DynamicsCon Regional: Ohio Valley

DUG is excited to bring a DynamicsCon Regional focused on Microsoft Dynamics 365 (BC, FO/FSC, CE/CRM), Power Platform, and AI!
About this Event

This event is great for professionals working within the broader Microsoft ecosystem. The event will feature dedicated tracks across Power Platform, Customer Engagement, Business Central, Finance & Operations, and AI, designed to support learning, innovation, and real-world application across Microsoft business applications.

Two days full of:

• Cutting-edge content across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and AI
• Local presenters sharing their expertise
• Discussions and networking over free coffee, breakfast, and a lively happy hour
• Opportunities to meet sponsors and explore tools, services, and partnership opportunities across the Microsoft ecosystem

Want to get involved?

• Interested in speaking? Submit a session here! Session submissions close June 12, 2026.
• Interested in sponsoring? Fill out the form here and our Sponsorship Sales Manager will be in touch.

We’re also excited to offer additional community Meetups alongside the event:

• Women in Tech Meetup (Aug 25, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM) — includes a free lunch and join fellow professionals for networking and conversation. Register here!
• Marketing Meetup (Aug 26, 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM) — includes a free lunch and focused discussion for marketing professionals. Register here!

Need a hotel? Check out our discounted room block rate just for you here! Book by July 27, 2026.

So, what are you waiting for? Join us for two days of education, inspiration, and fun at this can't-miss event!

Day 1 - Aug 25

🕑: 01:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Check In Opens - Mingling with Sponsors
🕑: 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Opening Keynote: AI, Anxiety, and the Human Cost of Acceleration
Host: Aubrey Wade

Info: Employee engagement is declining, burnout rising, and leaders face constant disruption. AI is often framed as a solution, but many employees experience it as added uncertainty and anxiety.

This session explores the human impact of rapid AI adoption amid global instability, financial pressure, and constant change. The core challenge is not AI itself, but unmanaged acceleration.

Without transparency, governance, and a human-centered approach, AI can erode trust. When implemented thoughtfully, it can reduce friction and support employees.

Attendees will gain a framework for responsible AI adoption that balances innovation with trust, dignity, and workforce needs. The future of work will be shaped by AI, but its impact depends on how it is used.

🕑: 02:30 PM - 02:45 PM
Networking Break with Sponsors
🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM
BC: Stop Reinventing the Wheel: When to Customize vs. Trust BC Solutions
Host: Paulina Soto & Ed Willoughby

Info: Customization was often the default in NAV, but with Business Central, every customization can make future upgrades more complex. Manufacturers now face an important decision: build custom solutions or leverage the growing AppSource ecosystem.

In this session, we'll compare common manufacturing scenarios where customization is often requested and explore when a Business Central ISV extension may be the better long-term choice. You'll learn a practical framework for evaluating customizations, reviewing AppSource solutions, and testing them effectively before making a decision.

Attendees will leave with:

A framework for deciding when to customize vs. use an ISV solution
An overview of ISV categories for common manufacturing needs
A sandbox testing checklist for evaluating extensions
Confidence to make informed customization decisions.

🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM
CE: Strengthen Your Speaking Skills
Host: Sammie Walker Herrera

Info: If you’re aspiring to higher levels of leadership but find communication and confidence to be barriers, this workshop is for you. In this interactive session, Sammie Walker Herrera will guide attendees to strengthen their public speaking skills using a proven speaking structure and thoughtful feedback.
The goal is to empower attendees to build authentic connections through their voice, transforming speaking stress into confidence. This fun, non-judgmental space will nurture creativity, inclusivity, and personal growth, helping participants leave as more impactful speakers ready to foster stronger relationships.

🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM
FO: From Invoice to Settlement: Reducing Tax, FX, and Payment Risk in Dynamics
Host: Tiffany Allen

Info: As organizations expand globally, financial complexity grows across tax, currency, and payments. For many Ohio Valley companies, cross-border suppliers, multi-entity structures, and FX exposure are now routine. In many Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain environments, tax, invoicing, approvals, FX, and payments remain disconnected, creating exceptions, margin leakage, delayed visibility, and compliance risk.

This session introduces a connected finance approach that links invoice processing, tax validation, approvals, FX exposure, and settlement into one streamlined framework.

We’ll explore how AI and modern finance tools improve accuracy, detect anomalies earlier, reduce exceptions, and strengthen audit readiness and visibility into FX and payment risk.

Attendees will leave with a practical framework to simplify finance operations, improve control, and scale without adding headcount.

🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM
PP: Power Automate for Small Businesses & Non-Profits
Host: Saran Lendzian

Info: Small businesses and non-profits have unique needs, but enterprise tools are often too complex. This session introduces how Power Automate with SharePoint Lists can help build simple, customized workflows using tools already included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, or Premium—no additional licensing required.

We’ll cover Power Automate basics, practical examples, and best practices for building effective flows, along with real-world use cases. Attendees will also take part in a guided brainstorming discussion to explore how these tools can be applied in their own organizations.

Designed for beginners in small to mid-sized businesses and non-profits, this session is open to anyone interested in Power Automate and SharePoint integrations. Attendees will leave with practical ideas and foundational skills to start automating their processes.

🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:30 PM
AI: Which Microsoft Agent?
Host: Shane Young

Info: Copilot, Cowork, SharePoint AI, Copilot Studio, Agent Builder... there are a lot of different types of Microsoft AI agents so how do you know which one?

Join me in this session as we talk about all of the different types of agents in the Microsoft Ecosystem and how/when to use each one. The idea is we don't have time to go deep but we do have time to go wide. So if you find yourself asking should I use Copilot chat or Cowork or Copilot Studio or something new they just announced, then this session is for you.

And, no death by PowerPoint. I will show you different agents and talk about real use cases we are seeing people use them for. DEMOS!

🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:15 PM
BC: Sponsored Session by Yaveon
🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:15 PM
CE: Sponsored Session by Dynatech
🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:15 PM
FO: Sponsored Session by SignUp Software
🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:15 PM
PP: Sponsored Session
🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:15 PM
AI: Sponsored Session by Vertex
🕑: 04:30 PM - 05:15 PM
BC: 404: Motivation Not Found - Fixing Motivation in the AI Age

Info: Leaders are facing a new kind of workforce fatigue driven by digital acceleration, AI adoption, and constant context switching. What looks like “low motivation” is often a systems design problem, not a people problem.

Modern teams operate in Anthro-Complex systems where people, AI tools, workflows, and culture interact. When misaligned, these systems create cognitive overload, tool fatigue, and lost momentum.

This session explores why motivation breaks down in AI-mediated workplaces and how leaders can fix it using a practical, human-centered framework. With 20+ years of experience leading distributed teams, we’ll translate complexity into actionable strategies.

Attendees will learn how to reduce cognitive load, improve collaboration, and design sustainable human-AI systems.

Takeaways: diagnosing system dysfunction, improving AI-era motivation, reducing overload, and building healthier team performance.

🕑: 04:30 PM - 05:15 PM
CE: Modernizing Sales Compensation in Microsoft Without Spreadsheets
Host: Troy Simpson

Info: Sales compensation is one of the last critical revenue processes still managed in spreadsheets for many Microsoft Dynamics customers. As organizations scale, manual commission management creates errors, delays, audit risk, and lack of visibility for sales teams and finance. This session explores how Dynamics customers can modernize incentive compensation by automating commission calculations, improving payout accuracy, and providing real time earnings visibility across sales, finance, and RevOps. Attendees will learn practical approaches to replacing manual processes, integrating compensation with their Dynamics environment, and building scalable compensation operations that support growth without increasing operational overhead.

🕑: 04:30 PM - 05:15 PM
FO: WMS for the Rest of Us: Because You’re Not Running Amazon
Host: Michael Obermire

Info: For companies early in the WMS journey, the "agentic warehouse" being marketed to us and the daily reality of getting product out the door are wildly different things. Most of us are not trying to run Amazon's warehouse. This session is specifically for small to mid-market companies considering or starting a WMS implementation, those coming from systems without reservations or license plates, for those with homegrown systems or who rely on legacy knowledge more than they'd like to admit. We'll focus on what's actually needed on day 1 (hint: it's not AI), and what can wait until day 365. It's easy to feel like you're falling behind if you aren't using the newest features. This session aims to change that mindset.

🕑: 04:30 PM - 05:15 PM
PP: Functional to Fantastic: Elevating Power Apps with PFC Gallery Controls
Host: Felice Marcus

Info: In this interactive and visually engaging session, we’ll explore how PFC Gallery Controls can transform standard applications into intuitive, dynamic user experiences.

Using real-world examples, we’ll walk through two powerful implementations:

• A Kanban-style board for tracking order status in a clean, visual workflow
• A hierarchical gallery control that allows users to seamlessly explore relationships between samples, orders, and specimens in a lab

Beyond demos, we’ll cover the fundamentals of implementing and configuring PFC Gallery Controls.

This session isn’t just a walkthrough, it’s interactive. Participants will brainstorm and discuss how these design patterns could be applied to their own businesses and systems, sparking new ideas and approaches.

If you're looking to move beyond basic forms and grids and deliver applications that engage—and wow—users, this session will inspire and equip you to do just that.

🕑: 04:30 PM - 05:15 PM
AI: Agentic Analytics for Dynamics 365: Human-AI Decision Intelligence
Host: Sushen Sarkar

Info: Organizations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 generate large volumes of operational data, but turning it into actionable insight is often slow and manual. This session introduces agentic analytics, where AI agents help explore data, detect anomalies, and generate insights to speed up decision-making.

Attendees will learn how human-AI collaboration can reduce reporting effort, improve analysis, and support faster decisions. The session also briefly covers architecture and key considerations like governance, validation, and automation bias.

Designed for Dynamics 365 professionals and business leaders looking to understand how AI can enhance analytics and decision intelligence.

🕑: 05:15 PM - 06:30 PM
Community Reception Sponsored by Sonata
Day 2 - Aug 26

🕑: 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM
Breakfast Sponsored by Continia
🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:15 AM
BC: You’re Live — Now What? The Reporting Reality After BC Go-Live
Host: Savannah Dill

Info: Go-live is often treated as the finish line for reporting — but in reality, it is the starting point.

This session focuses on the reporting phase that most Business Central projects underestimate: post-go-live analytics. We will explore the typical reporting maturity journey, common post-implementation pitfalls, and how organizations evolve from operational reporting to strategic insight.

Attendees will learn how to build a reporting roadmap, prioritize high-impact scenarios, and position Power BI as a long-term value driver rather than a one-time deliverable.

🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:15 AM
CE: Educational Session

Info: We are currently accepting session submissions for this event! If you have knowledge, experience, or insights you'd like to share with the community, we encourage you to submit a session proposal. Educational sessions can cover product tips and tricks, customer success stories, implementation experiences, best practices, industry trends, leadership topics, and more.

Please submit your session proposal by June 12 using the following link: (https://sessionize.com/dynamicscon-regional-ohio-valley/).

All submitted sessions will be reviewed by our event planning committee. Final session selections will be confirmed and published on June 19. We appreciate your interest in contributing to the event and helping create a valuable learning experience for attendees.

🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:15 AM
FO: Alltech Customer Success Story
Host: Jim Howard

Info: Over the past five years, Alltech, a leading global AgTech company headquartered in Nicholasville, Kentucky, has implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations across its worldwide business. In this session, we’ll share our transformation journey—the good, the bad, and the ugly—including key lessons learned, challenges overcome, and the opportunities that emerged along the way. We’ll also look ahead at what’s next on our roadmap, including existing and planned AI agents to automate sales order entry, inventory management, and other high-impact business processes.

🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:15 AM
PP: Power Platform Governance Rewritten: What IT Leaders Need to Know
Host: Shikhar Agarwal

Info: Microsoft’s April 2026 Power Platform governance whitepaper marks a major shift in how organizations govern low-code and AI at scale. Instead of relying on reactive, IT-led enforcement, governance is now embedded directly into the platform and applied automatically from the moment makers begin working.

This session explores what that change means in practice: how to align your governance model to Microsoft’s new zone-based framework, move from reactive oversight to proactive management, and leverage new visibility tools to support executive discussions on AI adoption, ROI, and risk. We’ll also address common challenges organizations still face and where strong leadership remains essential.

Whether you're starting or maturing your governance approach, this session provides a strategic lens to make faster, better decisions.

🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:15 AM
AI: Securing Your MCP Server - Don't Forget it When Securing AI Agents
Host: Frank Vukovits

Info: As agentic AI use in Dynamics grows, securing the underlying Model Context Protocol (MCP) server becomes critical, as it is often the weakest link in the system.

This session explores best practices for building and securing MCP servers, including key questions to ask even when using vendor-provided solutions like Microsoft. Attendees will learn how to ensure AI agents only access the minimum necessary data and resources.

Designed for anyone working with AI agents in Dynamics who wants to strengthen enterprise security and reduce data risk.

🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
BC: Educational Session
Host: David Laster
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
CE: Educational Session

Info: We are currently accepting session submissions for this event! If you have knowledge, experience, or insights you'd like to share with the community, we encourage you to submit a session proposal. Educational sessions can cover product tips and tricks, customer success stories, implementation experiences, best practices, industry trends, leadership topics, and more.

Please submit your session proposal by June 12 using the following link: (https://sessionize.com/dynamicscon-regional-ohio-valley/).

All submitted sessions will be reviewed by our event planning committee. Final session selections will be confirmed and published on June 19. We appreciate your interest in contributing to the event and helping create a valuable learning experience for attendees.

🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
FO: Predictive Payments & Intelligent Cash Flow in D365
Host: Mary VanKirk

Info: Discover how Finance Insights brings practical, results-driven AI into Microsoft Dynamics 365. In this session, we’ll showcase how built-in machine learning models analyze customer payment behavior to generate intelligent predictions, helping you anticipate when payments will be received and proactively manage financial risk. You’ll also see how these insights power more accurate cash flow forecasting, giving your organization a clearer, forward-looking view of liquidity. By turning historical data into actionable intelligence, Finance Insights enables finance teams to move beyond reactive reporting and make faster, more confident decisions.

🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
PP: Problem-solving with Copilot AI and Power Automate
Host: Karinne Bessette

Info: Struggling with repetitive tasks or complex processes? Copilot AI in Power Automate makes problem-solving easier than ever. In this beginner-friendly session, we’ll show you how Copilot can guide you through creating flows that address real business challenges—without the guesswork. You’ll learn how to describe your problem in natural language and let Copilot suggest automation steps, generate actions, and even integrate AI capabilities for smarter decision-making. Together, we’ll build a flow that solves a common pain point and explore tips for customizing it to fit your needs. By the end, you’ll understand how to turn everyday problems into automated solutions with the help of AI Copilot. Join us and see how simple intelligent automation can be.
-Copilot simplifies flow creation using natural language prompts.
-Turn everyday problems into automated solutions with AI guidance.
-Integrate smart decision-making into workflows without coding expertise.

🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
AI: Stop: You Are Spending Real Money on AI. Where is the Real Value?
Host: Balazs Horvath

Info: If AI spending were an Olympic sport, most companies would win gold—but many would fail to turn those investments into real business value. Budgets keep rising, yet only a few organizations are using AI effectively.

This session challenges the hype around AI tools and focuses on what actually drives ROI: clear goals, smart investment, and proper use of AI as a tool—not a solution on its own.

Attendees will learn how to evaluate AI spend against real outcomes and identify which initiatives are worth investing in, along with a practical starting point for building value-driven AI strategies.

🕑: 11:15 AM - 11:30 AM
Networking Break with Sponsors
🕑: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Closing Keynote: The Copilot Mindset: Thinking Differently About How We Work
Host: Sam Bush

Info: AI isn’t just another tool—it’s a new way of thinking. In this session, we’ll unpack what it means to develop a “Copilot mindset”—one that’s outcome-driven, iterative, and collaborative. You’ll learn how to shift from reactive work to strategic thinking, from perfectionism to experimentation, and from working in silos to building shared intelligence across your team. Whether you're a daily user of Microsoft 365 or Dynamics, this keynote will challenge you to rethink your relationship with work—and walk away with practical ways to partner with AI, not compete against it.