SQLSaturday #800 - Atlanta - BI Edition 2018
Event Date: 09/22/2018 00:00:00
Event Location:
- Microsoft
- 8000 Avalon Boulevard, Suite 900
- Alpharetta, Georgia
This event has completed. All data shown below is from the historical XML public data available.
If there are any data quality issues or corrections needed, please contact the webmaster for this site or submit a pull request for the appropriate file(s).
Sessions
This is a list of sessions from the event, based on the schedule in the XML files.
Title: The Power of Data: The Complete Beginners Data Warehouse Kit
Abstract: For many of us data is scattered in many different systems. We almost all have data that someone wants to compare or track but can’t without a lot of manual manipulation. So, how do you tie disparate systems together? With a Data Warehouse! In this presentation you will get the skills you need to start building your own. We will discuss the basics of what a Data Warehouse is, the tools needed to create, deploy and manage the Data Warehouse process, and the benefits of using the data you collect to manage operational processes and create data visualizations. After attending this session you will be able to return to your job and amaze people with your ability to show them the power of the data!
Speaker(s):
- Leslie Andrews
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Big Creek
Title: Azure Data Factory + SSIS: Migrating your ETLs to the Cloud.
Abstract: Thinking about migrating your data warehouse to the cloud? What about all those SSIS packages executing ETLs against your on-prem data sources? In this presentation we will discuss how to successfully “lift and shift” your ETL workloads to the Azure cloud. You will l learn how to configure and deploy an Integration Runtime, deploy and execute SSIS packages in an Azure Data Factory pipeline, and how to monitor and troubleshoot your ETL executions in the cloud. Attendees will walk-away with an understanding of the features, capabilities and limitations of Azure Data Factory and the Integration Runtime and a strategy to leverage your existing SSIS package development efforts to the cloud.
Speaker(s):
- Jose Chinchilla
Track and Room: Data Integration - Piedmont Park
Title: My Power BI report is slow: what should I do?
Abstract: You created a wonderful Power BI report, but when you open it you wait too much time. Changing a slicer selection is also slow. Where should you start analyzing the problem? What can you do to optimize performance? This session will guide you in analyzing the possible reasons for a slow Power BI report. By using Task Manager and DAX Studio, you will be able to determine whether you should change the report layout, or if there is something in DAX formulas or in the data model that is responsible for the slow response. At the end of this session, you will understand how to locate a performance bottleneck in a Power BI report, so you will focus your attention on the biggest issue.
Speaker(s):
- Marco Russo
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Grant Park
Title: Introduction to Azure AI - The Art of the possible
Abstract: According to the Economist magazine, data is the world’s most valuable resource. So, it makes sense that Data Science, Azure Machine Learning, and Analytics are all becoming core pieces to the success of every business. As data professionals, we need to know how these core pieces will affect what we do, and how we can use the Azure AI suite to help our clients. Microsoft’s AI suite is the central hub for learning and implementing each of these core pieces. Using an easy to follow example, I will show the flow from problem to solution. Multiple demonstrations of the different pieces will show use cases of the AI suite. This overview of Azure AI will use the various pieces like a puzzle which, when brought together, will form a seamless picture of the whole so that participants can see that the individual pieces were meant to work together.
Speaker(s):
- Melody Zacharias
Track and Room: Strategy and Architecture - Centennial
Title: Best Practices for Delivering Sharing Content in Power BI
Abstract: Power BI offers several ways to deliver and distribute content for internal colleagues and external users. In this session we will clarify when using the sharing functionality is appropriate, and techniques to effectively use My Workspace versus App Workspaces. We will discuss situations when a Power BI App becomes the optimal way to distribute content. We will also cover when to consider utilizing Power BI Premium, Power BI Embedded, or Power BI Report Server. You will leave this session with an understanding of options for collaboration and distribution of content in the context of personal BI, small teams, large teams, and enterprise-wide BI initiatives.
Speaker(s):
- Melissa Coates
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Piedmont Park
Title: How to Perform a Health Check
Abstract: Are you uncertain about the health and capacity of your SQL Server? Are you taking over a new server and need to get a better understanding of the health of the server? Are you uncertain if your servers are following industry best practices?
In this session we will start by discussing the importance of performing a Health Check. We will then show how to run the popular Blitz script by Brent Ozar. After that we will review the other key areas to check like the VM configuration, Windows Configuration, SQL Configuration, Security configuration, and Database configuration. Finally, we’ll show how to save the results for capacity and trending analysis
At the end of the session you will be able to: (1) Perform a Health Check on a server; (2) List the key areas for improvement; (3) Save the results for capacity and trending analysis.
Speaker(s):
- Edward Roepe
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Powers Island
Title: Mentoring Women in Tech: A Guide for Men Women Who Want to Help
Abstract: Women make up less than 20% of the tech world and they’re leaving the field at a rate over 3 times the rate that men are. Women cite lack of effective mentorship as one of the leading reasons for their exodus. Whether you’re a colleague, a manager or someone who wants to change the status quo, your opportunity to effectively tip the scales changes.
What do you do for a living, what level are you at in your career and are you in any kind of management role? Can utilizing women’s groups either at work or via a professional organization work for you? In this session, we’ll discuss different ways you can mentor and sponsor women in tech. We’ll provide concrete steps you can take to mentor, sponsor or just offer support. These solutions vary based on who YOU are, where you are in your career, if you have hiring/promotion influence, etc. Learn how you can make a difference.
Speaker(s):
- Rie Irish
Track and Room: Professional Development - Palisades
Title: Taming of the Shrew - Optimizing Power BI
Abstract: No one wants to tell a report user that while running a report in Power BI they have time to go get a cup of coffee…in another town. Although data sets will often be the focus of performance issues, it’s important to know how to locate performance problems in Power BI and how to eliminate them.
This session will take the Power User through how to identify time consuming processing in Power BI and how to address it through step-by-step and proven methods used to optimize in multi-tier environments. This method removes frustration and finger-pointing and gets to the heart of the problem with a goal of correcting performance challenges. The results are satisfied end users who get the information they need, when they need it.
Take Aways: Learn how to identify what is taking the time in a Power BI data set and report. Understand the logging and tracing mechanisms and capabilities in the environment. Understand when a problem is really a problem.
Speaker(s):
- Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman
Track and Room: Advanced Analysis Techniques - Piedmont Park
Title: Power BI for Healthcare
Abstract: Healthcare organizations are constantly evolving in managing, transforming and analyzing clinical, operational and financial data to improve care and reduce cost. On the other hand, Microsoft’s Power BI is becoming a tool of choice in organizations across all industries. With its powerful capabilities, Power BI can serve as a versatile tool to prepare, analyze and visualize data in Healthcare organizations already using Microsoft Technologies for data management and work flows.
This session will provide an overview of how Microsoft Excel users and Power BI beginners in healthcare organizations can transition to Power BI for an agile data analysis and visualization. We will discuss use cases and illustrate rapid data processing and visualization using a sample healthcare dataset (Electronic Health Record or Claims Data).
Takeaways: • Understand the path from Microsoft Excel to Power BI • Connect and prepare data • Model and analyze data • Create and publish reports and dashboard
Speaker(s):
- Shakeel Khan
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Bellwood Quarry
Title: Power BI Deployment Strategies: The Business versus I.T.
Abstract:
Microsoft’s Power BI service has allowed end users and business analysts to exercise their creativity as developers. The expansion of department resources to create elegant and visually appealing reports for themselves and their organization at a fast pace, has taken some of the burden off developers, or has it?
Are you hoarding your environment with unorganized piles of data to feed your wonderful Power BI reports? In this life of point and click, drag and drop reporting, we sometimes lose sight of cohesive business standards, data integration and data modeling.
In this session, we will look at potential data management concerns that include but are not limited to; overlapping data, inconsistent naming conventions, undocumented transformations, mismatch data types and varying granularity. We will focus on the importance of having a solid data model and managing data governance using Power BI as well as traditional tools and best practices.
Speaker(s):
- Jeremy Frye
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Powers Island
Title: A Whistle stop Tour of Microsoft SQL Server and Azure BI Offerings
Abstract: Get ready for a wild ride as we identify discuss the combination of Microsoft technologies which make up the “Data territory”, the offerings for BI/DW/Data Science practitioners. Some parts of the territory are ripe w/opportunity while other less-discovered parts are a bit hostile.
We’ll leave the engine running at each stop but spend enough time for the passengers to understand exactly what the various components mean. Throughout the tour, we’ll talk to the applicability of the components based on sizes of data (and customer).
At journey’s end, the attendee will want to take action and their own path into Microsoft “Data Territory”.
Learnings: Attendees will have a more complete view of Microsoft’s SQL Server and Azure BI “Data Platform” offerings Attendees can expect to be whisked into aspects of the Microsoft Offerings they may have never heard of or understood. Attendees should be able to correlate the various Microsoft offerings to the size and scope of their own projects
Speaker(s):
- Trey Johnson
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Palisades
Title: Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Services, and Power BI
Abstract: Microsoft Cognitive services is a series of services based on Microsoft Research using Deep Learning techniques, ready for you to enrich your unstructured data. Microsoft Services includes: Vision (Computer Vision, Emotion, Face, Video), Speech/Language (Speaker Recognition, Spell, Sentiment, Language, Key Phrases, Topic detection, Linguistic Analysis), Knowledge, and Search. These services are consumed by using the Cognitive Services APIs. Power BI enables you to consume the APIs to enrich your unstructured data inside your Power BI solutions. During this session, we will cover how to consume the API using Power Query to then visualize the results with Power BI visuals. We will also consume the Cognitive services API by using a R script inside Power BI. This session is structured with a B2C Survey case study solution with a real time Dashboard using a streaming dataset.
Speaker(s):
- Paco Gonzalez
Track and Room: Data Science - Palisades
Title: Creating Near Real Time ETLs Using Serverless Architecture
Abstract: Demand for up to the minute data has increased as businesses leverage their reporting to make decisions based on current conditions. This requires a different type of ETL architecture that can consume individual events as they occur instead of bulk processing.
Azure offers several services to fill this need, to the point where the sheer number and variety of them can become confusing. We’ll take a look at these different options individually as well as how they can fit together to create flexible, scalable stream of data.
The focus will be on Azure’s serverless offerings, but other PaaS services will be discussed where they may interact with a serverless design.
Speaker(s):
- Samara Soucy
Track and Room: Cloud Application Development Deployment - Bellwood Quarry
Title: Power BI: Best Practices for Designing Reports and Visuals
Abstract: in this session I will provide best practices for designing reports in Power BI. Starting with planning, it discusses principles of design that you can apply to your reports and to the pages and individual visuals that make up that report. Many of these best practices apply to dashboard design as well.
Speaker(s):
- Patrick LeBlanc
Track and Room: BI Reporting - Grant Park
Title: Create IaaS SQL Server Test Premise Environment in Azure Cloud
Abstract: Why create a SQL Server Test premise environment in Azure cloud? One of the first steps into moving to Azure cloud, is building an environment that looks a feels like premise but only in the cloud. This session is an overview of getting started with basics of Azure environment, such as Accounts, virtual networks, Storage and creating virtual machines.. Once we fly by reviewing several building blocks, we then build Active Directory VM, SQL Server VM and App Server Tier VM using Azure portal and PowerShell.
Speaker(s):
- Michael Wharton
Track and Room: Cloud Application Development Deployment - Bellwood Quarry
Title: Power BI Next Gen
Abstract: With recent announcements from the Microsoft Business Applications Summit around new updates coming later this year, there will be some big changes to how Power BI will work even better in your organizations. The late July update of Power BI Desktop brought some game-changer preview features with Composite models and other ways to connect and interact with data. Come hear more about what’s in store for the rest of 2018 for Power BI and some recommendations on how to prepare for these changes to take best advantage of the tools. Bring your questions and we’ll discuss how they can be answered and addressed to help your Power BI journey.
Speaker(s):
- Dan Evans
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Centennial
Title: Create Amazing Custom Visualizations in Power BI using ggplot2
Abstract: Power BI offers great visualizations capabilities. You have powerful visualizations that comes pre-packaged in Power BI and you also have access to amazing visualizations in the AppSource marketplace. Even with those features you may find yourself in need to create your own custom visualization. Fortunately, you can easily do so leveraging the built-in R integration in Power BI. In this session we will learn how to create production quality visualizations in Power BI by using the ggplot package from R, along with a few supporting R packages.
Speaker(s):
- Ryan Wade
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Powers Island
Title: Should This Be Normalized? When Database Normalization Seems Abnormal
Abstract: Ever since database normalization was introduced as a concept by Edgar Codd, there has been continuous debate on how far we should go to eliminate data redundancy. A new developer may be asking why there is a need to create multiple tables, and a DBA may be concerned that performance is being sacrificed. In this semi-interactive talk, we’ll discuss 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Boyce-Codd Normal Forms, evaluate the pros and cons of normalization and denormalization for integrity and performance, and run through some demos involving scenarios of various data model formats. All to answer the question, “should…this…be…normalized?”
Speaker(s):
- Chris Voss
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Bellwood Quarry
Title: How to win Dev and influence QA
Abstract: Are you having a hard time enforcing or updating processes? Are you having trouble getting the business to see your vision of the future? Do you want to improve process or tasks at your office? Your answer to these challenges may be to improve relationships with key departments like Development and Quality Assurance.
In this session, I will go over steps I took to improve relationships with other members of the IT department. I will also discuss how improving my relationships helped me accomplish my long-term goals.
Speaker(s):
- Elizabeth Noble
Track and Room: Professional Development - Big Creek
Title: Data Quality - Plain Simple
Abstract: Data quality is a subject that comes up over and over again in many organizations. Most executives are concerned about the quality of the information used in their decisions. We talk about “good data” and “bad data” but what do those terms mean? In this presentation, we will first define what data quality is and look at how to measure it with data quality dimensions. Then, we’ll explore common causes for data quality issues and how to perform a data quality assessment. Finally, we’ll review the results and discuss some strategies and tools that can help improve the quality of the data in your organization.
Speaker(s):
- Neal Waterstreet
Track and Room: Strategy and Architecture - Grant Park
Title: Applying Data Warehousing Principles
Abstract: Many data analysts typically begin to work with data as a single flat table. While this works for small datasets, as the size of the data grows these naive methods do not scale. Processing records takes longer, queries become more complex, and introducing new datasets is inconsistent at best. In order to solve these problems, we must take into account the underlying architecture of our data and how it should be modeled. During this talk we will discuss key concepts, patterns, and techniques for designing a data model that is simple to query, scales with your data, and is extendable to new datasets.
Speaker(s):
- Spencer Swindell
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Big Creek
Title: Using Artificial Intelligence and Power BI to detect Audience Emotion
Abstract: Our facial expressions tell a million stories each time they change. Your eyes, your mouth, and the lines in your forehead all contribute to how you are feeling at that moment. Now imagine trying to quickly detect the emotion of ever person in an audience. Almost impossible or is it. Join me in this session where I will explain and demonstrate how to I used Microsoft’s Vision API and Power BI to build a vision-enable application to detect the emotions of individuals attending my presentation. This is a demo-heavy session that you don’t want to miss.
Speaker(s):
- Patrick LeBlanc
Track and Room: Advanced Analysis Techniques - Grant Park
Title: The function of Windowing Functions
Abstract: What is a windowing function? What do I do with them? Are they actually useful?
By the end of the class, you’ll be asking yourself -
Why haven’t I used these before? How can I use them more often?
Learn more about the class of functions that are known as “windowing functions” and why you should get to know them more!
Speaker(s):
- Kevin Wilkie
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Powers Island
Title: Getting started with Azure Machine Learning Services
Abstract: Azure Machine Learning services is an integrated, end-to-end data science and advanced analytics solution that provides professional data scientists and data engineers with tools not only to develop ML models, but also tools for data preparation and wrangling, data visualization, model deployment and model management at cloud scale. The session will teach the attendees how to get their hands on each tool in the stack.
Speaker(s):
- Bhakthi Liyanage
Track and Room: Data Science - Piedmont Park
Title: All (Data) Things Considered: The Lean Coffee Workshop
Abstract: Collaboration is the heart of SQLSaturday’s, but too often attendees move from session to session in a passive learning mode. This session is based on the Lean Coffee model, and is a structured workshop with no pre-planned agenda. The goal is to involve YOU in the conversation; bring your questions, your answers, your business cards, and your desire to learn. YOU set the agenda, YOU decide when to move on, and YOU engage and learn.
Speaker(s):
- Stuart Ainsworth
Track and Room: Professional Development - Palisades
Title: Debugging common DAX and Model performance issues
Abstract: In this session, we will explore real-world DAX and Model performance scenarios. These scenarios range from memory pressure to high CPU load. Once you see the problem, watch as we will dive into the model and improve performance by going through concrete examples. Will it be fixed by optimizing the DAX statement or by making changes to the model? Come watch to find out!
Speaker(s):
- Adam Saxton
Track and Room: BI Reporting - Piedmont Park
Title: Introduction to Azure Search
Abstract: In this session I will introduce the features and use cases for Azure Search, based on an implementation by Innovative Architects. Learn how IA leveraged Azure Search to quickly perform “fuzzy matching” on a client’s product catalog. Topics covered: Creating an Azure Search, Indexes, documents, natural language ability, scoring profiles, and a few more good things.
Speaker(s):
- Julie Smith
Track and Room: Application Database Development - Powers Island
Title: Bridge Analytics and Developer Worlds with Power BI and PowerApps
Abstract: One of the Power BI most prominent strengths is that it’s a part of the much broader Microsoft Data Platform that spans various on-premises and cloud offerings for data storage, processing, and analysis. Join me to learn how to integrate Power BI with PowerApps and discover exciting new possibilities that redefine the meaning of a report. During this entirely hands-on, no-slides session, I’ll walk you through the steps to implement a popular report requirement for writeback, that Power BI doesn’t natively support.
Speaker(s):
- Teo Lachev
Track and Room: Advanced Analysis Techniques - Centennial
Title: A Beginner’s Guide to Power BI
Abstract: Are you new to Power BI? Do you want to learn what all the buzz is about and how to use it from a purely novice standpoint? Do you need to ramp up quickly to be able to build some great visualizations? This session is the session that you need! We will walk you through the basic architecture and nuances of Power BI all the while taking a fun adventure to building your first Power BI report. The attendee will leave the class ready to start using Power BI in the real world.
Speaker(s):
- Ed Watson
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Centennial
Title: Getting started with Tabular Analysis Services
Abstract: This session will give the basics of starting a tabular model with Analysis Services 2016 and PivotTables from Excel. We will start by opening the Visual Studio environment to create a Solution/Project. The Fact and Dimension tables will be imported and Filtered. Basic attribute and hierarchies will be created along with some calculations on the fact data. The Deployed project will be previewed in Excel and Power BI.
Speaker(s):
- Thomas LeBlanc
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Grant Park
Title: Whipping Away Stress
Abstract: Did you know stress releases chemicals into the blood? These chemicals give more energy and strength, which can be a positive if the stress is caused by physical danger. But this can also be a negative, if the stress is in response to something emotional and there is no way to release the extra energy and strength. Need stress management techniques? Stressed out? Learn how to cope and ultimately whip stress away.
Speaker(s):
- Karlyn LeBlanc
Track and Room: Professional Development - Palisades
Title: Little and Large - Cubes to Scale
Abstract: In 2018 creating a cube is one of the easier tasks in BI, however what happens when the cube you inherit is so big that it officially becomes the biggest cube in the Midwest, and therefore one of the biggest cubes in the country? This session shows how to handle tabular models of size and scale. It also delves into what assistance and considerations are required when considering moving, or even building, your cubes in Azure.
Speaker(s):
- George Bryant
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Big Creek
Title: Using Your On-prem Data in a Cloud World
Abstract: Microsoft Power BI, Flow, and PowerApps are powerful cloud tools that can take your on-premises data to new heights. Using your data where it is now gives you the ability to invest in improving processes, instead of focusing on a data migration strategy.
In this session, we will discover the benefits of using the cloud tools, how those benefits translate to being on-prem, and how we can use the data in Office 365 as well. We will setup a data gateway, connect to on-prem data sources, and use that data in Office 365 and SharePoint.
Speaker(s):
- Daniel Glenn
Track and Room: Cloud Application Development Deployment - Bellwood Quarry
Title: Performance Monitoring Analysis Services Tabular
Abstract: Learn about how SSAS Tabular utilizes system resources and how to monitor its performance.
You will see demos of how to use SQL Server Extended Events, Windows Perfmon, and SSAS DMVs to collect SSAS performance metrics. You will learn different options for storing and querying these metrics and how to use them to identify performance problems such as memory/processor bottlenecks.
Finally you will see a demo of a set of Power BI reports that display the collected performance data.
While this session focuses on SSAS Tabular servers many of the concepts apply to SSAS Multidimensional servers as well.
Speaker(s):
- Shabnam Watson
Track and Room: BI Platform Architecture, Development Administration - Grant Park
Title: Advanced Analytics with Power BI
Abstract: Power BI has become an increasingly important data analytics tool. This presentation focuses on the advanced analytics options currently available in Power BI. Attendees to this talk will see:
· Microsoft’s perspective on advanced analytics development: the Team Data Science Process
· What the general options are for advanced analytics on Azure
· What the specific native advanced analytics capabilities are in Power BI
· Some ideas on pairing Power BI with other technologies in advanced analytics architectures
Speaker(s):
- Mark Tabladillo
Track and Room: Analytics and Visualization - Big Creek
Speakers
This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.
Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman
Twitter: - DBAKevlar
LinkedIn: Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman
Contact: http://dbakevlar.com
Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman is a member of the Oak Table Network and an Idera ACE and Oracle ACE Director alumnus. She is a Data Platform Architect in Power BI with AI in the EdTech group at Microsoft. Kellyn is known for her extensive work with multi-database platforms, DevOps, cloud migrations, virtualization, visualizations, scripting, environment optimization tuning, automation, and architecture design.
Kellyn has spoken at numerous technical conferences for Oracle, Big Data, DevOps, testing, and SQL Server. Her blog (http://dbakevlar.com) and social media activity under her handle, DBAKevlar, is well respected for her insight and content.
Teo Lachev
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/tlachev
LinkedIn: Teo Lachev
Contact: http://prologika.com/cs/blogs
Teo Lachev is an internationally-recognized authority on Data Analytics. Through his Atlanta-based company Prologika, a Microsoft Gold Partner in Data Analytics, he helps organizations make sense of their most valuable asset: their data. His strategy formulation, trusted advisory and mentoring, design and implementation services empower clients to apply effectively data analytics in order to understand, improve, and transform their business processes.
Teo has authored and co-authored several bestselling books on organizational and self-service data analytics, and he has been leading the Atlanta Microsoft BI and Power BI group since he founded it in 2010. Teo has been a Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP) Data Platform since 2010.
Thomas LeBlanc
Twitter: - TheSmilingDBA
LinkedIn: Thomas LeBlanc
Contact: http://Thomas-LeBlanc.com
Thomas LeBlanc (Microsoft Data Platform MVP) is a Data Warehouse Architect in Baton Rouge, and uses his 30+ years in IT to develop OLTP systems with normalized databases for high-performing T-SQL and dimensional data marts. Development is done in SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Power BI, and Excel. As a PASS volunteer, he is past chair of Excel BI and Data Arch VCs and is active in the Baton Rouge Analytics and SQL Server User groups, as well as SQLSaturday in Baton Rouge. You can find his blog at TheSmilingDBA.BlogSpot.com and website at Thomas-LeBlanc.com
Ryan Wade
Twitter: - MrDataGeek
LinkedIn: Ryan Wade
Ryan is an experienced data analytics professional. His education and work experience enables him to understand things from a technical, analytical, and business viewpoint. He has the ability to present complex data in an intuitive way using sound analytical and visualization methods.
He has an advanced analytical and technical skill-set which includes Power BI, T-SQL, R, Python, Azure Machine Learning Services, Azure Databricks, SQL Server Machine Learning Services, Advanced Modern Excel, SSIS, SSAS Tabular.
He is a data analytics enthusiast that has spoken at a variety of database and data science conferences about various topics dealing with data analytics.
Jose Chinchilla
Twitter: - SQLJoe
LinkedIn: Jose Chinchilla
Contact: http://www.sqljoe.com
Jose Chinchilla is an experienced data analytics professional with multiple certifications including Microsoft Certified Database Administration (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Data Management and Analytics (MCSE), and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). Jose specializes in Data Warehouse and Data Lake Architecture and Development as the Data Analytics Practice Lead at AgileThought, a full-service custom software and analytics consulting firm based in Tampa, FL. Jose is a book author (SQL 2012 Bible, Professional SQL Server 2012 Administration, Exam Ref 70-767 Implementing a SQL Data Warehouse 2016) and leads the Tampa Bay BI Data Analytics PASS Chapter in Tampa, FL.
Spencer Swindell
Twitter: - @SpencerSwindell
LinkedIn: Spencer Swindell
Spencer Swindell is the Lead Architect with Think Data Insights, LLC. Think Data Insights a consulting group based out of Nashville, TN that works with companies to implement and maintain their Enterprise Data Platform. Since graduating from Tennessee Tech in 2011, he has built and delivered solutions for numerous organizations in the Nashville area utilizing SQL Server and the Microsoft BI Toolset. Spencer lives in Mount Juliet with his wife and son.
Jeremy Frye
Twitter: - SQLBInstein
LinkedIn: Jeremy Frye
Contact: https://jeremyfrye.net
Jeremy Frye is the manager of the Business Intelligence and data warehousing team at RDX. He is a Business Intelligence architect and developer with a background in database administration as well. Jeremy has over 9 years of experience in SQL Server. He has spoken on BI topics at many SQLSaturday’s throughout the country, webinars, and local and remote SQL user groups. In his spare time, Jeremy often spends time trying to bridge the gap between keyboard strokes and workout reps.
George Bryant
Twitter: - Azure_George0
LinkedIn: George Bryant
George has over a decade of experience in the Business Intelligence industry and is an active member of the BI community across the Midwest. His knowledge spans multiple industries including, retail, manufacturing, finance, and medical, however recent years has seen him focus on the analytics in sports.
George specializes in BI architecture and end to end development in order to deliver advanced analytics and metrics to multiple organizations across the country. In recent years George has focused on and worked primarily in the Azure cloud, utilizing both established and recent offerings.
Stuart Ainsworth
Twitter: - @codegumbo
LinkedIn: Stuart Ainsworth
Contact: http://codegumbo.com
Stuart Ainsworth (MA, MEd) manages a team of Service Reliability Engineers for the Gladiator Enterprise Information Security Services section of Profitstars, a division of Jack Henry and Associates. He’s a former DBA, developer, consultant, and public speaking professor. He’s one of the chapter leaders for AtlantaMDF, and a long-time organizer of SQLSaturday’s. He tweets infrequently (@codegumbo) and blogs even less often at http://codegumbo.com.
Leslie Andrews
Twitter: - landrews5807
LinkedIn: Leslie Andrews
Contact: https://www.lace.technology/blog
Leslie Andrews is an IT professional with almost 20 years of experience working with databases, designing databases, as well as designing and developing applications against those databases. 2018-2019 Idera ACE.
Dan Evans
Twitter: - @danthebiman
LinkedIn: Dan Evans
Dan Evans is a Data and Analytics evangelist with over 25 years’ experience deploying strategic and innovative analytic solutions. He’s focused on Microsoft technologies including Data Platform, Advanced Analytics and Business Applications. Current focuses include SQL Server, Power Suite, Cognitive Services, Artifical Inteligence and other Data Platform related topics in Azure. Dan presents at many local, regional and national events including SQL PASS, DAMA, TDWI, TechEd and Ignite and supports best practices in Microsoft data and analytics across North America.
Mark Tabladillo
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/MarkTabNet
LinkedIn: Mark Tabladillo
Contact: http://marktab.net
Mark Tabladillo Ph.D. works for Microsoft as a Cloud Solution Architect for the US CTO Customer Success Team. He has a science doctorate from Georgia Tech. Based in Atlanta, GA, Mark provides cloud enterprise solutions for companies in the US for Microsoft’s strategic clients. He is a chapter leader for the PASS Data Science virtual chapter.
Michael Wharton
Twitter: - MyProjectExpert
LinkedIn: Michael Wharton
Contact: http://MyProjectExpert.com
Michael Wharton is a Project MVP. He has been an independent consultant for the past 20 years, with over 30 Project/SharePoint Server deployments. He has an MBA from Wake Forest and has over 44 Microsoft Certifications. Michael’s primary job is helping companies setup a PMO, Project Management Office using Project Server using SQL server on a SharePoint Farm. He has worked extensively with the back end support setting up SQL server, SharePoint Server and Project Server using PowerShell.
Adam Saxton
Twitter: - @GuyInACube
LinkedIn: Adam Saxton
Contact: https://guyinacube.com
Adam Saxton is just a guy in a cube doing the work! He is on the Power BI CAT team at Microsoft, working with customers to help adopt Power BI. He is based in Texas and started with Microsoft supporting SQL Server connectivity and Reporting Services in 2005. Adam has worked with Power BI since the beginning, on the support side, and with documentation. In addition, he produces weekly videos for his Guy in a Cube YouTube channel.
Paco Gonzalez
Twitter: - @pacosql
LinkedIn: Paco Gonzalez
Paco Gonzalez is the CEO of SolidQ North America, and a Microsoft Data Platform MVP. Focused on Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, he specializes in helping organizations become data driven from a strategic and technical perspective. Paco is a speaker at small and large conferences such as PASS Summit, Ignite, and Business Applications Summit, and he has published several books and whitepapers. He is based in Atlanta, GA.
Elizabeth Noble
Twitter: - SQLZelda
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Noble
Elizabeth Noble is a Director of Database Development in the metro Atlanta area. When she was introduced to her first database over 10 years ago, it was love at first sight. Her passion is to help others improve the quality and speed of deploying database changes through automation. When she is not trying to automate all of the things, she can be found spending time with her dogs, playing disc golf, or taking a walk at the gym.
Marco Russo
Twitter: - marcorus
LinkedIn: Marco Russo
Contact: https://www.sqlbi.com/blog/marco
Marco is a Business Intelligence consultant and mentor. He wrote several books about Power BI, Analysis Service, and Power Pivot. He also regularly writes articles and white papers that are available on sqlbi.com. Marco is a Microsoft MVP and an SSAS Maestro, the highest level of certification on Microsoft Analysis Services. Today, Marco focuses his time with SQLBI customers, traveling extensively to train and consult on DAX and data modeling for Power BI and Analysis Services. Marco also teaches public classes worldwide. Marco is a regular speaker at international conferences like Microsoft Ignite, PASS Summit, and SQLBits. He also enjoys delivering evening sessions at local user groups during his trips.
Neal Waterstreet
Twitter: - @nealwaterstreet
LinkedIn: Neal Waterstreet
Contact: http://www.nealwaterstreet.com
Neal is a BI Architect/Consultant with more than 20 years of industry experience. Neal is skilled in the entire BI spectrum, including dimensional modeling, ETL design and development using Integration Services (SSIS), designing and developing multidimensional cubes and Tabular models using Analysis Services (SSAS) and Master Data Management using Microsoft Data Services (MDS). He’s also involved with the database community and is the co-founder and co-leader of the PASS Healthcare Virtual Chapter and the Atlanta Modern Excel User Group.
Daniel Glenn
Twitter: - DanielGlenn
LinkedIn: Daniel Glenn
Contact: https://DanielGlenn.com
Daniel is a Microsoft MVP with 15 years’ experience building technology solutions, intranets and extranets. As Practice Leader for the Nashville-based InfoWorks Inc., Daniel helps organizations of all sizes solve complex data challenges by implementing Office 365 and SharePoint without the need of customization and costly investments.
Daniel is passionate about giving back and building the Microsoft technical community. Daniel holds leadership roles in various local user groups, serves as an organizer for Microsoft 365 Nashville, and is a co-host for the popular podcast 365 Message Center Show on https://MessageCenter.Show. You can follow Daniel online at https://DanielGlenn.com and @DanielGlenn on Twitter.
Patrick LeBlanc
Twitter: - patrickdba
LinkedIn: Patrick LeBlanc
Contact: http://patrickdleblanc.com
Patrick LeBlanc is a currently a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft and a contributing partner to Guy in a Cube. Along with his 15+ years’ experience in IT he holds a Masters of Science degree from Louisiana State University. He is the author and co-author of five SQL Server books. Prior to joining Microsoft he was awarded Microsoft MVP award for his contributions to the community. Patrick is a regular speaker at many SQL Server Conferences and Community events.
Chris Voss
Twitter: - ceedubvee
LinkedIn: Chris Voss
Contact: http://ceedubvoss.com
Chris is a data professional located in the Raleigh-Durham region of North Carolina. He has been working on data analysis and database development in SQL Server since 2008 R2. His experience includes hacking T-SQL code, using Reporting, Integration, and Analysis Services for solutions, and delivering data models and optimized queries. He has been a member of the TriPASS user group since 2013 and is part of the organizing committee for SQLSaturday Raleigh. In his spare time, you can spot him working within the autism spectrum community or running somewhere (most likely at a local run club).
Ed Watson
Twitter: - http://twitter.com/SQLGator
LinkedIn: Ed Watson
Contact: http://sqlgator.com
Ed Watson is a Principal Data Platform Consultant for Improving Enterprises, a full-stack Microsoft consulting firm in Atlanta. Ed is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP since 2014 and like most children, Ed was born at an early age. Today, Ed specializes in the Business Intelligence stack and enjoys specializing in Power BI immensely. He currently lives in Atlanta and is active with the Atlanta MDF and Atlanta BI user groups and is an organizer for SQLSaturday Atlanta, Atlanta BI, and Pensacola.
Shabnam Watson
Twitter: - ShbWatson
LinkedIn: Shabnam Watson
Contact: https://shabnamwatson.wordpress.com/
Shabnam Watson is a Business Intelligence architect with 20 years of experience developing data warehouse and business intelligence solutions. Her work focus within the Microsoft BI Stack has been on Analysis Services and Power BI.
She is an active member of PASS community and has spoken at PASS Summit, SQLSaturdays, PASS Business Analytics and Women in Technology virtual chapters, and many other local user groups and conferences. She is one of the organizers of SQLSaturday Atlanta BI Edition.
She holds a master’s degree in computer science, a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, and a Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP) certification by The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI).
Bhakthi Liyanage
Twitter: - @bhakthil
LinkedIn: Bhakthi Liyanage
Bhakthi Liyanage is a seasoned IT professional with many years of industry experience, a Microsoft MVP on AI, and is currently working as an AI Architect at one of the largest banks in the US where he leads projects to provide predictive analytics and AI solutions for complex business problems.
Kevin Wilkie
Twitter: - Oskaruth
LinkedIn: Kevin Wilkie
Contact: http://sherpaofdata.com
Kevin has 15+ years experience with SQL Server and has worked with the product since version 6.5, although he remembers with distaste the early versions of the product. He started working with SQL Server as an “Accidental” DBA, and has moved up through the ranks as a SQL Developer, a BI Associate, and Production DBA at various parts of his career. Currently, he works as a Lead Data Analyst spreading the gospel of how great data can be to anyone and everyone who will listen.
Melody Zacharias
Twitter: - SQLMelody
LinkedIn: Melody Zacharias
Contact: http://sqlmelody.com
Melody is the Sr. Microsoft Solutions Manager at Pure and has been in love with data since 1991. She has been sharing her passion with the community in technical sessions and blogs since 2014. She has been a Microsoft MVP since 2016, including winning Rookie of the year for Canada that year. This last year, she was elected to the board of directors for PASS.org, the professional association for SQL Server and was awarded Regional Director by Microsoft. She has co-authored 3 books, including, SQL Server 2019 Administration inside out by Microsoft Press.
Melissa Coates
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/SQLChick
LinkedIn: Melissa Coates
Contact: https://www.CoatesDataStrategies/blog
Melissa Coates is a data architect with a background in data warehousing and business intelligence. Her current professional focus is enterprise-level Power BI governance, deployment, security, and administration. As the owner of Coates Data Strategies, Melissa produces training and consults to help companies strengthen and sustain their data-driven initiatives. Melissa is big supporter of the technical community, and has been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP since 2013. You can visit Melissa’s website at CoatesDataStrategies.com, which includes community resources like diagrams, blogs, and videos.
Shakeel Khan
Shakeel Khan has over 15 years’ experience in Product Lifecycle Management, Marketing and Sales of enterprise-wide Healthcare Information Technology solutions in America, Europe and Asia. Currently, Shakeel leads Product Management for Population Health and Analytics at NextGen Healthcare Systems in Atlanta. Shakeel has also held senior management positions at Elsevier/Lexis Nexis, Allscripts and Sysware. Shakeel has Masters in Biotechnology and Life Sciences from University of Mumbai and New Product Development Professional certification from PDMA, USA. Shakeel is also an adjunct instructor at Emory Continuing Education teaching Microsoft Excel and Power BI to students enrolled in Business Intelligence certification program.
Patrick LeBlanc
Twitter: - patrickdba
LinkedIn: Patrick LeBlanc
Contact: http://patrickdleblanc.com
Patrick LeBlanc is a currently a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft and a contributing partner to Guy in a Cube. Along with his 15+ years’ experience in IT he holds a Masters of Science degree from Louisiana State University. He is the author and co-author of five SQL Server books. Prior to joining Microsoft he was awarded Microsoft MVP award for his contributions to the community. Patrick is a regular speaker at many SQL Server Conferences and Community events.
Edward Roepe
Twitter: - None
LinkedIn: Edward Roepe
Contact: http://None
Ed Roepe is the founder and president of Perimeter DBA and lives in Atlanta GA. Along with a BSBA in Computer Science from the University of Florida, he holds certifications in just about every version of SQL Server since Version 4.2. His specialties include Performance Tuning, Health Checks, Security Checks, Virtualization, High Availability and Disaster Recovery. During his 25+ years of SQL consulting experience, he has taught DBAs the secrets of SQL success. He has managed many very large databases in areas of healthcare, financial services, universities, and transportation. Ed can be contacted at edward@perimeterdba.com
Karlyn LeBlanc
Karlyn LeBlanc is a native of Chicago, Illinois. She currently resides in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Karlyn obtained her Bachelors degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and her Masters from Tulane University in New Orleans. Her career began as licensed master social worker where she spent twelve years counseling patients, supervising master level social workers, and facilitating support groups. In addition, she’s a bestselling author of two books and motivational speaker.
Rie Irish
Twitter: - IrishSQL
LinkedIn: Rie Irish
Rie lives with her family just north of Atlanta, Georgia. She worked as a SQL Server DBA, manager director for over 20 years. She’s worked in many industries including the non-profit sector, education, big pharma, and e-commerce. She was awarded the MVP in the Data Platform 3 times beginning in 2017 and gave that up to accept her role as a Senior Program Manager with Microsoft in 2019. She is very involved with the Atlanta MDF User Group, SQLSaturday Atlanta and is co-leader of the PASS Women in Tech virtual group.
Julie Smith
Twitter: - @juliechix
LinkedIn: Julie Smith
Contact: http://datachix.com
Julie Smith is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and a BI consultant for Innovative Architects in Atlanta, GA. She#39;s implemented increasingly complex Business Intelligence solutions for over a decade at various organizations. She#39;s also worn many other database “hats” in her career – production DBA and database developer–but data integration and BI are her true passions. Julie holds a BA from the University of South Carolina. She and Audrey Hammonds co-created The Datachix.com blog.
Trey Johnson
Twitter: - https://twitter.com/treyjohnson
LinkedIn: Trey Johnson
Contact: https://www.zapbi.com/blog/
A veteran of the SQL Server Business Intelligence community, Trey Johnson has been a senior board member of PASS, a global speaker and author and was an influencer for several years on Microsoft’s Business Intelligence Partner Advisory Council. Today, Johnson is the Chief Evangelist, a senior leader and technologist with ZAP, focused on bringing immense value from ZAP’s Data Hub and the Microsoft SQL Server, Analysis Services and Azure platform.
Johnson enjoys communicating about his experiences over 25 years with the intersection of analytics, SQL and BI.
Samara Soucy
Twitter: - @OneAngryPenguin
Samara holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. Since her college days, she’s developed a passion for software development and specializes in C#, JavaScript, and SQL. She makes use of her ability to learn quickly and think creatively to find solutions that fit her client’s needs. Samara has experience working on both small and large-scale development projects and takes great pride in working side by side with clients to ensure that the final product is a success. Samara currently resides in Buckhead.
Sponsors
The following is a list of sponsors that helped fund the event: