What it is
Forty-five minutes, and something you can use on Monday
One session, one topic, taught by someone who uses it. About thirty minutes of talk and demo, then ten to fifteen minutes of questions. You can come with the camera off and say nothing at all.
There are two kinds of session, and both are open to everyone. You do not need to be in a mentoring cohort, and you do not need to work at Microsoft.
Skilling sessions
The technical ones. Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Dataverse, Copilot Studio and agents, and whatever else the community is actually building with: GitHub Copilot, security, governance, Azure.
Most sessions are pitched at beginner or intermediate. If a topic assumes something, the announcement says so.
Power Skills
Once a month, the other half of a career: being visible, speaking up in technical rooms, asking for what you are worth, getting your work seen.
Power skills, not soft skills. They draw our largest rooms, which tells you something.
How to get to one
Every session is announced on the Women in Power page on LinkedIn with the joining link. Follow the page and you will not miss one.
Session times rotate so that India, Europe and the Americas each get a workable slot, and every session is recorded. A bad time zone is not a reason to give up on a topic you want.
The rest of the year
October is about agents. November puts them to work.
Two sessions most weeks, on Tuesday and Thursday, plus one Power Skills session a month. Nothing runs in US Thanksgiving week.
October
Copilot Studio and AI agents
Four weeks, start to finish: build one, make it good, make it real, then ship it without frightening your IT team.
- Week of 6 OctBuild your first agent
- Week of 13 OctGo deeper: flows and memory
- Week of 20 OctAgents doing real work
- Week of 27 OctShip it, and govern it
November
Agents at work, Copilot and governance
Less first steps, more what happens after: agents in a real business process, Copilot in the working day, and keeping the whole thing governed.
- Week of 3 NovAgents in the business
- Week of 10 NovCopilot for everyday work
- Week of 17 NovGovernance and automation
- Week of 24 NovNothing: Thanksgiving week
Why there are no names here yet
Dates, titles and speakers go out on LinkedIn as each speaker confirms. We hold a session back until she is ready for her name to be on it, so this page shows the shape of the season and LinkedIn shows the line-up.
December
A skilling advent calendar
December is a hard month to hold a live session in. So the series swaps them for one door a day, 1 to 24 December, on the Women in Power page on LinkedIn. Open them whenever you like.
Every day of the week has a job, so you learn the rhythm after the first week and know what is coming.
Mon, Tue, Thu
Tech tip
One practical thing you can try that day. Agents, then Power Apps and Automate, then Power BI and Copilot at work, then governance.
10 doors
Wednesday
Power Skills
Getting your work seen, speaking up in technical rooms, going from a first talk to the next stage, and setting goals for 2027.
4 doors
Friday
Community day
“My first talk”, with this year’s first-time speakers. One open thread for whatever you are stuck on. And a vote on what 2027 should cover.
3 doors
Saturday
Showcase
A member shows something she built: an app, an agent, a flow, a dashboard. A sixty-second screen recording is plenty. Nominate yourself or somebody else.
3 doors
Sunday
Shoutouts
Certifications, first talks, new MVPs, new roles. Speakers one week, member wins the next, then the volunteers who ran all of it.
3 doors
24 December
The last door
The 2027 call for speakers opens. If any of the month made you think “I could do that”, that is the door to walk through.
1 door
Want a door?
A door is not a talk. A LinkedIn post, a short video, a template somebody can download, a carousel, a poll, or a link to something you have already published: any of it counts, and the committee adds the advent frame and posts it for you.
Sign-ups open in late October, on the LinkedIn page, along with the form for nominating someone else’s work for a showcase or a shoutout.
This season so far
Where we have been this fall
Six sessions since the middle of August, and three of them were somebody’s first talk.
-
Aug18
AI for Her: Creating Change with Power Apps and Copilot
Chanchal Deshwal
-
Aug20
Stay Current or Get Blocked: Version Control for Canvas Apps
Markus Franz
-
Aug25
Smart Organizational Contact Finder
Kruthika Gopinathan
-
Sep15
Power Automate in GCC High: Best Practices for SharePoint
Heather Seiter
-
Sep25
Influence Before Certainty: Growing Your Career in the Age of AI
Anuja Singhal and Femke Cornelissen Power Skills
-
Sep28
Misfit Magic: Why Office Scripts Are the Most Underused Tool
Reagan Schroer
Every session is recorded, and the recording goes out to the community afterwards. If you missed one, ask on LinkedIn and we will point you at it.
Teach one
You know something worth forty-five minutes
You do not need to be an MVP, and you do not need a new idea. The thing you worked out last month, the thing you now do without thinking: somebody in this community is stuck on exactly that.
Three of the six sessions this season were somebody’s first talk. That is not an accident, it is who we go looking for.
What we ask of you
- A title, two or three sentences about it, and a short bio
- Thirty minutes of talk, and ten to fifteen of questions
- One reply to a check-in two weeks out
- A reshare of the announcement post, in your own words
What we do for you
- Set up the Teams event, and send the invite
- Promote it, but never before you have confirmed
- Put a moderator in the room to open, introduce and run the chat
- Offer a dry run if you want one, and record the session so you can keep it
Read the speaker guide → Follow us on LinkedIn
The call for speakers opens once a year, and the next one opens on 24 December. If you want to contribute before then, the December doors take a post or a short video instead of a talk.
Questions
Before you ask
Is there a fee?
No. The series is free, and it is run by volunteers around their full-time jobs. All it costs you is the forty-five minutes.
Do I have to be in a mentoring cohort?
No. The Skilling Series is open to everyone, whether or not you have ever joined anything else of ours. Plenty of people start here.
The times never work for me.
Times rotate deliberately, so that India, Europe and the Americas each get a workable slot across a season. Every session is recorded, so pick the topic and catch up afterwards.
Do I have to work with Power Platform?
No. Sessions cover Copilot and AI tools, GitHub Copilot, security, governance, Azure and careers as well. If you work near any of this, you will find something.
Are the sessions recorded?
Yes, all of them, and the recording is shared with the community afterwards.
I have never given a talk. Can I still speak?
Yes, and that is the point. More than fifty women have given their first technical talk in this series. The speaker guide has a section written for exactly this, including an outline you can borrow and what to do if your demo breaks.
Can I suggest a topic, or a speaker?
Yes. The call for speakers is the formal route and it opens on 24 December, but you can suggest a topic or nominate somebody any time through the LinkedIn page. The December community day includes a vote on what 2027 should cover.