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Microsoft Highlights Visual Studio Live! Event Lineup and Longtime Developer Community Role
Visual Studio Live!, the long-running developer conference series for Microsoft-platform developers, still has several 2026 events ahead as Microsoft publishes a new look at why the conference has remained part of the developer training calendar.
As of June 18, 2026, the March Las Vegas event has already taken place, but the official Visual Studio Live! calendar continues with VSLive! at Microsoft HQ, scheduled for July 27-31, 2026, at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Wash.; VSLive! San Diego, scheduled for Sept. 14-18, 2026, at the Bahia Resort Hotel; and the Orlando VSLive! program, part of Live! 360 Tech Con, scheduled for Nov. 15-20, 2026, at Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando.
[Click on image for larger view.] VSLive! (source: Microsoft).
The Redmond event is the most Microsoft-specific stop in that lineup. Its official page lists five days of training on Microsoft's campus, with tracks spanning .NET, full-stack Web development, cloud and microservices, AI, data and analytics, DevOps and modern software engineering. It also lists hands-on labs, in-depth workshops, a two-day hackathon, Microsoft campus tours, Ask the Experts sessions and keynotes from Microsoft leaders.
That upcoming calendar gives current context to a Microsoft MVP Blog post, "Behind the Longevity of Visual Studio Live!: The People, the Craft, and the Community," which looks at the people and community behind the conference series.
Longevity and Practical Content
The Microsoft post frames Visual Studio Live!, also known as VSLive!, around continuity, practical technical judgment and access to experienced speakers. It focuses on how a developer conference survives multiple waves of platform change while maintaining the trust of developers working on Microsoft technologies.
The post includes comments from Andrew Brust and Rockford Lhotka, both longtime VSLive! contributors. Brust describes the conference's predecessor, VBITS, as an early face-to-face anchor for the developer community. Lhotka recalls the value of having Microsoft product people and third-party experts in the same place, a model that continues in the current conference format.
Microsoft notes that Visual Studio Live! has been under 1105 Communications for more than 20 years and is now part of the company's Converge360 division. The post traces the event's roots to VBITS, the Visual Basic Insiders Technical Summit founded by Jim Fawcette and Fawcette Technical Publications, but the main point is continuity across shifts in Microsoft's developer platform.
Balancing New Technology and Enterprise Reality
The Microsoft developer platform has moved through Visual Basic, Visual Studio, .NET, cloud, Azure and now AI-assisted development. The MVP Blog post says VSLive! has adapted to those shifts while trying not to simply chase every new technology trend before developers are ready to use it in production environments.
That theme appears in Brust's comments about enterprise adoption. The content can change, but the event still has to reflect how enterprise developers evaluate and adopt technology. The result is an agenda that covers what is coming while also addressing the systems, constraints and timelines that development teams already have.
Lhotka points to Azure as one example. VSLive! covered Azure years before many attendees were ready for it, he says, even when those sessions did not necessarily draw the largest rooms. Over time, cloud development became central to the Microsoft developer stack, and the earlier coverage became part of the conference's longer technical arc.
The same pattern now applies to AI. Developers are being asked to evaluate GitHub Copilot, AI agents, Azure OpenAI and related tooling while still maintaining existing applications and delivery schedules. The Microsoft post presents VSLive! as a setting where future-facing topics and production-focused questions can be addressed together.
Why the In-Person Format Still Matters
Another theme in the Microsoft post is interaction. Speakers are described less as distant presenters and more as colleagues who remain available for questions, hallway conversations, lunch-table discussions and follow-ups after sessions.
That overlaps with Microsoft's Visual Studio Blog coverage from January, which argued that in-person learning still provides something recorded sessions cannot. Microsoft said 19 VSLive! Orlando sessions posted to the Visual Studio YouTube channel drew nearly 30,000 holiday views, while also pointing to immersion, hands-on labs and real-time questions as reasons developers continue to attend live events.
The format supports that approach. Microsoft has described VSLive! events as intentionally smaller than many large industry shows, often around 500 developers or fewer, with full-day hands-on labs on Monday and Friday and deep technical sessions during the middle of the week. Access to speakers and Microsoft-platform experts is part of the event's structure.
The Visual Studio Magazine Connection
Visual Studio Live! is produced by Converge360, a division of 1105 Communications, the parent company of Visual Studio Magazine
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.