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Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference kicks off on May 19th

Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference kicks off on May 19th

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Hopefully it’s not the same week as Google I/O

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft will host its 2020 Build developer conference in Seattle from Tuesday, May 19th to Thursday, May 21st, the company announced today. Microsoft didn’t say when tickets will go on sale, but does have a general mailing list you can sign up for to get information about the event.

Build is one of Microsoft’s biggest events of the year, and although the event is focused on developers, the company uses it to preview its latest Windows road map as well as updates and features coming to Office, its Edge browser, the Cortana voice assistant, and other software and services. This far out, it’s hard to predict exactly what the company might talk about at this conference — but perhaps it will include updates on things announced at October’s Surface event.

Announcing the event this far in advance is somewhat out of the ordinary for the company — the past two years, Microsoft announced the dates for Build in February. However, today’s blog post also listed dates for other big Microsoft events through this year and into 2020, so perhaps Microsoft wanted to make scheduling easier for people who work in the Microsoft ecosystem.

It also might be easier for developers who work with both Microsoft and Google tools, because Microsoft’s Build has overlapped with Google’s I/O developer conference for the past two years. Google hasn’t yet shared dates for the 2020 iteration of I/O, but maybe, with Microsoft hosting the event a little later in May than usual, they won’t overlap. We’ll have to wait and see if the companies will again go head-to-head in one of the busiest weeks in tech.