East Midlands Data

___________________________________________________________________________________

MeetUp Agenda

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

___________________________________________________________________________________

Partitioning - Divide and Conquer

Struggling to cope with extremely large tables? Is performance tuning a nightmare? Struggling to delete old data?
The solution you’re looking for could be Partitioning. Properly introduced to SQL Server with 2005, and available in all editions since SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 1, partitioning allows you to split your tables into manageable chunks without having to rebuild your code and applications
In this session, I’ll take you through the benefits of partitioning, implementation best practices, pitfalls to avoid, and strategies you can take away to use.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Venue Website

___________________________________________________________________________________

MeetUp Agenda

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

___________________________________________________________________________________

Taking the Fear out of Tabular Editor

There is a lot of talk about how as a professional Power BI developer, you should use Tabular Editor. Yet when you open it, it’s daunting. Where do you start, what do these buttons do, how long is it going to take for me to learn this, is it really worth it?

In this session, we will run through the core components of Tabular Editor in normal non programming language. We look at how you can utilise this software to save you time in working with Power BI.

Session Objectives:
- Understand the Tabular Editor 3 interface and its various elements
- Learn how to use Tabular Editor 3 to create and manage Tabular models
- Learn how to use key features of Tabular Editor 3, including the formula bar, expression editor, and DAX functions
- Understand how Tabular Editor 3 can be integrated with Microsoft Analysis Services and Power BI.

Session Plan:
Introduction:
- Brief overview of the session
- Introduce Tabular Editor 3 and its key features and functionalities
Tabular Editor 3 Interface:
- Demonstrate the Tabular Editor 3 interface and its various elements, including the tree view, formula bar, property grid, and expression editor
- Explain how to use the interface to create and manage Tabular models
Using Key Features of Tabular Editor 3:
- Demonstrate how to use the formula bar and expression editor to create and edit DAX expressions
- Explain how to use key DAX functions, such as CALCULATE, SUMX, and AVERAGE
- Discuss other key features, such as the script editor, perspectives, and translations

Conclusion:
- Recap key points covered in the session
- Provide resources for further learning and exploration, such as documentation and online communities."

___________________________________________________________________________________

Venue Website

___________________________________________________________________________________

MeetUp Agenda

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

___________________________________________________________________________________

An Introduction to Azure Databricks

Azure Databricks is a cloud-based platform that provides a unified environment for data engineering, data science, and analytics. It is based on Apache Spark, an open-source framework for distributed computing, and offers various features and benefits that make it a powerful and scalable solution for data-driven applications. In this talk, we will introduce the main concepts and components of Azure Databricks and show how it can help you accelerate your data projects and deliver business value.

Some of the topics that we will cover in this talk are:

• What is Azure Databricks and how does it differ from other cloud services?

• How to create and manage Azure Databricks clusters and workspaces?

• How to use Azure Databricks notebooks and tools for interactive data exploration and collaboration?

• What is Delta Lake and how does it enable reliable and performant data storage and processing?

• What is Unity Catalog and how does it provide data governance and security across your data assets?

• What are Delta Live Tables and how do they enable real-time data ingestion and transformation?

• How to use Azure Databricks workflows and pipelines to orchestrate and automate your data workflows?

• How to use Azure Databricks to run Spark streaming jobs and handle streaming data sources?

By the end of this talk, you will have a better understanding of Azure Databricks and its capabilities, and you will be able to start using it for your own data projects. You will also learn some best practices and tips for working with Azure Databricks and optimizing its performance and cost. Whether you are new to Azure Databricks or already have some experience with it, this talk will provide you with valuable insights and knowledge that you can apply to your data scenarios.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Venue Website

___________________________________________________________________________________

MeetUp Agenda

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

___________________________________________________________________________________

Delivering Real World Actionable Finance P&L Dashboards in Power BI - Data Engineering to Analytics

Getting from data engineering to real-world analytics is always a challenge, especially in the finance sector. In this session we'll show you how to do exactly that using advanced techniques in Power BI, covering data modelling and Zebra BI custom visuals.

For example:
• How can we reduce our monthly, quarterly and yearly review meeting time and focus on measures to be taken?
• What is the best way to create actionable finance dashboards?
• How can we overcome performance issues within our P&L statement in Power BI?

We'll take a look at the financial services industry from a backend and frontend perspective covering data engineering possibilities and focusing on a real-world Power BI dashboard being the most used report in a global organization. Learn everything from data modelling, power query transformations (M), high performing DAX calculations and visualization advantages to create a complete profit and loss (P&L) statement that finance and controlling can use daily.
As a bonus, learn all the skills required to add real value to your reporting approach across other industries using the Microsoft tools.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Venue Website