MVP Summit 2025 – Guided Tours

Carina ClaessonPower Apps9 hours ago15 Views

This is the second post in my MVP Summit 2025 series, the first one is found here The MVP Summit Story. This isn’t about the latest tech updates. It’s about the moments in between. The guided tours, the unexpected discoveries around Microsoft’s campus, and the little things that made it memorable. Among my favorite spots? The Microsoft treehouses! 🌳

If you ever get the chance to attend, don’t skip the guided tours and campus exploration. The campus is full of surprises and iconic places:

  • Microsoft Treehouses – Near the Visitor Center, nature meets productivity🌳
  • Berlin Wall Fragment – There’s a piece of the Berlin wall in Building 33.
  • The Reactor – Arcade games, various artifacts, the go-to place for Summit t-shirts.
  • Microsoft Library – At this year’s summit, it featured book signings.
  • Visitor Center – Historical vibes promised, don’t miss the outdoor Microsoft logos.

This year the agenda included guided tours at the campus. Very much appreciated! Shuttle busses took us from outside of building 33 to different tour locations.

The Garage tour

For the Garage tour, I had lovely company, Angeliki from the Microsoft Ignite 2024 Mastering Model-Driven Power Apps lab team (see my earlier post). It was such a great opportunity to get inspired by past hackathon projects, walk around and take in all the details and catch up with Angeliki, all at once. This place really is a playground for adults!

Fun fact from this guided tour is that we got lost while talking and all of a sudden we had missed the bus back to building 33. We found another shuttle bus though, with a driver on his way to lunch, but who happily drove us back. 🙏

Inclusive Tech Lab tour

I joined the Inclusive Tech Lab tour and had the privilege of listening to Solomon Romney, Accessibility Program Manager at Microsoft, share the inspiring story of how gaming accessibility has evolved over the years. I’m grateful to have experienced it and witnessed the incredible inclusiveness and ongoing work being done in this space.

At different spots on campus, you could see the flags, celebrating Microsoft 50 years.

The Studio B tour

For the Studio B tour, I was once again joined by Angeliki and our Ignite Lab proctor buddy, Sean Astrakhan, always a pleasure to catch up. The Anechoic Chamber was so silent, it felt like my thoughts were louder than the silence itself. Did you know it holds the record for the quietest place on Earth?

It was also interesting to see how thoroughly Xbox controllers are tested. Makes you appreciate how much engineering goes into just a single “click”, even the accidental ones that take you to places you never meant to go.

Self-guided tours

There were also “self-guided” tours. Among them were the Microsoft Tree Houses. I did not see a Microsoft Goose this year, I did see a Microsoft squirrel though. Unfortunately it did not want to be on camera. I was equally facinated by this place as during my first visit here. Who knows, one day I might even get to go inside one of these tree houses. 🛖🌲

Find your own tours

It’s an amazing opportunity to gather in Seattle for MVP Summit, meeting with people from all around the world. 🌎 The below is not really from any tour. It’s more like a an extended version of the self-guided tours. What to do in-between the sessions.

There was a community-focused area. It had tech-related lunch sessions, but also competitions, photo walls and the CPMs (Community Program Managers) were there to have a chat. The Australian CPM even brought koala bears for Australian MVPs to hand out to their fellow MVPs, such a fun and thoughtful detail! Meeting Linn Zaw Win over there was a memorable dot in time.

Another favorite dot was meeting Bülent Altinsoy next to a piece of the Berlin wall. We had such tough times at MVP Summit, banging our heads against the wall. The MVP poster keeps getting bigger and bigger, letting us expand our network and this year Microsoft welcomed us with our own barista. ☕

The event days are full of sessions. You’ll have plenty of chances to catch up with what’s new and coming. To maximize networking and the beyond sessions experience, skip a session and do something spontaneous. At MVP Summit that might mean taking a walk to the visitor center, exploring the Microsoft treehouses, or just grabbing a coffee or juice and having some spontaneous chats.

Will there be any guided tours at MVP Summit 2026? I hope so! In the next post, I’ll share some pre summit activities. Not the technical ones, but my one and only Seattle sightseeing day. Did I make it to Kerry Park and Gas Works Park?!

Original Post https://carinaclaesson.com/2025/10/22/mvp-summit-2025-guided-tours/

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