Microsoft Ignite 2026 takes place from 17 to 20 November at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, with a pre-day on 16 November. The keynotes and most sessions are free to watch online with a Digital pass. For anyone working with Power BI, Microsoft Fabric or Copilot, it is the week when the roadmap for the next six months becomes clear. This preview tells you when to watch and what to look for. We will cover the actual announcements in our next updates.
When to watch
| Session | San Francisco | London | Milan | New York | India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening keynote, Tue 17 Nov | 10:00 | 18:00 | 19:00 | 13:00 | 23:30 |
| Partner keynote, Wed 18 Nov | 09:00 | 17:00 | 18:00 | 12:00 | 22:30 |
Satya Nadella and Judson Althoff lead the opening keynote. Times are from Microsoft's published agenda and may change; recordings are usually online the same day.
Ignite week at a glance
Pre-dayUpcoming
Badge pickup, labs, certification exams and a security pre-day.
Opening keynoteUpcoming
The biggest announcements: Copilot, agents, Azure, data and security.
Partner keynoteUpcoming
How partners use Copilot, Azure and agents with customers.
Last day of the HubUpcoming
Demos and product experts; sessions and labs all day.
Closing half dayUpcoming
Final sessions and exams until 12:30 PT.
Passes
- Digital pass: free. Keynotes, sessions and technical content online.
- Conference pass: $2,325. Everything in person, including labs and free certification exams.
- Hub-only pass: $1,625. The exhibition area, theatre sessions and lunch, 17 to 19 November.
What to expect for data and Power BI
Microsoft has not announced anything yet, but its 11 official session topics show where the news will land: Agentic Business Applications, Agent Platform, Cloud and AI, Copilot, Data, Frontier Transformation, Industry, the partner programme, Microsoft IQ, Security and Windows. Based on those tracks and recent releases, these are the areas to watch.
- Microsoft IQ
- Microsoft's name for the layer that gives Copilot and agents business context. It has three parts: Work IQ (email, files, meetings), Fabric IQ (company data) and Foundry IQ (knowledge for custom agents).
- Fabric IQ
- Already generally available inside Microsoft 365 Copilot since September 2026, where it answers business questions from governed Power BI reports and semantic models. Expect it to spread further.
- Power BI semantic models
- The definitions that make AI answers trustworthy. Expect more Copilot features built on them, and more tools reading them, as Databricks already does with its new external knowledge sources beta.
- Copilot costs
- Microsoft relaunched Copilot in September; clearer guidance on Copilot Credits and admin controls is likely.
- Agents
- Agent 365 to govern agents and Microsoft Foundry to build and test them are the two big agent themes.
How to follow Ignite without losing a week
- 1
Register for the free Digital pass
It gives you live streams, the session catalogue and recordings.
- 2
Watch the opening keynote, or its recording
Most data announcements are previewed there and detailed in the "Book of News" Microsoft publishes the same day.
- 3
Pick three sessions from the Data track
Look for Fabric, Power BI and Microsoft IQ sessions, and add them to your schedule.
- 4
Write down the status of each feature
Generally available, public preview or private preview. Only GA features belong in production plans.
- 5
Check your licences
Many new Fabric and Copilot features require a particular capacity size or Copilot licence; see Power BI vs Tableau for current prices.
Check your understanding
1/3When is the Microsoft Ignite 2026 opening keynote in London?
It starts at 10:00 in San Francisco, which is 18:00 in the UK.
2/3How much does it cost to watch Ignite online?
In-person passes are paid; online access is free.
3/3What is Fabric IQ?
It answers questions from governed Power BI reports and semantic models.
You got 0 out of 3.
Recent Microsoft data news: FabCon Europe 2026, Microsoft Fabric vs Databricks and the DAX cheat sheet.
Sources: Microsoft Ignite website and events page (dates and passes); NetCom Learning's Ignite 2026 guide (30 October 2026) for the agenda and session topics; Microsoft Learn, "What's new in Microsoft Fabric" (Fabric IQ in Microsoft 365 Copilot, September 2026); Databricks release notes (5 November 2026). Expectations are our assessment, not Microsoft announcements.
Alessandro Ecclesie AgazziWritten by Alessandro Ecclesie Agazzi, analytics engineer in London. Updated 9 November 2026. About me