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Self-Service BI – the players are ready – GAME ON!

With so many self-service BI offerings available, it is really hard to figure out which one you can take most advantage from within your business. Is it really possible to just go for one as your enterprise standard, or do you need to support multiple? Which one is going to win the battle? Do you go for Microstrategy, Tableau, Information Builders, Microsoft Power BI, IBM, Birst, Tibco, SAS or Qlik? Or is your environment struggling with the implementation of many?

In this session we’ll have a detailed drilldown into the more significant players in the world of Self-service BI.  Using a demo-centric approach we’ll dive into features, comparisons and most of all … results that lead into visualizations including mobile devices.

At the end of the session you’ll have a good understanding of the self-service BI offerings from multiple software vendors, with a clear understanding of its current capabilities and features. Which one you’ll use is up for you decide, do you go for beauty queen or data centric work horse?

This session is NOT pushing you towards any software vendor, it's providing you with an overview of capabilities/features, likes and dislikes.

When the need for medical needs gets closer to your own family, it becomes even more personal, and there are so many things I can do, but I can't do it without the power of networking, and ask you for your support.
My cousin Gunnar was diagnosed as a young boy with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), and is in desperate need of an electrical wheel chair, not to mention the medical expenses associated with that.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a recessive X-linked form of muscular dystrophy, affecting around 1 in 3,600 males, which results in muscle degeneration and eventual death

As a healthy adult, happily married with 2 kids I feel there is so much more that I can do to support them and make their lives easier.

But I can't do that without thinking big or going big.... so I started raising funds through https://gunnar.myevent.com.

And even if you are not interested in training, feel free to donate anyways.

So here is the opportunity for free training

You are .... a corporation, a training partner, a consulting firm, a software development company, ...or an individual that would like receive training or deliver training to your customers on:

- Microsoft SQL Server

- Power BI

- Database Technologies

- Big Data

My offer is: FREE TRAINING for 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, based upon our pre-agreement to put money into my fundraiser for Gunnar.

Conditions:

- Training needs to be concluded in February 2015

- Donation amount needs to be agreed upon prior

- Number of days, content, material negotiable, topic to be discussed

- As training organizer, you cover travel expenses and the potential printed course material required for the training.

- Training modality could be 1:1 in person, classroom style or virtual delivery with classroom size up to 30 people, or seminar style with up to 500 people

About me?

As Microsoft Certified Trainer and frequent presenter at conferences I presented and delivered training to well over 35,000 people in person.
Just use your favorite search engine to look for my name (Dandy Weyn)  and work I've done around database technologies and business intelligence.

Please contact me for serious considerations and information request, or to discuss this opportunity

Dandy Weyn
dandy@ilikesql.com

CLICK HERE

The road to Redmond...

When I was 16, like many other kids I studying and getting A+ grades wasn't really my first priority, but 'things' rather came naturally for me, and with very little effort studying I got some descent grades.
German and math however, was something that I didn't like to study, and unfortunately my teachers didn't let me pass my 5th year of higher education and let me retake the entire year.
Was I in for a treat back then, not only because there were all these other classes that I no longer needed to study for (because I knew it all, right?..), it basically set me up to be very successful on topics that I enjoyed --- like databases.
So later that year, I sold my first commercial application on Dbase III Plus, and got started!

After a twist to my first job in Logistics, I ended up working for a computer reseller named Microman (and I think that's where the nickname Dandyman was born).
A few years later, I started working for AXI as database developer on Oracle, and built my career in training as well.

Fast forward --- after many years a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Consultant at Info Support, I decided to go my own way and "Dandyman" started training and consulting on database technologies.
A year later I got picked up by Microsoft Learning, World Wide Partner Group, and US SQL Server Marketing to deliver technical readiness and trainings across the globe.
Those opportunities also had me engaged in TechEd as a hands-on-lab proctor working with the Hynesite team, and introduced me as a presenter to PASS Summit and many other events.

It was a journey that had me travel all over the world, and spent most of my time in hotel rooms and on airplanes in 2006, 2007. (+70 times across the Atlantic ocean in 2006, and twice over the North Pole)
I also started doing some consulting work for the SQL Server Marketing Group, and I remember being on a flight to Seattle where Kim Hart sitting next to me asked me if I knew someone that was interested in a career at Microsoft.

Shortly after that, I started in SMSG Readiness as Readiness Manager for Data Platform, and joined Microsoft as a full time employee in 2008.

While in Redmond...

While in Redmond, I met my wife Julie, and shortly after we moved in together and decided to "be pregnant", I completed my Microsoft Certified Master Certification.
As it seems to be the perception in Redmond to change jobs to advance your career and skillsets every few years, I decided to move from SMSG Readiness to SQL Server Product Management as Technical Product Manager for SQL Server and later for Business Intelligence.
It was certainly a great opportunity, I had a lot of joy and fun along the way, and when Eron Kelly joined our group as General Manager, those opportunities accelerated significantly giving me exposure to the biggest stages (whether or not behind the scenes), or on stage as during the TechEd Europe Keynote 2013, showcasing Power BI.

Throughout those years I was very successful increasing content quality for major customer facing, but also internal events that Microsoft organized or participated in.
I built out a strong relationship and pool of friends in #sqlfamily, and an incredible network of people on LinkedIn, the highest level of followers in SQL Server as individual employee, and GREAT, really great opportunities...

Why would you leave Microsoft?

Whilst many people would leave Microsoft for various reason, I was looking for my next career adventure. Since I don't consider myself to be a strong marketer, I did feel my career in SQL Server Marketing wasn't going in the direction or at the speed I would love to see it go.
Key ingredients that I am looking for in my job is "Fun", "Excitement", "Growth", and "Challenge". It's those last 2 ingredients, and more specifically the "Challenge" that was missing, despite the fact that I had great opportunities such as traveling to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, building demos and technical assets for high visible keynote events (such as PASS Summit and others..).

Surprisingly, prior to my vacation I was offered the opportunity to go back to an area and industry I've been part of before: Operational IT.
Being able to lead the Data Platform Services Group at Seattle based icon and most fashionable department store giant "Nordstrom", was an opportunity that would give me the ingredients I am looking for in the next career opportunity, and now 1.5 week later since my official start date I have not regretted doing so.
As I talked to my team on Friday, this has probably been the most exciting career move, and an opportunity that I believe was the right decision to take which I realized after meeting the team and my first day on the job.
I can totally relate and find myself in the Nordstrom DNA, and have a great team of peers, and upper management to work with. (and have to say that since I've donned those Microsoft branded shirts my wife says I dress so much better).

Reflecting on 8 years on Microsoft Campus

My 8 years at Microsoft at times have been great, with many opportunities brought to me on a silver platter (even though I probably was in the kitchen participating in preparing the meal, or even getting the recipe right for them).
Being able to work so close with the smartest engineers, technical solution professionals, Microsoft consultants and many other people within Microsoft was a great experience with friendships built to last forever. (don't get me wrong, there are certainly a couple of folks I rather enjoy no longer working with too:) )

I have so many people on my list to say Thank You to, and did that on a rather individual base in a personal email, but certainly wanted to call out a few like Kim Hart for bringing me on board, Jan Jentz for being my first manager, Luis Daniel Soto Maldonado for being my second manager, Eron Kelly for being the best General Manager at Microsoft ever met and worked for. Also I wanted to mention Fred Pace, someone who became a good friend of mine and has been a great mentor for many years. (and hopefully continues to be so in the future).
The list of people in SQL Server Marketing and Engineering is just way to extensive to call out every single one of them... so thank you all!

In those 8 years I've been very well accepted by the Microsoft Valued Professional Community (MVP) and my peers of Microsoft Certified Master! Getting and sharing mutual respect, appreciation for jobs well done and many occasions to share knowledge, fun ..and a beer every once in a while was probably the best!
Thank you all! I hope our paths will cross soon again, and whenever one of you gets to the Seattle area, don't be a stranger.

Ending on a high note...

Whatever job I've been in, I always ended on a high note, being thankful for the opportunities, the people I've worked with, and the many things I've learned along the way.
At Microsoft I had the opportunity to end my career with a training class in Amsterdam, delivering SQL Server 2014 readiness with an incredible high score received for the training, and over 70 students in classroom! Thank you all for being part of my last training!
My last fact was building the demo that was shown on SQL Server 2014 launch day on April 15, presented by Satya Nadella, and demoed by Eron Kelly. (Register to watch the keynote here)

The road ahead...

I certainly hope that the road ahead will lead me to meet my friends at future events (even though event season looks pretty dry to me), and every once in a while you see me popping up on a SQL Saturday event, or other Data Platform / technology event (since I know manage a broader area than just Microsoft technologies).
The road ahead is bright, and interesting journey to get on! I am certainly excited and proud, have 100% confidence in my team that we'll make this an interesting, fun, exciting, challenging roadtrip together.

Also I have a series of ideas in my head in regards to demos, blogs, books to read ..things that I was unable to focus on due to the high frequency and high volume of work, dedication and passion that I've put into my job.

Some work to be proud of...

A lot of the work that I've produced at Microsoft has been reflected in Hands-on-Labs, recorded sessions from events on which we received great feedback.
Below is a "subset" of that work:

Data Platform Hands-on-Labs on Technet Virtual Labs
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/bb467605.aspx

What's new in SQL Server codename "Denali" - TechDays Belgium 2011
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/tdbe11-what-s-new-in-sql-server-denali

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server codename "Denali" - TechDays Belgium 2011
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/tdbe11-upgrading-to-sql-server-2008-r2-and-sql-server-denali

12 reasons to love SQL Server 2012 - TechNet
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/tdbe12-12reasons-to-love-sql-server-2012.aspx

SQL Server Days 2012 - Keynote - Dandy Weyn
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/video/sql-server-days-2012-opening-keynote-by-dandy-weyn.aspx

SQL Server 2012 Special Ops Tour
https://specialops.sqlpass.org

Microsoft Job Blog - Certification
https://microsoftjobsblog.com/1-in-4-it-positions-worldwide-is-currently-unfilled/

Microsoft Certified Career Day
https://borntolearn.mslearn.net/CertifiedCareerDay/

Be the next Microsoft Employee
https://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/episode-4-be-the-next-microsoft-employee/qmr8zofq

Techtalk - TechED New Zealand 2013
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NewZealand/2013/TLK109

Faster Data Insights with Power BI
https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/faster-insights-to-data-with-power-bi-jump-start

Channel 9 recordings (Multiple events)
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Speakers/Dandy-Weyn

Don't be a stranger!

Don't be a stranger and stay in touch, you can find me on linked in - www.linkedin.com/in/dandyweyn/ or twitter: https://twitter.com/ilikesql
And if you are interested in some cool job opportunities (either at Nordstrom or Microsoft), or you would like to be a candidate to take on my old role - let me know!

Some blog readers will likely disagree with this, but if your purpose of writing a session title and abstract for a conference is “To get the conference attendees to participate and come to my session”, you are DEAD WRONG!

Very little time is spent in crafting good quality session titles, abstracts and specifying the everlasting and often required “Learning objectives” or “Session takeaways”

Recently in some community events I’ve seen titles submitted that don’t say ANYTHING about the actual session content, or what the presenter will likely will be talking about.

That might not be a problem if you are a prominent blogger, or great presenter, and you have a good name and reputation in the industry for delivering quality sessions.  Shouldn’t you rather be asking though, why people are in your session? Your popularity? The fact that you write stellar blog articles that create some controversy amongst fellow Microsoft Valued Professionals or Microsoft Program Managers (not to mention marketing?)

Very often the speaker’s proposals are not written very well, or they are written with a lot of flash or buzz and typically don’t match or correspond with the presentation. And even though the session titles might be fun and attractive it says very little about the actual content of the session.

Maybe I am just wrong, I am PROBABLY the worst content submitter for an event…

Session titles at Technical Events, what’s the use of it?

The primary purpose of a session title is to get the conference attendee read the title, read into the abstract and session objectives to make sure when he/she attends the session it actually matches the presentation and meets the  “expectations”.

If you put on a level 100 marketing show, with a lot of buzzwords, a lot of “bedazzle”, you will likely get a huge level of attendance based on that flashy session title, and I am pretty sure that a lot of event/conference owners love to have full session.
Question will be however on what the sustainability is or how did the audience truly feel about the session?

Think about it differently, do you seriously believe, that with a well written title, abstract and so on you would not be able to get a packed room? Do you think the title truly made the difference in the quality rating of your session, or the attendance did?
If you deliver good quality sessions at events, you are more than likely to be selected to other events and have a change to submit and get more sessions approved, but a flashy title has NOTHING to do with it.

Writing a session title and abstract in clear, understandable English

English is not my first language (It’s actually my primary language now, but quite frankly I struggle with it at times.
In my early years working and presenting in English it would at times reflect in session evaluations, or even title and abstract submissions.
I remember times when one of the attendees that has the audacity to write down on a session evaluation form that “The presenter had a strong understandable accent”…. 
And that attendee, ... might have been right at the time, no matter how much in denial I was myself, or how popular I was presenting at any potential SQL Server related even in that very same year.

Now for all of you that speak English as the primary language …consider yourself traveling to a country where English is not the primary language and you might get feedback that claims that “The presenter talked too fast” or the “the presenter referred to the Cougs, the Raiders, the Ravens, the Yankees, the Sounders ... I have no idea what that is..” (not to forget “Jerry Seinfelds”, or geographical references to areas in the US where I haven’t even heard about in Europe, unless you’ve seen the movie Fargo).

Nowadays I am probably a worse presenter in Dutch compared to my average presentations in English.
If you have a major problem writing in English, you might want to ask yourself if you should really present at the event, or continue to enhance your skills. You might also consider writing your draft abstract first, and ask one of your English speaking friends to review and read it.
Some of the great subject matter experts that I know would do extremely well at an event in Europe, but I wouldn't want to see them getting shredded presenting for a US based audience.

The importance of a session abstract and title that matches the actual delivery targeted to your primary audience is key to the success of session delivery (not to forget your “\ˌprē-ˌzen-ˈtā-shən” skills).

What industry experts say

American Writers and Artist trainers, teach “the Four U” approach when writing titles to sessions, blogs or email headers.

-          Be USEFUL to the reader

-          Provide the reader with a sense of URGENCY

-          Convey the idea that the session is somehow UNIQUE

-          Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way

Do you think the following titles are compelling or live up to the content?

SQL Server 2014 – Sharks with Freakin’ Lasers
Doesn’t say much, although I was guilty of presenting a session with that title at PASS Summit 2013. As an attendee however I would expect to see sharks with freakin’lasers, which surprisingly they did thanks to Ari Schorr being dressed up like a shark (with lasers), and myself being professional transformed into Dr. Evil. (my first presentation while not wearing glasses or even contacts).

Moves like Jagger: SQL upgrade
The session abstract told me that at the end of the session I would have the moves like Jagger. How disappointed I was, that very same night I actually tried to have the moves like Jagger at the event party and I made a complete fool out of myself.

An easy step to disappoint your audience:
If you have attendees in your session that purely came to the session because of the great title, and the speaker under-delivers, the attendees will lose their trust in both the speaker and the content owners for the event. Your session title should be authentic and align to the abstract, align to the presentation. Your speaker (or you as a speaker) should live up to every single aspect of what was promised in the title and abstract. If you promise sharks with freakin' lasers ... you better have them or your session is central around the topic.

Some more questionable titles

Playing Russian roulette with your database (although I wouldn't expect to actually play that with a live audience)

Stripping down performance like a professional dancer (let's be honest, a little controversial with a different range of expectations by the attendees)

Death by monkeys (how will you get the monkeys to the event?)

Or some very short ones:

MERGE (which is actually one of the first things i do when a session rooms get packed, I ask attendees to merge, or in database terms to defragment the session room and make space for others to join).

PERFORMANCE (performance of what?)

 So you are telling us what’s wrong…but what’s right?

As mentioned above, some really good titles tell the potential attendee more about what’s being presented in the session, and don’t leave the content owner, or the attendee with disappointment when this session is actually approved for an event.

There’s many good session titles out there, and when I go through content selection as content owner, I typically first look at the session title, read the abstract and then look at the speaker, speaker history.

One of the sessions that came to mind that I though had a great title was the following:

Now at the first look the session has a lot of potential and might make it to the final session cut, but the abstract certainly needs to be modified due to the “JUST DO IT” reference, which might be a potential trademark infringement.

Other session titles that will certainly attract and audience, but they won't be mislead by the title

And if you truly want to make the titles a bit more attractive, think about session title and abstract writing that are still relevant to the topic, and provide something unique, useful, ultra-specific, and have a certain level of urgency to the potential attendee.
But keep in mind, live up to your commitment.

 So what to write in my title / abstract?

• Write a compelling, strong session title
• Live up to the session abstract
• Target your audience
• Provide clear learning objectives

 My session didn’t get selected and I am really ##I_@ @# about that

A couple of years ago I presented at the Microsoft Certified Trainer summit, with a session titled as above. And ….. my session DID get selected. Key goal of the session was to make people understand what content owners like myself are looking at an event.

There are a couple of things to understand:

         The targeted audience for the event

How technical is the event? Is the audience IT Pro/DEV? SQL Server Expert only, or is it a mixed event such as Microsoft TechED.

        Timeliness of the topic

Is it the right moment to talk about the topic, or would it be rather to have a program manager that actually owns the topic present on it)

         Are you the best presenter for the topic or do you know someone else?

There are many subject matter experts out there, are you the best presenter on the topic, or do you have that everlasting competitor that will also submit on the same topic and likely do a better job?  Make sure you apply the U that is called Uniqueness

         Topic relevancy

Please don’t tell me you still use the codename in the session title and abstract after the product or feature has been officially named or released for over 6 months?
Are you really going to submit a session that talks about a feature that is replaced in the current version or likely might be announced soon?

         The technical level of the event, and overall content level.

Understanding which content level would be most appropriate for your session, and submitting a session in the right content level category is critical to session evaluation as well.
Below is a list of the Microsoft content levels used at events and readiness solutions:

Level 100

Introductory and overview material. Assumes little or no expertise with topic and covers topic concepts, functions, features, and benefits.

Level 200

Intermediate material. Assumes 100-level knowledge and provides specific details about the topic.

Level 300

Advanced material. Assumes 200-level knowledge, in-depth understanding of features in a real-world environment, and strong coding skills. Provides a detailed technical overview of a subset of product/technology features, covering architecture, performance, migration, deployment, and development.

Level 400

Expert material. Assumes a deep level of technical knowledge and experience and a detailed, thorough understanding of topic. Provides expert-to-expert interaction and coverage of specialized topics.

 Other factors that count in selection process

At some of the events I run only allow me to have about 25% external presenters, a rule that I have to live with. In that case, I will definitely use the 25% external speakers and find tricks on where I can go above and beyond.

Factors that are considered for paid speakers certainly also relate to the cost of Travel to actually get to an event. International speakers likely have a lesser representation at an event, which might relate to expensive travel costs.

More details about selection criteria

In a future blog post I will spend a bit more time going through session selection process to make you understand on what those criteria are, but primary identifier for a session to be considered as a candidate for an event despite any of the other factors: Session Title and Abstract, with topic relevancy.
Another interesting blog on the subject I found was written by SQL Server MVP Adam Machanic, which actually shines through in session submissions I've seen from him.

Just like many other people, for this year's Christmas, we decided to order some items online to avoid busy shopping lines at stores and get some really good deals.
We decided not to procrastinate and actually get our packages delivered on time, to avoid having to miss out on actually getting the package before Christmas.

So in the week of December 16, it was rather busy in our community, with package delivery trucks going on and off, delivering packages to our neighborhood.
One of the things I was surprised about, was that a package didn't get delivered so I turned to the seller's website to figure out where my package was.

And it claimed: Delivered on Dec 18, which also happened to be my birthday.

No problem right, it would be rather easy for me to validate the delivery, since we have a Logitech Alert security camera that enhances our home security system by monitoring the surroundings of our home.

The great thing about this system is that it has motion detection, super night shot, and it actually offloads the recordings that it first captures internally to storage sitting on my desktop computer.

So while reviewing the camera status and series of events:

• Dec 18, 9:17 AM - First Package gets delivered - a box of real estate flyers that my wife ordered with updated price sheets
• Dec 18, 1:09 PM - Second Package gets delivered - a box with two jumbo remote controls that I was planning on giving to my wife for Christmas due to the fact she never is able to find our TV remotes
• Dec 18: 2:07 PM - A blue Mitsubishi Endeavor stops at my door and an until now unidentified lady walks up to our doorstep, grabs our packages and leaves.

Based on that discovery I did on Dec 20, I contacted Snohomish County Sheriff's department, a deputy was dispatched to our house.
After filing my case, the deputy asked for a copy of the video which I put on youtube as well,  to inform our neighbors and ask them if they "saw" this lady.
Pretty soon we figured out that some other neighbors were also missing packages.

So our packages did get stolen, and I have it on video...(and it was not a HOAX as according to some comments)

The video that, at that time was posted on YouTube, was broadcasted on the 11 PM news that night by KiroTV.

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPI2LryvI4:0:0]

Now, I thought - that's where it ends -- maybe the thief will get caught, maybe not, and we started preparing for our well deserved family trip to Disneyland.

This unfortunate event is really getting some traction...

Dec 21 , around 10:00 AM, my security camera gives an alert, indicating that someone was at our doorstep, turned out it was KiroTV's reporter Maria Guerrero, asking me if I wanted to do an interview for the 5 PM news.

I agreed to the interview, and the video was broadcasted on the 5PM news, and also featured on other news stations.

The day after we departed for Disneyland and my phone was receiving emails, text messages and notifications, as well as comments on the Youtube video.
The afternoon of Dec 22, that the video hit 300,000 views, and by the end of the day it was over 900,000 views.

So I was curious on what made this video go viral, since there are certainly other videos out there on how people got their packages stolen.
People also told me that I should 'monetize' on the video, now despite to some iPad lovers taking their iPads all over the place in Disneyland, or the well versed "It's the happiest place on earth software developer" taking his laptop with him

I didn't have anything with me that would connect me to Youtube and assign monetization and set up an account for paid advertising. After all, our trip was family time and it was a joy being with them.

Next morning when we woke up, my mailbox was filled with over 200 messages and requests from people if they could use the video in their blog, which security system I was using and so on..

Should I be thankful for the Data Insights the grinch gave me?

 A week later, the "Grinch" has not been caught yet, but I should be thankful for the great data insights she brought me having the video gone viral.
The data insights she gave me are quite impressive especially if you drill down into usage, demographics of the 1.45 million viewers of the video.

Some data points:

Countries with over 10,000 views:

Not totally surprising, the majority of the views (+950K) came from the United States, but Croatia landed 3rd place with over 38,000 views.

As Microsoft Employee and techie, I was of course also interested into some of the data exposed through the API, and wanted to find out a bit more about the operating system usage by Youtube users.
Turns out that the majority of users are Windows users, with Android surpassing IOS primarily in the mobile phone usage. It was also interesting to see that XBOX scores significantly higher than Playstation.

Operating System Usage:

Amount of views per US State:

Summary of facts:

I wouldn't recommend taking packages from our doorstep again...

Without realizing herself, the "grinch that stole our Christmas" truly gave me some interesting data insights, and as I announced on the news I would go even further by putting out a "tracking package" in case she or another package thief were to return to our neighborhood.

As a matter of test I put out a package on which we validated the tracking functionality by simulating a potential thief.

Here's what we did:

• Installed the Windows Phone application "Here I am"
• Installed the Windows Phone application "GPS Track Recorder"
• Added a powerful external battery to the cellphone
• Secured it all in a boxed package and put it on my doorstep
• Simulated the package getting stolen by a package thief
• Followed the tracking on a second windows phone using "Here I am"
• Fetch the package back from the location we identified it was at
• Loaded the data in Excel 2013 using Power Query and visualized using Power Map

The result of our tracking and route can be seen in the following video, so no more stolen packages for us

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ctvJTcKKRw:0:0]

Now how did the video go viral?

It's really hard to determine on what makes a video go viral, but he fact that it got picked up by Reddit, got featured on the news thanks to KiroTV that surprisingly ended up unannounced on my doorstep, and the so many links on several media sites 
actively contributed to the huge traction that the video had. After being the top most watched video on YouTube it showed up on people's landing pages, and how did it all get started? By a simple message on twitter.
Shortly after the video got picked up by many other new sites, and got also featured on MSN.COM through an agreement with Jokeroo.

My learnings?

Well of course it will be better to have someone home when packages get delivered, but it's been an interesting and fascinating experience seeing a video go viral and learn all about different media channels, news sites out there.
It certainly provided me with great insights into "how videos go viral".

The quality of those presentations has significantly improved over the past couple of years, but very frequently it's the eye for detail, the final touch of presentation and a solid delivery that make a huge difference in session feedback and scores.

And if there is something that most presenters care about, it is how great their scores are, because if they wouldn't you should wonder what they would be doing in front of the audience anyways.

That's right, this blog might be a little spiced up and salted, maybe a little peppered up too.

In this first part on presentation skills, I wanted to tackle the "Contact Slide", "About Me", "About the Presenter", "Who Ami" slide that some presenters have in their presentations.

And there is a simple set of rules you can maintain when you think about building your presentations:

1. PowerPoint is not a Word Processor, you can actually use graphics or images to bring a better message

2. The audience is typically there for the content, on which you are a subject matter expert

3. A simple contact slide is sufficient, you don't gain ANY credibility by putting in a detailed about me slide

4. A session breakout presentation is not a "market yourself and put in some promo slides" presentation

5. Stick to the basics, sell on knowledge, not on established or want to have established credibility

6. Keep it simple, if the attendee wants to find out more about you, in nowadays social media, he/she definitely will.

Now what would say more than a presentation, built to showcase on what we talk about, when referring to the overly self-centric, promotional, credibility gaining (or losing) "About me slide".

Attached is the slidedeck, also shared on slideshare -https://www.slideshare.net/dandyman72/food-for-thought-21303418

Now don't let this presentation derail or upset you, I gladly have an open discussion on this topic.

Food for thought.pptx

I first wanted to highlight, specifically in this post, that I am a Microsoft Employee, not a spokesman for the company, and that this opinion is pure personal and might be different from the vision my employer has.
Now we have that out of the way --- I kind of feel like a "donky" - but hence the lack of a spell checker might actually make me feel more like a "Donkey" - (look up the following Wikipedia article for synonyms - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey)

What happened?

A couple of years ago, while I was still trying to find my own identity, I guess you could say so, I signed up for a raffle at an event, that would give you some cool prizes, but also a subscription to Oracle Magazine.
My lower grade teachers would likely unanimously agree that my handwriting was probably not the best one to interpret, but hey, I was using the first forms of digital encryption I guess we can say.

So a while later I started to receive Oracle Magazines, that were addressed to Donky Weyn, and when things moved over to the digital timerame, I started getting my magazine subscription in digital form only.
Here's a screenshot of that:

Now I think it was about a month ago that I was contacted by an agency asking for "Donky".
I responded wisely and asked if this was in regards to my digital magazine subscription that I had not renewed, and of course the answer was "Yes".

So after telling them that my name wasn't Donky, and it must have been some typo, I informed them that I wouldn't trust my information to a company that doesn't seem to care about Data Quality, which sarcasticly enough was a company that builds the majority of their revenue on databases and applications running on top of those.

Despite my decline on the renewal, I still seem to get my magazine subscription.

Now what happened today:

Today I received a letter in the mail, with the opportunity to get a $50 Amazon Gift card, coming from another software company, but addressed to "Donky Weyn".

Needless to say that the company that manages the dataset for Oracle, obviously has sold my data or transferred it to another company, or shared the dataset with them.

Data Quality, Address Validation etc...

When we released Data Quality Services in SQL Server 2012, one of the great features we brought in the release of it was the integration with Windows Azure MarketPlace and the capability of adding data and address validation through services like Melissa Data (https://www.melissadata.com/newsreleases/address-check-windows-azure-marketplace.html).

Even more, in a world where social media, sentiment analytics and Big Data are keywords and valuable assets to businesses, having quality data is key to the success of providing valuable business insights and analytics.

I think I just find myself a great demo on using Data Explorer, or Data Quality Services for one of the next events I'll be presenting at.

Here's some useful links on Data Quality Services, I think I showed you 2 example images on the lack of it already :)

DQS Blog: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/dqs/

MSDN Data Quality Services: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff877925.aspx

TechEd Sessions on Data Quality Services:

Using Knowledge to Cleanse Data with Data Quality Services - https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DBI207

 Enterprise Information Management (EIM): Bringing Together SSIS, DQS, and MDS - https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2012/DBI310 and https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2012/DBI310

Not that I am going to make a big deal about it ---- after all I don't want to be a "donkey" about it .

Cheers!

The importance of understanding DAX....

The DAX language is the foundation of self-service Business Intelligence using the Microsoft stack. It is the language used to query and program both Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2013 and the new SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular model. Learning the basics of DAX is very simple, but mastering it is a different story because it requires a mindset that requires some study, for both BI Professionals and Information Workers.
The syntax of the DAX formulas are very similar to what Excel uses in formulas, however they defer from Excel Formulas that it works with tables and columns, not ranges to let you do sophisticated lookups to related values and related tables.

DAX formulas are highly optimized for in-memory operations, the xVelocity in-memory engine is second to none. Scanning fact tables and performing leaf-level computation happens in a matter of milliseconds. Nevertheless, as with any other language, you can write good DAX or bad DAX, depending on your understanding of the engine internals.

With DAX being used in the BI Semantic Model and PowerPivot and added functionality in SQL Server 2012, DAX is being used as the primary query / expression language in Business Intelligence allowing you to build out data models used for Power View, Data Explorer and Geoflow visualizations.

To highlight the importance and get you up to speed on DAX we are bringing a series of DAX related sessions to TechEd North America and Europe, including an amazing pre-conference presented by DAX / BI Experts Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari: From 0 to DAX.

Marco and Alberto are top selling authors in the Microsoft BI space and published multiple books: https://www.sqlbi.com/books/.

As Data Platform and Business Intelligence content owner for TechEd North America and TechEd Europe, I am delighted and honored to have these guys on our session agenda.

In their full day pre-conference seminar , you'll have a great opportunity to drill down into every single detail of DAX, starting from zero.
Even if you are not attending TechEd, you can register just for this highly rated and ranked pre-conference seminar.

TechEd North America - Preconferences

TechEd Europe - Preconferences

Additional Learning Resources:

What is DAX - https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2012/DBI323

Enriching your BI Semantic Model using DAX: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DBI408