On December 1st, the Reading Dynamics 365 & Power Platform User Group, which I co-organise with Areti, Fraser, and Ban, hosted another fantastic evening of learning and networking at Reading Campus. We enjoyed two insightful sessions delivered by two outstanding speakers.

Lewis Baybutt opened the evening with an excellent talk on best practices for supporting neurodiverse teams. He covered essential concepts I feel everyone should be familiar with, including the difference between neurodiversity and neurodivergence, as well as the characteristics of ASD and ADHD. 

A key takeaway was the importance designing and building software and products with a real understanding of the people that use it, rather than implementing the minimum level of accessibility that's required to meet legal obligations. This applies not only to apps but also to agentic solutions. Failure to build accessible applications excludes a significant portion of users and can have a real impact on profitability.

Next, Rory Neary delivered an excellent session on Power Platform Plan Designer. It was a privilege to hear from Rory, whose content features in the Power Up program, where I help as a mentor. His demo showcased how to use natural language to build a plan for an app designed for musicians, including storing songs and managing a repertoire for performances. A key point covered was the importance of making sure that the data structure that's created by the data agent is correct - once the data plan is committed, it's impossible to modify it retrospectively.  

As always, the meetup offered great networking opportunities, along with pizza and drinks. It was a wonderful chance to connect with fellow professionals and to learn something new.

A huge thank you to Lewis and Rory for their time and energy, and to everyone who joined us for making the event such a success.

Our next meetup takes place on 9th March 2026 and the registration details are below. We hope to see you there!