Heading to Paris? The conversations that will matter at Directions EMEA 2026

Quick answer: Directions EMEA 2026 runs from 27 to 29 October at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. For Business Central partners, the conversations that matter most will be about delivery capacity, the NAV, GP and AX upgrade backlog, release waves for ISVs, Copilot readiness and how to staff projects. Here is what to expect and what to ask.

The keynotes in Paris will set the Business Central roadmap for the year. The hallway conversations will decide who delivers it.

From 27 to 29 October, the Business Central channel meets at the Palais des Congrès for Directions EMEA 2026. If you are going as a partner, an ISV or a reseller, these are the conversations we expect to hear again and again.

When projects outgrow the team

It is the most common story in the Business Central channel right now. Sales had a good year. Delivery is stretched. Experienced consultants are slow to hire, slow to onboard and easy to lose, so partners push start dates back or quietly turn work down.

The partners who handle this well usually have one thing in common. They decided in advance who they would call when a project lands and the team is already busy, instead of working it out under pressure.

The upgrade list nobody has time for

Most partners carry a list of long-standing clients still on Dynamics NAV, GP or AX on premises. Each one is a cloud project waiting to happen. Each one also competes for the same consultants as new implementations, so the list gets longer every quarter.

In Paris you will hear three ways partners are dealing with it:

1. Run upgrades as a program. A repeatable approach and a dedicated team, instead of treating each client as a one-off.
2. Start with the code. Converting old customizations to AL extensions is usually the slowest part, so they tackle it first.
3. Bring in help for the volume. The senior team stays on new deals while a delivery partner works through the backlog.

For ISVs, it is the release wave again

Two Business Central release waves a year means two rounds of preview testing, regression checks, compatibility fixes and Microsoft Marketplace (formerly AppSource) validation, on top of the features customers are waiting for.

Many ISV teams end up spending more of each wave keeping the app current than moving it forward. If that sounds familiar, the question to take to Paris is simple: what would you ship next quarter if someone else handled the routine work?

Copilot will be on every stand. The real questions are smaller.

AI will be the loudest topic in the expo hall. Most of the useful Copilot conversations, though, will not be about what the technology can do. They will be about whether a client is ready for it.

Who has the right permissions? Is the data clean enough for an agent to act on? Which process goes first, and who supports it once it is live? That setup work is unglamorous, and it decides whether the AI gets used or ignored. Beyond the built-in features, more partners are now asked for custom Business Central agents designed around a specific client process.

Hire, partner or say no

Behind all of this sits one business decision: how do you grow delivery without growing fixed cost at the same pace? Most partners now mix delivery models. A permanent core team, staff augmentation for the peaks, white label delivery for whole projects, and a small pilot to test a new partner before trusting them with a key client.

If you are weighing those options, three questions are worth asking anyone you meet in Paris:

• When did extra capacity work out better than another permanent hire?
• What did you agree before another firm worked on your client, under your name?
• How did you test a delivery partner without risking the relationship?

How do you get the most out of Directions EMEA 2026?

A few habits make the difference between a busy three days and a useful one:

• Book meetings through the Directions Events app before you arrive. Hoping to bump into someone rarely works with thousands of attendees.
• Bring one specific problem. An upgrade backlog or a release wave makes it easy for others to share what worked for them.
• Write your notes the same evening. By day three, names and details blur.
• Send the first follow-up within 48 hours. Most event conversations go nowhere simply because nobody writes first.

See you in Paris

Our CEO, Zaid Tariq, will be at Directions EMEA 2026 for all three days, and at Microsoft Convergence 2026 in Miami in December.

Since 2016, Dynamics 360 has delivered Microsoft Dynamics 365 projects for businesses directly and behind Microsoft partners, ISVs and resellers, under their name. That includes:

• Functional and technical specialists to extend your team
• White-label delivery of whole projects
• Custom Business Central agents and Copilot features
• AL development, release-wave testing and Microsoft Marketplace support
• NAV, GP and AX upgrades, and managed support

If any of these conversations sound like your year, Zaid would like to hear about it. Book 15 minutes with him before or during the event.