The Journey is the Reward: Speaking for SQLPass, where do you start?

I'm heartened by the numbers of people who are expressing an interest in speaking at events. In particular, I understand that SQLPass had record numbers of people submitting to SQLPass Summit in Charlotte this year. For me, this is especially important because it suggest that more people are interested in speaking and sharing their SQL Server knowledge. It also shows that the community are supportive of a SQLPass Summit event in Charlotte. This energy shows the strength of the event itself, rather than being tied to a particular location i.e. Seattle. As much as I love Seattle, I have never been to Charlotte and I'm excited to be visiting a new part of the United States. In case you are wondering, I am Scottish :)

I am not part of the session selection process for SQLPass so this blog is based on my insights from the community only.  How do you get experience so that you can speak for events, perhaps with the goal of speaking at the SQLPass Summit event, which is the pinnacle of every SQL Server guru's career?

It can seem to be a vicious cycle: you can't speak because you don't have experience, and you don't get experience because you don't speak.

This isn't true!

There are plenty of opportunities to speak and here are some:

Come and join me and give a webinar for the Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Virtual Chapter. This is a great way to start and you will have the full support of myself and Julie Koesmarno, who helps with the Chapter as I do. We can help you to get started. The sessions last for about one hour, and we do 45 minutes talk, and then 15 minutes of questions.  Why not give it a go?

Your local PASS Chapter - come and attend your local user Group, and see how you can get involved. Take a look at the PASS site for some thoughts

Your workplace - why  not try a 'brown bag lunch' session, whereby you and your team all take turns to present on something? It is a safe environment to learn, and you might even enjoy it!

If you didn't get a slot at SQLPass Summit this time - don't be disheartened. There is a Chinese proverb: The journey is the reward. Keep going, and who knows what will happen? You'll learn, and make friends as you go along. Submit again next year with more experience under your belt, and more knowledge of your subject. Good luck!

A special note for UG leaders - make sure and support your new speakers. Mentor and encourage them. That person might be the next Brent Ozar or Kalen Delaney, so give them the opportunity to grow. We are all part of a community and we can help one another!

Good luck everyone! Please email me at jen.stirrup@copperblueconsulting.com if you'd like to give a webinar. I'd love to schedule you in, and help you get started!

Best,
Jen x

Big Data for the Business Intelligence Professional SQLPass Summit Preconference Day

I'm delighted to announce that Allan Mitchell (blog ¦ twitter) and I are giving a Big Data for the Business Intelligence Professional preconference session at SQLPass Summit 2013 in Charlotte, NC.

What will we be covering?

What does Big Data mean for business intelligence professionals? Come see the “whats,” “hows,” and “whys” as this full-day pre-conference session demystifies Microsoft’s Big Data technology offerings. 

Microsoft has partnered with HortonWorks to bring Big Data into the hands of business users via their favorite BI tools: Power View, PowerPivot, and Excel. This session will cover both on-premise and Azure-based technologies, examining the Microsoft distribution of Hadoop through a range of technologies such as HDInsight, Hive, and Azure through to Excel, PowerPivot, and Power View. 

The first half of the session will be dedicated to the “what” and “how” of Hadoop, using HDInsight. With Hadoop comes a whole ecosystem of tools, and we’ll look at how to use them in a BI context to support users’ Big Data needs. We’ll also look in detail at MapReduce to parallelize complex Big Data queries across many servers. After you have Big Data, how are you going to serve it to business users to derive value for the enterprise? 

The second half of the session will be dedicated to the “why” of Big Data. We’ll visualize Big Data in our favorite BI tools: Excel, PowerPivot, and Power View.

Would you like to join us? 

We'd love to see you there! Visit the PASS Summit 2013 website for the latest updates.  You can also take advantage of early registration, so book now to register at $800 off the final registration rate by June 30.

What is SQLPass Summit? 

It is the conference which is the pinnacle of the SQL Server world, featuring over 125 hand-picked sessions to help data professionals advance their careers and make the most of their Microsoft SQL Server implementations. The conference takes place on October 15th - 18th.

Presentations across 6 tracks will cover everything from database administration best practices, new SQL Server features, and the latest database and application development techniques to what you need to know about building and managing effective BI solutions and being successful in the cloud.

PowerPivot error: unable to upgrade the Data Model in this workbook

Upon opening a PowerPivot in Excel 2013 workbook, I get the following message:

unable to upgrade the Data Model in this workbook. The error occurred while upgrading PowerPivot workbook. The data model has reverted to the previous version

The PowerPivot model was created in Excel 2013. The machine is 64-bit and the model was created here and hasn't been moved.
It was working fine yesterday, and the only real change was the addition of a password in order to secure the file.

The error message in details is here:

============================
Error Message:
============================

Element not found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8002802B (TYPE_E_ELEMENTNOTFOUND))

============================
Call Stack:
============================

   at Microsoft.Office.PowerPivot.ExcelAddIn.INativeEntryPoint.BeginUpgradeASPPModel(String workbookName)
   at Microsoft.Office.PowerPivot.ExcelAddIn.InProcServer.LoadSandboxAfterConnection(String errorCache)

============================

Resolution

I resolved this issue by:
running the 'PowerPivot in Sharepoint 2013 Configuration'.
I also removed the password from the file. To move it around, I will have to use other methods of encrypting the file.  For customer data, I use diskGenie iStorage portable encrypted hard drives and USBs, rather than the plethora of USBs I tend to pick up for free from events.

After running the Wizard and removing the password, I could open up the PowerPivot model just fine.

Hope that helps.

An apology...

As some of you may know, I've been presenting in six different countries over the last month: Ireland, Norway, the United States, the UK, Denmark and Switzerland. A lot of this has been community work, for example, SQLBits, Database Days, SQLSaturday Denmark, SQLZaterdag in the Netherlands, and also the Norway LEAP architect program.

Along the way, I've collected a lot of requests from help for people for more information, slides, book references, help with technical issues - basically, I have a ton of questions from people, a pile of business cards from people who want more information, and hundreds of email to answer.

Whilst I work my way through this, I would ask for your patience with me. I am drowning in requests from people from six different countries (not including the questions I normally get) and I am slowly working my way through them. I will get to your question eventually, but I'd be grateful for your patience whilst I get through them.

I am grateful for all the people who have attended my events, and it's clear that many people have a passion for business intelligence and data visualisation. Thank you to everyone who attended - and if you did ask me for something, I'd like to ask for some patience from you whilst I work my way through everything.  I will get to you, in due course.

In the meantime, I am very sorry that I can't help everyone as quickly as I'd like.

Why don't I simply post my slides up here? Simple. Unfortunately I've found that there has been some folks 're-using' my stuff, reblogging it without crediting me, and so on. It's a real pity but unfortunately I've had to resort to issuing PDFs 'on request' only.

I am very sad about it, but it's been extremely disappointing to see my stuff copied and pasted and working its way around the place. I cannot find a happy medium, and I'm open to ideas if anyone has other suggestions.

Onwards and forwards!

Announcing DiTBits at SQLBits

We are pleased to announce our inaugural DiTBiTs Cheese and Wine event at SQLBits XI on Friday 3rd May at 5pm in Room 1. The DiTBits site is here, and this is a cross-post.

Our topic is as follows: Networking in IT. Can more diverse networks provide better networks?
Is business networking useful in our careers?
How much has networking helped you in your career?
How can you build good social media profiles – or are these even necessary?

Attendees can enjoy Cheese and Wine refreshments whilst during the Panel discussion and interaction. Then, we’ll have a Flashmob Speed Networking at the end, just to tie things together before everyone shoots off for the party – so bring your business cards!

We are pleased to welcome our following panellists:

Denise McInerney is joining us from the United States, so please be sure to give Denise a hearty SQLBits welcome! Denise McInerney is a DBA-turned-Data-Analyst. She lives in Silicon Valley where she is employed by the software company Intuit. Denise founded the PASS Women in Technology chapter and currently serves as a member of the PASS Board of Directors. She is a Microsoft MVP.

Mark Broadbent is well known within the UK and across the world as a dedicated PASS ‘Outstanding Volunteer’ award winner and UK Regional Mentor. He is a SQL Server specialist and speaker focusing on HADR & upgrade solutions and in 2011 was awarded Microsoft’s Community Contributor award and in 2012 received the PASS Outstanding Volunteer award. He is the proud host of the first UK SQLSaturday, and is hosting another SQLSaturday event in Cambridge later this year.

Stephanie Locke works primarily in the BI space as a Senior Analyst responsible for delivering high profile projects and educating & mentoring others.  She coordinates the local user group for SQL Server and tries to help grow the community.

The host for the inaugural DiTBits event is Jen Stirrup, a SQL Server MVP who best-known for her work in Business Intelligence and Data Visualisation. She is the current holder of the SQLPassion Award, presented by PASS at Summit 2012, for her work in helping the European SQL Server community. Jen has presented at TechEd North America, TechEd Europe, SQLPass and SQLBits and is the proud host of SQLSaturday Edinburgh.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with Jen.Stirrup@copperblueconsulting.com or feel free to browse around our site.
Who are DiTBIts? Take a look here.

PASS BA Conference: Interview with the PASS Board

I was lucky enough to interview Bill Graziano and Douglas McDowell, members of the PASS Board in order to have a chat with them about the PASS BA Conference. I've detailed the conversation here. I'd like to say a big 'Thank You' to Bill and Douglas, and the rest of the PASS team who took time out of their day in order to spend time with myself and the other bloggers.

Before we proceed, I'm British and spell organisation with an 's' rather than a 'z' - a number of the PASS BA Conference attendees came up to speak with me about my British spelling in my presentations, and it really made me smile! Therefore, this blog will continue my tradition of British spellings!

What was the purpose of the PASS Business Analytics conference?  

The conference is aimed at the Business Analysts who want to be leaders in their discipline. Business Analysts, like the rest of the data community, are people to feel included as part of a community. If you touch data, you should be here! 62% of attendees have never been to a PASS event before - this is an awesome achievement for PASS towards building a new community of Business Analysts.

PASS is responding to a need in the Business Analytics community for knowledge, support, networking and training. Although PASS facilitate community events such as SQLSaturday events and so on, the content is determined by the community - in other words, what do people want to see? There is a real thirst for people to have Business Analytics information and a community, and PASS is meeting that demand.

What will people take away from the PASS BA Conference?

Knowledge of new technologies as well as discussions of business strategy. There are also plenty of case studies in specific domains, such as social media data analysis and even sports data analysis!

One interesting thing that was noted during the discussion was the sheer breadth of conversations that were held at the PASS BA Conference. It seemed a broad mix of IT and Business oriented people, and it was great to hear people sharing insights about what would be useful to them. Often it can be difficult for the IT folks to understand what the Business folks are doing and why - and vice versa. It seemed as if the 'sidebar' conversations went mainstream; one common theme was the difficulties in intra-organisational communication between technical and business departments.  One of the interesting things for me is that some of the attendees seemed to take away more than knowledge; they took away a multi-faceted perspective of looking at the same 'business' problem with different eyes.

So, what was the audience profile of people attending a BA conference? The majority of 'job roles' were 'Business Analysts', who constituted 40% of the audience. These people were business-oriented in a LOB role. 

The Business Analyst role constitutes a variety of roles, and it can be target a breadth of roles that's pertinent to Business Analytics. So, what is Business Analytics?

It means different things to different people. Positioning it was quite hard. 

How do you concisely package it? If we look at Gartner continuum, we can see that Business Intelligence is diagnostic, and answers the question 'what happened'? Business Analytics, on the other hand, is prescriptive. It asks the question 'What do I need to do in order to effect an organisational change?' 

Why did you choose the name 'Business Analytics'?

Future messaging of the PASS BA Conference will get tighter, but it is difficult to pin down when there are so many buzzwords! Business Analytics as a term, however, is durable - it's about adding value to your data. As technologies move and shift, the topic mix will change over time.

How can people continue to engage once the PASS BA Conference is over?

Given that 500 people were completely new to PASS as an organisation, there are plenty of opportunities for people to start up their own User Group, for example. Hopefully you'll see a BA user group starting near you! There will be separate needs for different parts of the community, and it is natural that this will evolve over time. 

Virtual chapters can be one way to engage, and I'd personally encourage people to join up.

PASSBAC keynote: The Microsoft data story, and the next chapters

I attended the keynote from the PASS Business Analytics Conference in Chicago, April 2013. For those of you who missed it, here is some of the content of the keynote.

The take away point is that Business Intelligence must be simple. It is important to make it fun, and we are drowning in data. Not being able to read and understand data, is like being disadvantaged in today's world. We have to move beyond what we now think about Business Intelligence. We have to get inside our data. 

The keynote was opened by Bill Graziano ( twitter ¦ website ) who underlined the importance for a need amongst Business Analytics professionals for knowledge and support. PASS is helping to formulate a community of Data Professionals. If you're a Business Analytics  professional, you can be a part of the shaping of this community and be a part in it. If this interests you, could can take a look at joining up a Virtual Chapter and receive monthly webcasts, for example. This can help you to stay connected once PASSBAC is finished.

Next, we had Dell appearing. They have over 15 years of IM software experience. 

Dell has over 15 years of IM software experience, after their purchase of @Quest, for example. Dell constantly monitor their own brand in social media. For example, they have 6 years experience in watching their brand online, and anticipating with customers from a support and brand engagement perspective. They made the following observations in the social media market:

Dell's Observations

Data Type Proliferation

Vendor Proliferation

Data-Location proliferation

IT and LOB challenges

Snap into existing environments

Given these observations, they then moved to address these points in the market:

Analysis of social media needed to be:

Data-Type Agnostic

Vendor Agnostic

Data-Location Agnostic

Open

Capability needs to be at the tools layer

The takeaway point from the Dell part of the keynote is: Make the hard things simple to allow for more collaboration, exploration, analysis and communication

The final part of the keynote was presented by Amir Netz, who is a Distinguished Technical Fellow at Microsoft. The few times I've been lucky enough to speak with Amir in person, I've found him to be a very approachable and fun guy, and this came across clearly in the keynote, which was probably the most engaging I've seen (and I see a lot!) Netz was accompanied by Kamil Hathi who knows his stuff inside out and is a 'go to' expert for Analysis Services. I was really excited about this keynote since, whilst individually they are both excellent speakers, the idea of a joint presentation sounded fun and informative. They started off by emphasising how 'simple' attracts people. The strategy is to go back to Excel, thereby capturing the simplicity once again.  

How can we make the spreadsheet really interesting again? Well, we can add in lots of unstructured data! To do this, we can use Hadoop, which is a file system, essentially a shoebox of unstructured data. A lot of data, all different kinds! Using Hadoop, you can easily transform the unstructured data. Structure on extraction, rather than a structured data model before extraction. Therefore, you're not imposing a structure on data that the ETL meets via the load; you're structuring the data once it is in Hadoop.

The team then did a great demo of PowerView using data from a dataset of music and songs. We learned that Mariah Carey has had more weeks in the charts than luminaries such as Elvis, the Beatles and U2.

This showed the power of the interaction of the data. In Amir's example, the kids had fun learning about their music idols. This was easily demonstrated in the keynote audience, who were cheerfully shouting out band names. We heard all sorts of names being shouted out: Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Madonna and even Milli Vanilli!

Power View is all about sharing information, and having fun with the data. 

Business Intelligence is elective - nobody forces an organisation to use Business Intelligence. It is about time management, and how much time people spend on Business Intelligence.

However, business intelligence can be fun can help you to get the ROI because it means that people will use it, and learn from it. Fun is important, and success is infectious.

It has to be more than fun, but it is a good starting place.  We can use it to start more investigations, and then lead to deeper questions.

The team then did a deeper exploration using Power View for sentiment analysis with Twitter data. Sentiment used as a means of prediction of outcomes. If you'd like to know more about this, I've written a two part MSDN article on the topic.

The most exciting part was the announcement of Codename Geoflow, which allows you to do location sensitive content to your data. In other words, it allows you to create 3D data visualisations based on maps. You have to see it to believe it, and if you're looking for #Geoflow information, here you are http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2013/04/11/day-2-pass-business-analytics-conference-new-3d-mapping-analytics-tool-for-excel.aspx … #PASSBAC #SQLBits #SQLPass #SQLFAQ

Amir did a great demo to show the changes in the 'music chart songs' data over time and over place. It is a wonderful story, brought to life by #Geoflow. it also looked great on the huge 81 inch touchscreen, and its a great way to drive visualisations of data. At the PASS BA Conference, we will be lucky enough to have the Microsoft Experience lounge, where we can go and try all of this gadgetry out! Like Amir says, it has to be fun too.

We don't just think about business. Business Intelligence could also be called basic intelligence, but to achieve it, we need to get inside our data and let people work with it in familiar tools. 

This is the Microsoft story, and I'm excited to see the next chapter for our business users.