On July 8, while I was still waiting to hear whether my Microsoft MVP award would be renewed, another email landed in my inbox. It was from the Microsoft Global Community Initiative, letting me know I had been selected as one of its newest Regional Leaders. I was thrilled, but the announcement was not public yet, so I had to do something I am famously terrible at: keep quiet.
A week later, on July 15, my MVP renewal became official. That was already more than enough good news for one month, but I was still sitting on the MGCI announcement and waiting for it to become “official official.” Microsoft published the 2026 Regional Leader cohort announcement on July 20, so I shared the news on LinkedIn and promised a proper blog post. This is that post.
For years, community has been at the heart of what I do. I have had colleagues roll their eyes at the mere mention of it, and I have heard it compared to all kinds of pastimes, including going fishing. I never took offense, but I never agreed with the comparison either. A hobby is something I do when I have spare time. Community is something I deliberately make time for because I believe it matters.
From the outside, people usually see the visible parts. They see someone speaking at a conference, publishing a blog post, recording a podcast, or posting photos from another event. They do not see organizers spending months reviewing sessions, finding sponsors, coordinating volunteers, solving logistical problems, and answering emails at midnight. They do not see speakers helping each other rehearse, reviewing slide decks, mentoring first-time presenters, or making introductions that may completely change someone’s career.
I have been fortunate enough to experience community from almost every angle. I have worked behind the scenes on events, helped organize them, spoken on stages around the world, mentored new speakers, recorded interviews, written articles, answered questions, and introduced people who needed to know each other. I have also never stopped learning along the way, because the moment you think you know everything is usually when SharePoint finds a new way to humble you.
Community is where we get together to share what we know, amplify voices, create opportunities, and help however we can. It is not always glamorous or convenient, but it has shaped my career and my life in ways I could never have planned. The Microsoft community introduced me to mentors who challenged me, friends who became family, and people who trusted me before I was sure I trusted myself.
Earlier this year, I wrote about the real cost of being a community speaker. The travel, the late nights, the PTO, the money that rarely gets talked about, and why so many of us keep doing it anyway. This post is really the other side of that story. If that one was about the cost, this one is about the return on that investment. Community has given me far more than it has ever taken from me.
That is why becoming an MGCI Regional Leader feels so personal. I am not joining the program because I suddenly discovered community leadership or decided I needed another title for LinkedIn. This role gives me another way to keep doing work I have cared about for years while learning from people supporting communities around the world.
So, what exactly is MGCI?
The Microsoft Global Community Initiative exists to support the people building and sustaining Microsoft technical communities. It connects community leaders, organizers, speakers, mentors, and Microsoft employees through training, networking, event support, shared resources, technology guidance, and opportunities to amplify community stories.
What matters most to me is that MGCI is community-led. Microsoft supports the initiative with tools, resources, access, and expertise, but the direction comes from the people already doing the work. That distinction matters because strong communities cannot be manufactured from the top down, no matter how polished the PowerPoint deck looks.
The needs of an organizer in Miami may be very different from those of someone in Seattle, São Paulo, London, Lagos, or Sydney. MGCI creates a way for those leaders to learn from one another, share what works, and strengthen local communities without pretending one approach will magically fit everyone.
Regional Leaders help turn that mission into something practical. The role includes connecting organizers across regions, mentoring new leaders, supporting events, sharing useful practices, amplifying community stories, and bringing local feedback into the broader initiative. In plain English, it means listening, making connections, helping people find the right resources, and removing some of the friction that makes community work harder than it needs to be.
It also means learning. Being a Regional Leader does not mean showing up with every answer. The best community leaders I know are usually the first to admit when they do not know something and the first to connect you with somebody who does. I expect to learn as much from the other Regional Leaders as I could ever hope to teach.
This is not just another title
I am proud of becoming a Regional Leader, but I do not see it as another badge to collect. Titles are nice, especially when they recognize work that matters deeply to you, but they only mean something when you use them to create opportunities for other people. Otherwise, they are just more words fighting for space in an already overcrowded LinkedIn headline.
I want to use this role to connect more organizers, support more events, help new speakers find their confidence, and make sure more voices have a chance to be heard. I also want to share the lessons that come from the messy parts of community work, because pretending everything always goes perfectly does not help anyone. Events are stressful, volunteers get tired, technology breaks, budgets disappear, and somebody always forgets the adapter.
Community still works because people keep showing up for each other. Someone brings the missing cable, covers a volunteer shift, helps fix the demo, introduces a sponsor, shares the event, or simply tells an exhausted organizer that their work mattered. Those moments rarely make it into the official recap, but they are the reason people come back and do it all over again.
I want to thank everyone who put their trust in me for this role, along with everyone who has supported, challenged, encouraged, and taught me along the way. That includes every organizer who invited me to participate, every speaker who shared a stage or a lesson with me, every attendee who asked a question, and every person who read something on UnsuckM365 and decided to come back.
I am sure this will not be the last time I write about MGCI. There is plenty more to learn about the program, the people involved, and what we can accomplish together. For now, I am grateful, excited, and ready to get to work.
Community has never been my hobby. If you’ve read my earlier post about the real cost of being a community speaker, you already know this work asks a lot of the people who do it. What I didn’t write then is that it has given me even more in return. Becoming an MGCI Regional Leader gives me one more opportunity to keep showing up for the community that has shaped so much of my life.