News

Microsoft Teases HQ Dev Conference Workflows 'Never Shown Publicly Before'

• By David Ramel
• 06/23/2025

Mads Kristensen, Microsoft's principal product manager for Visual Studio, will demonstrate "workflows we've never shown publicly before" at the Aug. 4-8 VSLive! developer conference being held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

"I'm teaming up with the Visual Studio engineering team to bring you fresh, powerful demos that will reshape how you think about building and debugging software," said Kristensen in a post today, adding "I can't wait to share them with you."

In fact, Kristensen, known for churning out useful extensions that often get baked into the IDE, will be demonstrating the team's new goodies while keynoting Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ, and benefitting from the conference's Microsoft partnership, he will be accompanied by a host of Redmond-based experts That means he'll be helming a conference he has long experience with.

"A long time ago, I stood in a packed room at VS Live! and watched developers erupt in applause after a debugging demo shaved hours off a real-world problem," he recalled. "That was the moment I realized this wasn't just a conference -- it was a place where developers and toolmakers come together to push the craft forward."

He added: "This is more than just a developer event. It's the one time each year when the Visual Studio,GitHub and Azure engineering team s open our doors, share what we're working on, and connect directly with the developers we build for."

Also, as we reported earlier, there's a special discount for Visual Studio subscribers.

The top six reasons to attend, he said, include:

• Kick Off with My Keynote and Exclusive Visual Studio Demos
  I'm teaming up with the Visual Studio engineering team to bring you fresh, powerful demos that will reshape how you think about building and debugging software. These are workflows we've never shown publicly before -- and I can't wait to share them with you.
• Unlock the Power of Copilot Agent Mode + MCP
  Copilot's new Agent Mode isn't just a concept -- it's live, extensible, and deeply integrated into Visual Studio. At VS Live!, we'll show you how to use it to handle multi-step dev tasks, integrate Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, and turn GitHub Copilot into an AI teammate that actually gets things done.
• Only 400 Spots Left for This Exclusive On-Campus Event
  VS Live! Redmond is intentionally smaller and more intimate than most developer conferences -- and it's held right here in Building 33 on the Microsoft campus, home to the Visual Studio product team. Fewer than 400 seats remain. If you want in, now's the time to register.
• Meet the Experts: Visual Studio, GitHub, and Azure
  We're hosting a special 'Meet the Experts' experience where you can talk directly with the PMs and engineers building your tools. No booths. No filters. Just honest, developer-to-developer conversations about what's working, what's not, and what's next.
• Help Shape the Future of Visual Studio
  We've carved out time for a dedicated feedback session with the Visual Studio IDE team. Bring your questions, feature ideas, and wish lists -- we want to hear them. Your voice will help shape how Visual Studio continues to evolve.
• 70+ Sessions. 39 Microsoft Speakers. Hands-On Everything.
  From .NET and Azure to GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Fabric, you'll get access to deep technical sessions, hands-on labs, and hallway conversations with folks who build the tech. This isn't high-level theory -- it's practical, real-world content you can apply the moment you get back to work.

As the VSLive! conference series is presented by the parent company of Visual Studio Magazine, we also enjoy special access to Microsoft and other experts, and we've been publishing a series of Q&A articles to give readers a taste of the show, its topics and its presenters:

• Empowering AI Applications with Vector Search in SQL Server and Azure Cosmos DB: This article previews Leonard Lobel's session on how developers can add AI-powered semantic search to existing applications using vector search and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) in SQL Server and Azure Cosmos DB -- without needing a separate AI stack. It explores how to generate and store text embeddings, optimize vector search performance, and handle implementation challenges
• Predicting the Future Using Azure Machine Learning: This article previews Eric D. Boyd's session on building predictive applications with Azure Machine Learning. It covers key features of the platform -- including AutoML, deployment, monitoring, and security -- while offering practical tips for bringing predictive capabilities into real-world solutions even without deep data science expertise.
• Next-gen SQL Projects with Microsoft.Build.Sql: This article previews Drew Skwiers-Koballa's session on modernizing SQL project workflows with Microsoft.Build.Sql. It explains how the next-gen SDK improves version control, enhances DevOps integration, and supports advanced deployment and validation strategies -- helping developers treat database changes like application code and streamline CI/CD pipelines.
• Creating Business Applications Using Blazor: This article previews Michael Washington's session on building modern business apps with Blazor. It explores key Blazor concepts -- binding, routing, JavaScript interop -- and covers techniques for integrating .NET libraries, optimizing performance, supporting offline scenarios with WebAssembly, and implementing secure authentication using Microsoft Entra and Azure B2C.
• Mastering Blazor Authentication and Authorization: This article previews Rockford Lhotka's session on securing Blazor applications across server-side, WebAssembly, and .NET MAUI Hybrid scenarios. It explains how to implement flexible authentication and fine-grained authorization using identity and claims, and provides insights into modernizing legacy apps with Blazor while balancing cross-platform requirements and secure user experience.