I’m delighted to announce I’ll be giving a session about data modeling in a self-service BI environment at Techorama 2018 (the Internet is divided on the correct spelling: modelling or modeling. Apparently it depends on which side of the pond you’re on). Techorama is one of the biggest Microsoft-oriented tech events in Europe (it takes place in Antwerp, but there’s an edition in the Netherlands as well) with a really great line-up of speakers. I’m not kidding, check out the agenda.
My session will be about data modelling (I really can’t decide) for self-service BI (aka Power BI Desktop since it’s a Microsoft event, but most guidelines apply to other tools as well). The inspiration for this session comes from the many pitfalls and mistakes I’ve seen over the years at different clients. With this session, I hope to set some guidelines on what makes a well-designed model. To prepare myself, I’m going through the book Analyzing Data with Power BI and Power Pivot for Excel by Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari. I’m at chapter 6 now, but the book has been quite excellent so far.
The abstract:
Self-service BI – Why Data Modelling Is Still Important
Self-service business intelligence is on the rise. Tools like Power BI, Power Query and Power Pivot make it easy for everyone to create a powerful model that can hold millions of rows. However, it’s not all cookies and rainbows. To get good performance and correct results, a good data model is required. In this session, we go over the basics of data modelling for business analysis. You will learn to apply a set of guidelines to make your models better, faster and more robust.
If you’re attending the event, don’t forget to come and say hello! The early-bird tickets are already sold out and usually the entire events sells out, so don’t hesitate 
