Writing / community · AI · Microsoft Build · leadership
Bringing Microsoft Build Back to Lima
What I learned by turning a global technology conference into an accessible local community event.
When I returned from Microsoft Build, I did not want the experience to end as a collection of photos and announcements from San Francisco. Attending in person is not realistic for most students in Peru: travel is expensive, the content is mostly in English, and a global conference can feel very far from a university classroom in Lima.
Microsoft Build Localhost was our way of shortening that distance.
Bringing San Francisco back in Spanish
We translated the announcements about AI agents, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Foundry, and Azure AI into Spanish, but translation meant more than changing the language. It meant adding examples, explaining why the tools mattered, and meeting students and professionals at their actual point of adoption.
I was joined by a Microsoft MVP from Peru whom I had met at Build. Having two people from the same country share different perspectives made the event more grounded. We had met in San Francisco and were now bringing that experience home together.
The questions were about the path
The audience was curious about the product announcements, but the most persistent questions were about how I reached Build after winning the Microsoft Global AI Hackathon. Students asked where to find hackathons, how to prepare, and which framework helped our team turn an idea into a winning project.
I shared everything I could because that distance was familiar to me. A few years earlier, attending Build had felt improbable too.
Representation changes the distance
At an earlier Microsoft event, I had barely met anyone from Peru. At Build, I met several Peruvians, including the MVP who later joined this event. Seeing people from your own region in those rooms changes an opportunity from abstract to possible.
The Localhost event itself was imperfect. The auditorium was difficult to find, our usual faculty logistics contact became ill, and the program ran about an hour late. People still stayed, asked questions, and continued the conversation during networking.
Community work is a return trip
Access to an opportunity is only one half of community work. The other half is returning with something other people can use: context in their language, a path they can follow, and proof that someone from their region has already taken it.
If one student left thinking, “Maybe I can do this too,” then bringing Build back to Lima was worth it.