Chicago – full-day: March 4, 2016
San Jose, CA – 2 hour session at the PASS BAC, May 3-4, 2016
Will you be in the Chicago area on March 4th? So will I and you can learn to use Power BI to design real business solutions at my full-day Power BI Hands-On Workshop one day before the Chicago SQL Saturday #484. I’ve delivered this at other preconference events with sell-out attendance. Thank you to all who have attended in other locations. An abbreviated version was delivered at the PASS Global Summit this past November and I’ll be doing a quick two-hour abbreviated session at the PASS Business Analytics Conference this coming Spring in San Jose, CA.
Here’s a copy of the entire event description page below. You can register here.
This engaging workshop will teach attendees how to use Power BI Desktop to create a complete solution delivering dashboards, self-service and mobile BI. Attendees will learn to analyze information using impactful and interactive visualizations. We will create a solution using a variety of data sources that can be used on the desktop by Data Analysts or for group collaboration in the Power BI secure cloud service.
Attendees should have a basic knowledge of database concepts and should know how to use Excel 2013 or newer.
Computer Requirements
Bring your laptop running Windows 7 or newer (4 GB of RAM is required, more is better, 64 bit OS recommended). Before the session, attendees should download and install the Power BI Desktop and create a free account at PowerBI.com (90% of the exercises can be completed in Power BI Desktop without a PowerBI.com subscription.) Note that to create a subscription you must use a work email address rather than an address from a free mail provider such as Hotmail, GMail or Yahoo!. If you have any difficulty getting signed up, follow the directions at this post.
At the conclusion, attendees will know how to use Power Query to combine and transform data from different sources; Power Pivot to model data for reporting and discovery, and write calculations, KPIs and complex metrics. They will learn to use Power BI report visuals to create interactive visualizations and dashboards, and Excel PivotTables, PivotCharts, slicers, conditional formating and advanced features to create collaborative dashboards and reports. Finally, attendees will learn to deliver a collaborative BI solution in Power BI online enabling natural language queries with Power BI Q&A, scheduled data refresh and queries using live, on-premises data. We will also introduce enterprise capabilities which include connectivity to live, on-premises data sources through DirectQuery and Analysis Services.
BI Solution Components
Begin with a brief and high-level introduction to the components of traditional BI solutions to help attendees appreciate the usual scale and cost. Discuss the options to scale these items for small and large projects. Discuss the trade-offs for each and the value of centralized solutions, data quality and master data management. Discuss the challenges of designing, building and maintaining large-scale BI solutions.
Topics covered:
- Introducing the Power BI Dashboard designer
- Universal principles of data behavior
- Universal data problems & visualization principles
- Interactive visuals
- Project types & scale
- Self-service BI & enterprise scale projects
- Power BI project stages
- Managing data transformations with Power Query
- Introduction to advanced “M” script
- Data modeling with Power Pivot
- Introducing DAX Calculations
- Visualizing & exploring with Power BI report visuals
- Building live, interactive dashboards
- Publishing and collaborating with PowerBI.com
- Integrating Excel pivot tables & reports
- Introducing management groups & content packs
- On-premises and large-scale solution options
- Data Management Gateway & scheduled refresh
Registration includes lunch and beverages
When: Friday, March 4, 2016 from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM (CST) – Add to Calendar
Where: DeVry University Addison Campus – 1221 N. Swift Road Chicago, IL 60160 – View Map
