I’m excited to be speaking at Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ 2026 in Redmond, WA—this time with two sessions covering topics I’ve been deep in lately: building MCP servers with C# and .NET, and using API gateways to bring flexibility and governance to microservices architectures.

Event Details

Dates: July 27–31, 2026
Location: Microsoft Headquarters, Redmond, WA

My Sessions

T05: Building MCP Servers with C# and .NET

Day: Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Time: 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Track: Cutting-Edge AI

AI agents are quickly becoming a first-class part of modern applications, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is emerging as the standard way to equip those agents with tools, data, and enterprise-grade capabilities. In this session, I’ll show you how to build MCP servers using C# and .NET—enabling your applications, copilots, and agentic workflows to interact with your business logic, APIs, and data in a secure and structured way.

We’ll walk through the fundamentals of MCP, how to implement tools and resources with .NET, and how to integrate your MCP server with developer experiences like VS Code, OpenAI clients, and Microsoft Foundry Agent Service. You’ll see end-to-end examples ranging from simple utilities to enterprise workflows that connect to SQL, Azure services, Microsoft Graph, and more.

Whether you’re building agent-powered applications or want to expose your .NET systems as reusable tools, this session will show you how to turn your .NET expertise into powerful AI integrations.

You will learn:

• Understand the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and how AI clients and agents use MCP tools, resources, and prompts.
• Build MCP servers using C# and .NET, including tool definitions, JSON-RPC messaging, input/output schemas, and request handling.
• Design, develop, and deploy enterprise-ready MCP tools.

W28: Using API Gateways for Flexibility and Governance of Your APIs

Day: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Time: 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM
Track: Cloud Containers and Microservices

One of the real challenges of microservices architectures is that clients need to connect to many services, each with multiple endpoints and potentially different design and implementation characteristics. The API Gateway pattern solves this by providing a single, unified entry point—routing and proxying requests to the appropriate services, handling any needed transformation, and creating a consistent experience for clients.

In this session, we’ll look at how to build API gateways in Azure—covering Azure API Management, Application Gateway, and Azure Functions—so you can apply the right tool for your situation. Whether you’re consolidating access to a growing fleet of microservices or tightening governance across your APIs, you’ll leave with practical patterns you can put to work immediately.

You will learn:

• Overview of the API Gateway pattern and when to use it.
• Getting started with Azure API Management.
• Integrating APIM with your solutions for routing, transformation, and policy enforcement.

Event Highlights

• Five immersive days of deep technical training on Microsoft’s Redmond campus.
• Nine focused tracks spanning Modern Software Engineering, Cloud & Microservices, Cutting-Edge AI, Data & Analytics, DevOps, and more.
• Full-day hands-on labs, workshops, a two-day Microsoft AI Hackathon, Microsoft Campus Tours, and Ask the Experts sessions.
• Keynotes from Microsoft leaders plus sessions from industry experts.
• A great opportunity to connect with developers, architects, and Microsoft insiders working across the full Microsoft stack.

Register & Connect

• Register here: Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ 2026
• Visit the event site for the full agenda and speaker lineup: VSLive! Microsoft HQ 2026
• Ping me on X/Twitter, BlueSky, or LinkedIn to let me know you’re coming.