How to watch Microsoft’s Build 2020 stream with 100,000 attendees

Microsoft’s biggest event of the year is upon us, and this time it’s bigger than ever. Because, coronavirus — you know the drill. Microsoft has called off all of its in-person events through July 2021. Build 2020 was supposed to be held in Seattle from May 19 to May 21, but instead it’s being held online from May 19 to May 20. Anyone from anywhere with an internet connection can join. And they’re showing up in droves.

“Over 100,000 people have registered to participate in Build 2020,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. “This number is attendees only — it doesn’t include Microsoft employees, and attendees aren’t just developers.” Build 2019 saw 6,000 registered attendees. That’s the power of a free virtual event. (A Build 2020 ticket was supposed to be $2,395, like last year.)

While Microsoft has many events throughout the year, including Microsoft Inspire for partners and Microsoft Ignite for business leaders, Build is the most important. The event attracts developers from around the world and is always packed full of news. Typically, Microsoft also uses the event to talk about its overall strategy for the year. Not this time. Build 2020 will be more developer-focused than ever. Microsoft’s official description of Build 2020 reads:

This is a different kind of Microsoft Build delivered in a new way. Presenting a digital event provides the developer community unique opportunities to come together for a truly global experience.

This year, we’re expecting Microsoft to talk about AI, Azure, Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365, Windows 10, HoloLens, mixed reality, GitHub, Teams, Visual Studio, .NET, and everything in between. There will also be a few surprises, as is typical with such large conferences. Here is a recap of last year: Everything Microsoft announced at Build 2019.

Build 2020 Livestream

You can stream the company’s developer conference here or watch via the embedded livestream below.

Instead of a keynote on the first day and sessions to follow, Microsoft is mixing things up this year. There are six key segments you’ll want to watch for:

• Empowering every developer — Satya Nadella. In this time of uncertainty, developers will play a central role in reimagining the world we live in and accelerating our path to recovery.
• Every developer is welcome — Scott Hanselman, Kayla Cinnamon, Allison Buchholtz-Au, Maddy Leger. Hanselman calls on a number of his friends to explore the modern developer toolkit for every developer with GitHub, Visual Studio, Windows, and much more.
• Azure: Invent with Purpose — Scott Guthrie, Julia White, Amanda Silver, Donovan Brown, Jeff Hollan, Rohan Kumar. Microsoft is unique in the industry and provides the world’s most comprehensive developer toolkit and platform to support developers in their journey to build amazing cloud apps with Azure.
• Build tools for the new way to work and learn — Rajesh Jha, Yina Arenas, Kevin Gallo. Join Jha to learn how you can build on the world’s productivity cloud, leveraging Microsoft Teams and advanced new capabilities like Microsoft Graph and Fluid Framework to create innovative tools for remote work and learning.
• The future of technology with Microsoft’s CTO — Kevin Scott, Peter Lee, Luis Vargas, Lila Tretikov. Scott and industry guests present the emergent trends that are on path to reshape software development and what is possible with technology inclusive of AI, large scale machine learning, and convergence of the physical and digital worlds.
• Accelerating enterprise application development with the Power Platform — James Phillips, Julie Strauss, Charles Lamanna, Kim Manis. Join Phillips to see how the Power Platform complements existing development tools, radically accelerating application development.

Build 2020 agenda

Below you’ll find the full schedule in Pacific time. Sessions repeat — that’s deliberate, as developers are tuning in from different time zones. Some sessions are prerecorded, but others are live.

May 19, 2020

• 8:00 a.m. — Microsoft Build digital event begins
• 8:20 a.m. — Empowering every developer, with Satya Nadella
• 8:40 a.m. — Imagine Cup
• 9:00 a.m. — Every developer is welcome, with Scott Hanselman and guests
• 10:15 a.m. — Azure: Invent with Purpose, with Scott Guthrie and guests
• 11:00 a.m. — Building the tools for modern work, with Rajesh Jha and guests
• 12:30 p.m. — Digital Breakouts with live Q&A and Community Connections
• 4:45 p.m. — Social Hour: Mix, Mingle, and Celebrate
• 5:20 p.m. — Empowering every developer, with Satya Nadella
• 5:40 p.m. — Imagine Cup
• 6:00 p.m. — Every developer is welcome, with Scott Hanselman and guests
• 7:30 p.m. — Digital Breakouts with live Q&A and Community Connections

May 20, 2020

• 12:15 a.m. — Azure: Invent with Purpose, with Scott Guthrie and guests
• 1:00 a.m. — New ways to work and learn, with Rajesh Jha and guests
• 2:00 a.m. — Digital Breakouts with live Q&A and Community Connections
• 9:45 a.m. — The future of tech, with Kevin Scott and guests
• 10:30 a.m. — Ask Scott Guthrie, with Scott Guthrie
• 11:30 a.m. — Power Platform for developers, with James Phillips
• 12:30 p.m. — Digital Breakouts with live Q&A and Community Connections
• 6:30 p.m. — Social Hour: Mix, Mingle, and Celebrate
• 7:30 p.m. — The future of tech, with Kevin Scott and guests
• 8:15 p.m. — Power Platform for developers, with James Phillips
• 9:30 p.m. — Digital Breakouts with live Q&A and Community Connections

We will be covering Build 2020 live with additional reporting and analysis as the event progresses. Follow along with us during Microsoft Build 2020 here and on Twitter: @VentureBeat.