The Season of SQLSaturdays has begun

Date Location Submission Status 4/2 SQLSat 497 Huntington Beach CA SPEAKING Speaking just after lunch! 5/21 SQLSat 521 Atlanta GA SPEAKING! 6/4 SLQSat 517 Philly SPEAKING! 8am (someone hates me) 6/25 SQLSat 498 Chattanooga SPEAKING! Mid Morning 7/16 SQLSat 527 Columbus, OH SPEAKING! 8/13 SQLSat 530 Indianapolis SPEAKING! Last slot of the day, pretty sure that I have held that spot every time.

This is the current plan, of course there will be more added. I have been working on a new session, guessing that deadline of needing to present it on 4/2 will really help. I’m planning a what’s new in Microsoft Business Intelligence 2016 – More Love . . . → Read More: The Season of SQLSaturdays has begun

Visualizing SQLSaturday Data–Session Details

Recently I downloaded the session submissions report from the SQLSaturday Admin site, it was time to work on the schedule. But first I must upload it into my SQLSat480 database. I like having a database year over year and I just love to play with data. So I ran some queries to give me information about my submissions. While relaying these details to my husband I declared “I need to put this into PowerBI”. When he got home from work he was able to see what it was I had created and said “so what did that take you like half an hour”, “Pffft!” I said, “like 10 minutes”. On . . . → Read More: Visualizing SQLSaturday Data–Session Details

#TSQL2SDAY – Data Modeling Gone Wrong

Here we are again, time for TSQL2sDay. This is actually the 72nd one, that is long enough to finance and pay off a car these days. This month our gracious host is none other than Mickey Stuewe ( BLOG | TWITTER ) and she’s asked us to tell a story about Data Modeling Gone Wrong. I have to say that I really no nothing about a data model going wrong. Now hold on I am not done yet. You are wondering WTH?! is this girl still sick? Has she lost her marbles? I’ve never had these issues because:

Reasons Applications Egos

 

Reasons

First of all, you have to . . . → Read More: #TSQL2SDAY – Data Modeling Gone Wrong

Power BI–Visualizing SQLSaturday Data

Inside SQLSaturday

This morning I was having a discussion with my husband about our SQLSaturday location. He is extremely concerned that moving the event further away from downtown Nashville would hurt attendance. I tried discussing it with him but he finally said “I’d like to see the data so we could know where everyone is coming from.” I said well I have all the data give me a minute. 10 minutes later I am Skyping him asking how to share with him the 2 Power BI maps I have made.

How did we get here? I ran the last 2 Nashville SQLSaturday events. Because I took a big leap in . . . → Read More: Power BI–Visualizing SQLSaturday Data

Starting over with Power BI

I had decided it was time to write a new presentation and happily chose Power BI, being that it’s the new hotness and looks to be the future of Business Intelligence. My timing couldn’t have been better with the general release going live recently it seems like now is the time to get going. I have titled this starting over because I had been using Power BI to create maps and other fun things inside Excel; it seems fitting since the changes to Power BI are coming in fast and furious. So I am here to tell you what it took to get back on track with this new release.

. . . → Read More: Starting over with Power BI

#SQLSatIndy, Shaving Yak and Power BI

You are probably wondering how these things are all related. I love summer, when there isn’t a signed SOW I can find a million things to do outdoors. I love being out in the sun. This leaves me very unmotivated to be indoors doing things, like writing new presentations. Hence the problem.

The Indianapolis SQLSaturday is near and dear to our hearts. First we love Hope Foley [ BLOG | TWITTER ], she’s one kick ass woman and she’ really an inspiration. Next Indy is only an hour away from our family and they were the first user group I ever attended. So it’s no surprise that we both submitted . . . → Read More: #SQLSatIndy, Shaving Yak and Power BI

5 Simple things I forget about SSRS – Multi Select Parameters

For some reason whenever I get to working on a report I am really irritated at how I “forget” that SSRS doesn’t handle multi-select parameters at all. I am irritated at myself for pushing this horrid fact from my brain, my reluctance to remember or maybe that the painful truth is a coping mechanism or I am just in denial–maybe it’s been fixed.. Then I am reminded how Microsoft failed us by not making this an actual feature. I feel the writing has been on the wall for a while now SSRS is a fading technology. I do however know that there will be SSRS servers running for years to . . . → Read More: 5 Simple things I forget about SSRS – Multi Select Parameters

Inside SQLSaturday – Romancing your Sponsors

Romancing your Sponsors

To be honest, this seems like a no brainer, but I have noticed that in some locations the sponsors are just “there” so to speak. So these are my tips and a lot of them I have gathered from the sponsors over the last year or so.

Make sure your sponsor area gets good foot traffic–this is how they meet your attendees. Don’t build rooms as tracks that would keep folks in 1 room or one end of a building the entire day. Have lunch set up early and allow the sponsors and lunch speakers to go through so they will be ready for the lunch break. . . . → Read More: Inside SQLSaturday – Romancing your Sponsors

5 Simple things I always forget about SSRS – Custom Color Palette

There are spells where I am inside SSRS daily and then there are some stretches of time where I wrapped up doing other things and don’t see SSRS for months on end. I always seem “surprised” when I forget some of SSRS’s behaviors. I am sure sometimes I am just pushing the bad out of my head and other times it might be that I just don’t use it often enough to keep that info close to the top of my stack. So I decided that I should start a small blog series as a gentle reminder to myself and maybe along the way it will help someone else.

Custom . . . → Read More: 5 Simple things I always forget about SSRS – Custom Color Palette

Nashville’s BI User Group – 1st Meeting

WOW!

So that is about the only word I can use to sum up how I feel about last night’s meeting.

We had about 45 of #BIHappyHour in the hotel lobby, it was a little cramped but we were not moving into the open spaces very well. In the future will will do a better job of herding folks into more open space. It warmed my heart to see so many people chatting and introducing themselves. Our food was delivered, special thanks to my Dad and my husband for going to pick it up! I thought the food was awesome and I didn’t get to eat any of it until . . . → Read More: Nashville’s BI User Group – 1st Meeting