Microsoft researchers contribute to conferences in many ways. They write and present papers, give workshops, and serve as program chairs and reviewers.

As one example of our commitment to community, Microsoft Research has developed a conference management tool to help conference program chairs keep track of all the tasks associated with facilitating a conference. It helps the chairperson create a customized review form to compare reviews, tracks the assignment load per reviewer, assigns papers to reviewers, checks paper status, and sorts papers by categories. Reviewers may browse through the submitted papers and bid on the papers they'd like to review. The tool also tracks reviewers who haven't bid at the beginning of the process, allows reviewers to see comments and questions from the other reviewers, and review the papers online. In addition, Microsoft Research supports conferences by sponsoring them.