When: Thursday 21st November 2024 Time: arrive for 5:45pm with talks starting from 6pm start prompt.

Location: BJSS, 90 Victoria St, Redcliffe, BS1 6DP

Complimentary drinks & pizza provided by our hosts BJSS

*Social drinks afterwards will be at Ye Shakespeare (50m away) for those interested.

This month's #MSFABRICBRISTOL will feature James Dales and Lazarus Viastikopoulos

Session 1 - Geospatial Analytics in Power BI - James Dales This session will look at how to achieve some of the more advanced mapping requirements in Power BI. For example working with your own polygons to create drill-down choropleth maps, drawing lines, shapes and images to create interactive utility network diagrams and clustering data using the H3 hexagon grid system. We’ll examine the out of the box capabilities using Azure Maps and ArcGIS as well as the new Icon Map Pro visual.

About James I'm the co-founder and CEO of Tekantis - a Geospatial Data and AI company, We're developing products to bring geospatial analytics and expertise to the low-code environment via Microsoft Fabric and Power BI. Microsoft Data Platform MVP since 2018. Microsoft FastTrack Recognized Solution Architect since 2020. Co-organiser of London Power BI user group. Contributor to the code base of Power BI.

Session 2 - Creating Power BI Reports that Deliver - Lazarus Viastikopoulos

In this session, we'll explore crucial elements I've gathered from real client experiences. I am hearing dashboards are dead, it's not that they are dead, but that the information we display often misses the mark. Join me as we walk through an interactive solution, covering core principles like gathering requirements, engaging the right people, and ensuring business value is front and centre.

About Lazarus With over a decade of experience in data analytics, Laz has a deep passion for data storytelling and governance. As Founder and CEO of Metis BI, a Power BI and Analytics consultancy, he offers tailored solutions that go beyond technical fixes, focusing on delivering real value for his clients.

We all look forward to seeing you there!!

_________________

MeetUp Agenda

18:00 - Arrive. Networking 18:30 - Guest Speaker Talk 19:30 - Buffet. Networking 20:30 - Event Close

_________________

Realtime Streaming of Aircraft Data Using Microsoft Fabric

We will use the real-time analytics capabilities of Microsoft Fabric to ingest data about aircraft captured using a Raspberry PI and an antenna from the aircraft's own ADS-B transmissions as they are flying right now! Built live in the session, we'll use Eventstream to stream the data into KQL Database before visualising the locations of 100s of aircraft in range with a Power BI report displayed using the Icon Map custom visual, enabling us to show the flight tracks and the aircraft's direction of travel. We'll be able to analyse flight numbers, types of planes and which operators are currently flying right now. Then extending the solution using KQL's powerful spatial analysis functions we'll be able to explore the busiest areas of sky analysing hundreds of millions of rows of flight tracks in seconds. Microsoft MVP James Dales has used flight data for many years to demonstrate the capabilities of his Icon Map Power BI visual. However, with Microsoft Fabric we have the opportunity to create the end-to-end solution all within the Microsoft Fabric ecosystem and in near real-time!

_________________

Venue Website

http://www.waterfall-derby.com/ _________________

Sponsors

Cloud Formations https://www.cloudformations.org

_________________

Microsoft Community Code of Conduct

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/page/codeofconduct

_________________

Maps have always been Power BI's Achilles' heel. With Shape Map still in preview after eight years, and Azure Maps and ArcGIS Maps not offering the required functionality, many users have turned to custom visuals. Icon Map has been the most popular custom map visual for many years but is no longer being developed or supported.

Join this session to uncover the story behind this and discover its successor, Icon Map Pro. In this demo-heavy session, we’ll explore how to create powerful heatmaps, drill-down choropleth maps, add multiple interactive layers, overcome Power BI's 30,000-row limit, and much more.

Having previously led the Power BI and Microsoft Fabric capabilities at both UK and global level for a large multi-national Microsoft consultancy, James has recently established a new, ambitious data company Tekantis, enabling him to focus on geospatial analytics and data products.

James is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and is the co-leader of the London Fabric and Power BI user group. In 2019 he became the first member of the Power BI Contributors Program, working alongside the Microsoft engineering team to build new functionality into the Power BI product codebase.

He has a keen interest in geospatial and real-time analytics and is the author of the Icon Map and Icon Map Pro custom visuals.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesdales/

https://iconmappro.com/

This October the Birmingham Microsoft Data Platform User Group is launching a FREE brand new in-person event!

Introducing, FabFest 2024!!🎉

It will take place at Millennium Point in Birmingham on October 3rd.

• 1 day
• 7+ sessions
• Non-stop learning

A full day’s learning and networking, and some free refreshment thrown in to boot.

Join us and delve into the world of Microsoft Fabric and AI, featuring seven dynamic sessions. Attendees will start with an introduction plus the latest news from Fabric and AI, then progress to more advanced, practical sessions designed to provide a comprehensive understanding and hands-on experience.

Agenda:

09:20 - Alex Whittles – CEO of Purple Frog Understanding Microsoft Fabric Get a deep dive into Microsoft Fabric and how it’s shaping the future of data platforms.

10:25 - Lewis Prince – AI Engineer at Purple Frog Systems Introduction to AI; What, Why and How? In this session Lewis will break down the stigmas on AI and talk about how AI solutions can help any business in any sector.

11:20 - Barney Lawrence – Specialist Microsoft Data Platform Analytics and Engineering Consultant. What's What and Who's Who? Cross System Record Linkage in Fabric Barney will cover the basics of what deterministic, fuzzy, and probabilistic matching are and then dive into creating and applying a model to example data and look at how to analyse the results.

12:40 - James Dales - CEO at Tekantis Realtime streaming data with Microsoft Fabric James will use the Real-Time Intelligence capabilities of Microsoft Fabric to ingest live aircraft flight data as they are flying right now!

13:35 - Joe Billingham – Senior Data Engineer at Purple Frog Systems Harnessing the Power of the DAX Engine: Storage vs Formula Joe will be breaking down the DAX engine, explaining the difference between the storage and formula engines and how understanding this can help optimisation.

14:40 - Abhinav Jayanty – Data Engineer at Quorum Moneyball: How Data has Revolutionised Analytics in Sports Dive into how data analytics has transformed the world of sports, enhancing strategies and driving performance.

15:35 - Paul Andrew – Co-Founder & CTO of Cloud Formations Administering Microsoft Fabric: Capacities, Workspaces, and Domains In this session, Paul will explore the administration of Microsoft Fabric, with a focus on the organisation and management of data storage/compute through the configuration of capacities, domains, data products, environments and workspaces.

For the full agenda and timing, please visit Agenda – FabFestConf

Please let us know if you have registered and can no longer attend as this frees up space for another attendee.

Sponsors: Purple Frog Systems Power BI Sentinel RP Analytics

We have a monster event planned for the May Power BI, Data and Fabric User Group, and you don't want to miss out!

We have Simon Devine, a local Yorkshire based director at Hopton Analytics with offices in Leeds and London, is a respected figure in the realm of analytics and business intelligence. His work centres around Decision Intelligence, where he is dedicated to crafting solutions that streamline the process from data to decision-making.

Simon will be covering a UI/UX based sessions, "Are you happy if we do this??" where he will dive into best practices for UX/UI in Power BI, exploring what effective design looks like and how it can create a seamless user experience. Learn to craft interfaces that not only look good but also make data analysis intuitive and accessible.

We also have the London based Microsoft MVP James Dales. Fresh from his adventures around the world, James will be travelling over to Leeds to share his session on "Geospatial analytics and mapping with Power BI". In this session packed with back to back demos, James will explore the options for creating maps in Power BI. He'll look at the key capabilities of the Azure Maps and ArcGIS visuals that come bundled with Power BI. Then for those more advanced requirements he'll look at some additional options using custom visuals. Finally he'll explore what the future for spatial analysis in Power BI might look like.

Two incredible session, one amazing evening at an awesome new location, XSEM!

As always there will be plenty of food and refreshments for all, and free parking for those that want to drive.

This is an exclusive In Person event, please RSVP if you are able to attend in person only.

Don't miss out and register today.

PBIBRUM - May meetup!

We will begin with Rishi Sapra ACA, MCT, Microsoft MVP who will be covering: Storytelling With Data

Rishi will walk through the core structure of a gripping story showing how this translates into Power BI using e.g. pre-attentive attributes, presenting data as arguments (Rather than just statements) and providing a ‘so what’ conclusion to the story. He will use real examples from the Power BI data stories gallery to highlight what we can learn about applying these techniques from some of the best data visualisation professionals in the world.

Followed by James Dales as he covers: One map visual to rule them all?

In this session packed with back to back demos, he'll explore the options for creating maps in Power BI. He'll look at the key capabilities of the Azure Maps and ArcGIS visuals that come bundled with Power BI. Then for those more advanced requirements he'll look at some additional options using custom visuals. Finally, he'll explore what the future for spatial analysis in Power BI might look like.

17:45 - Welcome & networking

18:00 - Introductions

18:05 - Rishi Sapra ACA, MCT, Microsoft MVP: Storytelling With Data

18:50 - Break

19:15 - James Dales: One map visual to rule them all?

20:00 - Finish

For our April user group, we will kick off with our own James Dales presenting the latest in maps in Power BI, including the very first preview of a new visual he's creating.

Following that, we have a panel of Program Managers from the Fabric product group, who can take any questions you may have following the announcements of the previous couple of weeks at Fabric Conference in Las Vegas.

Spatial Analytics in Power BI Spatial Analytics and creating maps has never been one of Power BI's strong points, but with some of the older visuals being retired and more investment happening in Azure Maps, we can do more than ever before.

In the session James will cover the capabilities of Azure Maps, showing some of the more advanced features. He will then show some of the new capabilities he is developing in a new map visual for Power BI, that unlocks even more use cases.

About James

Having previously led the Power BI and Microsoft Fabric capabilities at both UK and global level for a large multi-national Microsoft consultancy, James has recently established a new, ambitious Data & AI consultancy, Tekantis.

James is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and is the co-leader of the London Fabric and Power BI user group. In 2019 he became the first member of the Power BI Contributors Program, working alongside the Microsoft engineering team to build new functionality into the Power BI product codebase. He has a keen interest in spatial and real-time analytics and is the author of the Icon Map and Icon Map Pro custom visuals.

AGENDA: 1830 - 18:40 : Introduction, networking, pizza & drinks 18:40 - 19:35 : Spatial Analytics in Power BI 19:40 - 20:30 : Microsoft Panel

VENUE: We will meet at the Nigel Frank Offices at 60 Great Tower Street. If you've not been there before, it's just a little further up the street from Brewdog. Google Maps link to help you find the building: https://goo.gl/maps/GRZWr5LfScZhApu6A

Agenda 18:00 - 18:15 - Welcome 18:15 - 19:00 - Old Name - New CLI - why you should take a look at sqlcmd - Rob Sewell Introduced with SQL Server 2005 and replacing osql, sqlcmd has been a part of SQL Server professionals toolbox for a long time now. Many people only know it from the sqlcmd mode switch in SSMS, while others use it within automation as a lightweight easily available query runner. I have long recommended that DBAs are familiar with using it as it may be the only option to query an instance in severe emergencies. Times they are a changing. There is a new sqlcmd available and it has some awesome new capabilities. Let me introduce you to the new sqlcmd in a fun filled demo session and show you the new things it can do and why they will be of benefit to all Data Professionals We will cover deploying a database into a container from a backup with one command. Querying it, Opening it in Azure Data Studio, all from the command line and much more.

Rob Sewell Be-Whiskered Automator of Things Rob was a SQL Server DBA with a passion for PowerShell, Azure, Automation, and SQL (PaaS geddit?). Now he just helps people make things. He is a Cloud and Data Center MVP and a Data Platform MVP, SQLBits committee member, PSConf EU organiser, and co-leader of Data South West UK User Group. H has spoken at and volunteered at many Data and PowerShell events all over the world. He is a proud supporter of the Data and PowerShell communities. He relishes sharing and learning and can be found doing both via Twitter and his blog. He spends most of his time looking at a screen and loves to solve problems. He knows that looking at a screen so much is bad for him because his wife tells him so. Thus, he is often out riding his bike as his eyes are not good enough to play cricket any more. He has a fabulous beard

17:30 - Pizza and networking

19:30 - 20:45 - Realtime streaming data with Microsoft Fabric - James Dales Realtime streaming data is now possible within Microsoft’s new SaaS environment, Microsoft Fabric, without any Azure resources required. In this session we’ll stream data from aircraft transponder data and other sensors directly into Microsoft Fabric via EventStream into KQL DB and OneLake, and analyse the results, both live and historic in Power BI. The session will be back to back demos as we build the whole solution from scratch – what could go wrong!?

James Dales James Dales is the Global Capability Lead for Microsoft Fabric and Power BI at Avanade and is a Microsoft FastTrack Recognised Solution Architect. As a Microsoft Data Platform MVP he is the co-leader of the London Power BI user group. In 2019 he became the first member of the Power BI Contributors Program, working alongside the Microsoft engineering team to build new functionality into the Power BI product itself. He has a keen interest in spatial analytics and is the author of the Icon Map custom visual.