We Attended Directions North America 2023 in Orlando — Here Is What We Took Away
n this video, we’ll give our fresh impressions on Directions North America 2023. The annual conference for Microsoft Dynamics 365 partners, developers, and users in North America. The event features keynote presentations, educational sessions, and networking opportunities for attendees to learn about the latest product updates, best practices, and trends in the industry. The conference is organized by a committee of Dynamics partners and is designed to provide an opportunity for attendees to connect with other partners and Microsoft representatives, as well as to gain insights and knowledge that can help them grow their businesses and better serve their customers. Check out their website for more information on next year event: https://directionsna.com/
Earlier this year, the Navseal team made the trip to Orlando, Florida for Directions North America 2023 — one of the most important events in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partner calendar. It was an experience worth writing about, both for what we learned and for what it confirmed about where BC is heading.
If you have never attended Directions and are wondering whether it belongs in your calendar, this post is for you.
What Is Directions North America?
Directions North America is the largest independent conference dedicated exclusively to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and NAV partner community. It is organised by partners, for partners — not a Microsoft-run event, which gives it a distinctly different character from events like Microsoft Inspire or the Dynamics Community Summit.
The conference brings together hundreds of BC partners, ISVs, consultants, developers, and Microsoft product team members from across North America and beyond for several days of sessions, workshops, keynotes, and networking. The agenda is packed: technical deep dives, functional tracks, business development sessions, product roadmap previews, and hands-on labs — all focused entirely on the BC and NAV ecosystem.
For anyone working in the BC partner space, it is one of the most concentrated and relevant learning experiences available anywhere.
It is worth noting that Directions also runs a sister event — Directions EMEA — held annually in Europe, which serves the European partner community on the same model. Between the two, the Directions brand has become the go-to independent conference circuit for the global BC partner community.
Orlando 2023 — The Setting
The 2023 North America edition was held in Orlando, Florida — a fitting venue for a conference that draws attendees from across the continent. The scale of the event matched the location: multiple session tracks running simultaneously, a large expo hall filled with ISV and technology vendors, and plenty of space for the hallway conversations that are often as valuable as the formal sessions.
For the Navseal team, making the journey from Europe to Orlando was a deliberate investment — and one that paid off. The depth of BC-specific content available at Directions is simply not replicated anywhere else.
What We Were There For
We came to Directions with a clear set of priorities: understand where the BC product is heading, connect with the ISV ecosystem, get exposure to how North American partners are approaching implementation challenges, and bring back practical knowledge that would make us better at what we do for our clients.
What we found exceeded those expectations on most fronts.
Key Themes from the Sessions
The cloud transition is real and accelerating Session after session reinforced the same message: Business Central Online is where Microsoft is investing, and the gap between cloud and on-premises capabilities is widening with every release wave. For partners still managing large on-premises portfolios, the migration conversation is no longer optional — it is a matter of timing.
AL development is maturing fast The developer track at Directions was impressive. The conversations around AL extension architecture, AppSource development, and the move away from per-tenant customisations toward properly structured ISV apps reflected a genuine maturing of the BC development ecosystem. The tooling, the patterns, and the community knowledge base have all grown significantly.
Copilot and AI integration is coming The 2023 conference came at a moment when Microsoft’s AI ambitions were becoming very concrete in the BC context. Sessions on Copilot integration, AI-assisted features in the product roadmap, and the implications for partners generated some of the most animated discussion of the event. It was clear that AI is not a distant roadmap item — it is being woven into BC now.
The ISV ecosystem is thriving The expo hall was a reminder of just how rich the BC ISV landscape has become. From vertical solutions to integration tools to reporting add-ons, the breadth of what is available to extend BC continues to grow. For consultants, staying across what is available — and what is credible — is increasingly part of the job.
The Value of the Hallway
Anyone who has attended a conference of this calibre knows that some of the most valuable moments happen outside the session rooms. Directions 2023 was no exception.
Conversations with fellow partners — comparing approaches to common implementation challenges, sharing honest views on what works and what does not, discussing how different markets are adopting BC — are genuinely hard to replicate in any other format. The BC partner community is collaborative in a way that is not always the case in other technology ecosystems, and Directions brings that out.
For a consultancy like Navseal, operating across markets and bringing a European perspective to a predominantly North American event, those conversations were particularly valuable. Different markets, same platform, different problems — and often, solutions worth borrowing.
What We Brought Back
Attending Directions is not just about the sessions you sit in. It is about the cumulative effect: a sharpened view of where the platform is going, a refreshed understanding of what the best partners in the ecosystem are doing, and a set of concrete ideas to apply in our own practice.
From Orlando 2023, we came back with:
- A clearer picture of the BC Copilot roadmap and what it means for the features we demo to clients
- New perspectives on AL extension architecture that have already influenced how we structure custom development
- A stronger awareness of the ISV landscape in areas relevant to our client base
- Connections with partners and vendors we are now actively working alongside
Should You Go?
If you are a BC partner or consultant and you have not attended Directions, our honest answer is: yes, you should find a way to get there.
The investment — time, travel, registration — is real. But the return is also real. There is no other event that concentrates this level of BC-specific knowledge, community, and product insight in one place. Whether you attend North America or EMEA depends on your geography and market focus, but either edition delivers.
For the NAV SEAL team, Orlando 2023 was a confirmation that showing up in person — investing in the community, staying current with the ecosystem, and learning from the best partners in the world — is part of what it means to be a serious Business Central practice.
We will be back.
Navseal is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central consultancy. We help businesses implement, optimise, and get more from Business Central. Get in touch.
