event.
It's typically, if we could, wewould support everyone, but we
don't have the scale, we don'thave those resources.
So we need a way and we try tomake that as objective as
possible.
For the really big ones it'skind of obvious because you can
look at some of their sizes andthe outcomes they run and kind
(29:22):
of support them from there.
But we get a lot of requestsand so it's always a challenge
to kind of it's never fun to sayno.
Unfortunately, we have to sayno a lot because there's a lot
of events, which is great.
Mark Smith (29:35):
Well, with that, Wim , thank you so much for coming
on the show.
It's been a pleasure.
Wim Coorevits (29:40):
Thank you, Mark.
This was awesome.
Thank you for having me.
Mark Smith (29:43):
Hey, thanks for listening.
I'm your host, mark Smith,otherwise known as the NZ365 guy
.
Is there a guest you would liketo see on the show from
Microsoft?
Please message me on LinkedInand I'll see what I can do.
Final question for you how willyou create with Copilot today,
ka kite?
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