My current list of presentations is below. If you are interested in a topic but do not see it, let me know and I’ll work on creating a session for you.
What to know where I’m presenting next? Check out my Community Activities page.
What is Power BI?
You’ve heard all the buzz about Power BI, but you have no idea what it is or how it works. This session explains what Power BI is, who can use it and why you would want to. It’s an introductory session that gives you the information you need to determine if Power BI is right for you and your organization.
Level: Beginner/Intro
Target Audience: Anyone who is interested in learning more about what Power BI is and if it’s right for you. For people with both technical and non-technical backgrounds.
Slides: What is Power BI – Updated 04/29/2020
Intro to Integration Services (SSIS)?
This session is a very basic introduction to Integration Services (SSIS). We’ll cover the basics; what it’s used for and the various parts and pieces to get you started creating your own projects in no time. We’ll talk about packages, connections and project parameters and their respective tasks/properties. We’ll also cover some basic performance tuning to make your packages run faster.
Level: Beginner/Intro
Target Audience: Anyone who is interested in learning more about what Integration Services is and if it’s right for you. For people with both technical and non-technical backgrounds. Perfect for the DBA who wants to start learning about the world of BI.
Slides: Intro to Integration Services – Updated 9/17/2021
Data Types Do Matter
They’re just numbers, right? A date’s a date. It’s just string data, who cares? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard these phrases. This session will help you understand why choosing the correct data type for your data is so important. It affects data quality, storage and performance. It can even produce incorrect query results.
Level: Intermediate
Target Audience: DBAs and Developers
Slides: Data Types Do Matter – Updated 09/17/2021
Profiling Your Data
Have you ever started a warehouse or ETL project and realized that the data wasn’t as “clean” as you were told? If only you had profiled your data before you started then you wouldn’t have to rework design elements, change code or redesign your database. In this session we will talk about what data profiling is, why you should do it and how you can do it with tools that are already included in the SQL Server BI stack.
Level: Intermediate
Target Audience: DBAs, Developers & Analysts
Slides: Profiling Your Data – Updated 9/17/2021
Getting Started With Dimensional Modeling
You want to analyze your data, but you are not sure where to start. If you are using any of the Microsoft BI stack of products, then you will need to start by modeling your data. In this session we will talk about what data modeling is, explain why we should do it, and finally show you how to do it with a very simple example.
Level: Beginner
Target Audience: Developers & Analysts
Slides: Getting Started With Dimensional Modeling – Updated 9/17/2021
Understanding DAX – It’s All About the Context
How many times have you created a Power BI report and gotten an unexpected or inconsistent result, then spent an absurd amount of time trying to figure where the result came from? This happens with almost everyone when they start writing DAX. The key to understanding DAX is context, evaluation context. This session won’t provide the magic bullet to becoming a master at DAX, but will help you understand evaluation context, so the next time you create a measure, the result will be not only consistent, but expected.
Level: Beginner
Target Audience: BI Developers & Analysts
Slides: Understanding DAX – It’s All About the Context – Updated 9/17/2021
What is Azure Purview and Why Do I Need It
Your company has amassed more data than it can possibly use, yet no one can find the data they need. Your company also deals with sensitive data, but you have no idea what your exposure is should a breach occur. This session will introduce you to Azure Purview, what problems it was designed to solve for, and show you how to create a Purview Account in your Azure tenant.
Level: Intermediate
Target Audience: Anybody who deals with data governance
Slides: What is Azure Purview – Update 3/12/2022
Can Microsoft Purview Answer All Your Data Governance Needs
Your company has amassed more data than it can possibly use, yet no one can find the data they need. Your company also deals with sensitive data, but you have no idea what your exposure is should a breach occur. This session will introduce you to Azure Purview and what problems it was designed to solve for. We’ll walk through all the major features of Purview, including Data Map, Data Catalog, Workflows, Policies, and Insights to see if Azure Purview can answer all your data governance needs.
Level: Intermediate
Target Audience: Anybody who deals with data governance
Slides: Coming Soon
Identifying and Preventing Unauthorized Power BI Gateways
Power BI has taken off at your company, but now you have who knows how many on-premises data gateways in your organization. If you need to easily identify all your on-premises data gateways or prevent gateways from being installed, then you don’t want to miss this quick tip session.
Level: Intermediate
Target Audience: Anybody who deals with data governance, Power BI Administrators
Slides: Coming Soon
Intro to Azure Data Catalog (retired)
Your company has amassed more data than it can possibly use, yet no one can find the data they need. This is more common than you think. With Azure Data Catalog, anyone can find the data they are looking for, no matter the data source. This session will introduce you to Azure Data Catalog, what it is, how you can use it and why everyone should be using it.
Level: Beginner
Target Audience: DBAs, Developers & Analysts, IT Managers/Executives
Slides: Intro to Azure Data Catalog – Updated 9/17/2021
SQLSwimmer 