August 13th, 2025
0 reactions

From Redmond to San Diego: VS Live! Highlights, Session Examples, and What’s Next

Jim Harrer
Senior Product Marketing Manager

There’s something special about hosting developers at Microsoft HQ — and this year’s Visual Studio Live! Redmond reminded me why I love these events. The energy in every room was electric. From the moment the first session kicked off, developers leaned in, asked smart, challenging questions, and took every opportunity to connect with the Product Managers and engineers from Visual Studio, Azure, and GitHub Copilot.

Between sessions, the hallways were buzzing. Right after the Experts Meet & Greet, one speaker shared a story that stuck with me:

“A customer came up to me and said: All those paper cuts that Mads showed that are being fixed with vNext are nothing compared to the complete gamechanger that Copilot is for developing. I’m going back and begging for it at my company.”

Moments like that are exactly why these in-person events matter — they spark conversations that turn into real momentum back at the office.

Watch the Microsoft Sessions On-Demand

If you couldn’t make it to Redmond (or just want to revisit your favorites), we’ve made the Microsoft-led sessions available on YouTube. You’ll find keynotes, deep dives, and practical demos from the teams behind Visual Studio, Azure, and GitHub Copilot.  Please note, the first 10 videos are available today and more will be added in the coming days, so keep checking back for new content or turn on YouTube notifications.

🎥 Watch the playlist here — your front-row seat to Redmond’s best moments.

Session Highlights – Just a Few Examples from a Packed Agenda

With more than 70 sessions led by 39 incredible Microsoft speakers, the week was filled with valuable insights, hands-on learning, and memorable moments. Every session had its own takeaways, but here are just a few examples to give you a taste of what you can expect from VS Live! events — it really was a fantastic lineup of talented, passionate speakers.  Here are just a few available now in the playlist, with more added every day. 

Kicking off bright and early Tuesday morning, Harshada and Jessie energized the audience with demos of the latest productivity boosts, AI-assisted debugging, and smarter Git tooling — showing practical ways to make every day in the IDE more efficient.

Developers loved seeing the little frustrations we’ve all lived with get smoothed away — and how those changes, paired with Copilot, can dramatically speed up the inner loop.

A high-energy solo session that showed how to build cutting-edge, next-generation AI applications using .NET and Azure.

In this demo-heavy session, come along on an end-to-end journey of the latest tools, tips, and Github Copilot tricks VS provides to help make you a more productive .NET developer.

This session highlights powerful AI features from recent updates that streamline everyday workflows, including both automatic agent modes and the seamlessly integrated Copilot experiences inside the editor.

See You in San Diego – And Save Big

Visual Studio subscribers unlock exclusive pricing at https://my.visualstudio.com. Just sign in with your subscriber ID, click on Benefits | Professional Development – then grab the Priority code off the Visual Studio LIVE! Events tile.

Not a subscriber? No problem. Use Priority Code VSLIVE2025 at checkout on the VS Live! San Diego event page to save up to $500 on registration.

San Diego offers a full week of deep technical learning, hands-on sessions, and the chance to connect directly with the engineers behind Visual Studio, Azure, and GitHub Copilot — and you can’t beat the San Diego venue in September.

Whether you’re a long-time Visual Studio subscriber or just starting to explore GitHub Copilot and Azure AI, this is your chance to connect with the people building the tools you use every day — and the community that makes it all worth it.

Author

Jim Harrer
Senior Product Marketing Manager

Jim Harrer is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, with a focus on the Visual Studio Family. When he's not working, Jim loves training his Labradoodle, Coco, who excels in Agility Training and Scent Detection. Approachable and always eager to connect, Jim is always open to meeting with developers on LinkedIn

0 comments