Difinity 2020 Conference Sessions

[vc_row][vc_column][themeum_title title=”Difinity 2020 Conference Sessions for 18th and 19th of Feb 2020″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]List of sessions will be complete shortly. Please Stay Tuned![/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”querydatatricks”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Advanced Power Query Data Tricks[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Power Query is an amazing tool for cleaning up and loading your data, but sometimes you’ll run into some tricky data patterns. This session demos intermediate and advanced no-code/low-code patterns in order to unwind complicated data sets with ease.

Demos in this session will cover comparing data against other rows, building a calendar table on the fly, creating joins with approximate matches, numbering grouped rows and more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”finerpointsofdax”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The finer points of DAX[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Power BI uses the DAX language to make self service BI accessible to the masses.  DAX and Power BI use a different approach to BI than other tools such as Excel and SQL Server.  In this session, Matt Allington will contrast Excel, SQL Server and DAX/Power BI to help the audience understand the differences in approach between these common tools before demonstrating a few concepts to help you make a conceptual leap to becoming better at DAX.
The different roles of CALCULATE[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”powerbiinfographic”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Power BI Infographic related on the Power BI Eco System[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]What actually makes up the Power BI Eco System?

Have you ever wondered what are all the parts that make up the Power BI Eco System and their features?

In this session I will cover the area’s which make up the Power BI Eco system. This will include Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service (Free, Pro & Premium), Power BI Gateway, Power BI Report Server & Power BI Mobile App.

The goal of this session will be to give you a better understanding of all the working parts. And once you have a better understanding it will allow you to have the knowledge to know what to do where.

It will be an insightful journey into how much is actually going on within the world of Power BI in an easy to understand and digest manner.

The most popular blog posts are ones where it is easier concepts and details on how Power BI works.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”powerbiextensibility”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Power BI Extensibility: Developers Guide[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Power BI is not just a self-service tool for business analysts. Power BI has many features that help developers build, extend and programmatically manage their own reporting solutions. Power BI Embedded, Power BI REST and Admin APIs, real-time streaming, secure embedding, customizing user experience with query string parameters, along with powerful analytical engine of Power BI, can help developers take their applications that need to integrate data visualization experiences to the next level. Come to this session to learn about the features that Power BI provides for developers of all skill levels and see demonstrations of recently added features.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”largedatasetspowerbi”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Working with large datasets in PowerBI[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Power BI has come a long way from the early days of 250MB datasets, and we’re now able to work with very large volumes of data. In this session we look at the various options available
– looking at what the data size limits are, and what that means in combination with the data compression in play
– Working with data within and outside PowerBI, and looking at how we can use and combine direct query, composite agregates, Analysis Services, Azure Data Warehouse and the capabilities of PowerBI premium to deliver reporting over billions of rows of data[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”debugdax”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Debug DAX like a Pro[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I will share my leaning from being 1yr on the Power BI CAT team, showing how we debug DAX for large customers. Get a walkthrough of practical techniques used by the Microsoft Power BI team when debugging and optimizing DAX in large models. These apply equally for small and medium-size models. You’ll leave this session knowing how to identify and speed up slow running DAX calculations.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”daxanddatamodelling”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]DAX and data modelling – basic building blocks for business analytics[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In this session I will cover a number of basic building blocks for business analytics in Power BI, illustrating how some common problems that I have encountered in the business world can be solved through data modelling and DAX.

This session will provide a series of small examples covering these scenarios:
– Effective use of calendar tables and time intelligence
– Defining measures in sequence to minimise duplication of logic
– Using iterators to control granularity of calculations
– Handling fact tables with different granularities e.g. sales and inventory
– Handling mixtures of forecast and actual data
– Using “”blank”” values to hide unwanted results in visuals
– Performing “”recursive”” calculations

This session is ideal for anyone starting out with Power BI or DAX, who is interested in practical business applications.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”azuremachinelearningproducts”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Understanding the differences in Azure Machine Learning Products[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]When searching for Azure ML [AML], the browser returns a number of different products. Which product do you want to use when? Which is the appropriate tool for integrating with SQL Server or data in Azure?
AML Studio, Workspace, Pipeline and Service are different products which you can use to create or deploy a solution and they all start with AML. Understanding the differences between the products provides the information needed to be able to architect the appropriate solution in your environment.

The session demos show how to create an end-to-end AML workflow to prepare data, create ML models, deploy models, and use data contained within SQL Server by integrating a number of tools including Databricks, Python and Jupyter notebooks. Learn why you want to use AML Workspace for ML development collaboration, scaling, and management. Understand how to monitor ML models in production with AML Pipeline to organize releases and generate execution metrics.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”rpythonssasazureml”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Comparing Predictive Models from R, Python, SSAS, and Azure ML[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]There is a lot of overlapping in Microsoft BI suite. For advanced analytics, like data mining, you can use SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), or R, or Python, or Azure ML. The question arises which tool to use. The answer is simple, through another question. Why not all of them?
In data mining, you typically create multiple predictive models for the same task, and then evaluate them to select the best one.

So why wouldn’t you use different tools for different models? You will learn how to evaluate the predictive models. Then you will see how to bring all of the mining models together and compare them no matter of the source they come from. You will see how you can use SQL Server Integration Services, Excel, and other tools for this task.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”azuremlops”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Azure MLOps: Bring your DevOps to Machine Learning[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]MLOps empowers data scientists and app developers to bring machine learning models to production.

In this session, Stefano Tempesta, Microsoft Regional Director and MVP on AI and Business Applications, describes how to use MLOps in Azure to track, version, audit, certify and re-use every asset in your ML lifecycle and streamline the use of each resource.

With practical examples on asset management and orchestration services for your ML model training and deployment workflows, you will learn about the Azure DevOps Machine Learning extension, best practices for data scientists to work in topic branches off master, when code is pushed to a Git repo, how to trigger a CI (continuous integration) pipeline, and how to provision ML workspaces, compute targets, datastores as infrastructure-as-code.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”dmloperations”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Mastering DML Operations like a master[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]DML operations mean lot of work for the database engine of Microsoft SQL Server. Understanding the details of a DML transaction may give you great benefits when planning workloads for INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE operations.

Come and learn the differences of space allocation/deallocation between Clustered Indexes and Heaps in this demo oriented session. It will answer these questions:

What is the difference of data page allocation for heaps and clustered indexes?
What is the amount of transaction log when you update data in a heap and/or in a clustered index?
What are the differences when data are delete from a heap and clustered index?
Can ETL processes be improved by usage of the right strategy for INSERTS and DELETES?
What performance drawbacks will Page Splits and Forwarded Records have for my application design?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”fasterssis”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Faster SSIS[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Ever wonder why SSIS runs so slowly? Watch SSIS author Andy Leonard as he runs test loads using sample and real-world data, and shows you how to tune SQL Server 2016 Integration Services (SSIS 2016) packages.

We’ll start by experimenting with SSIS design patterns to improve performance loading AdventureWorks data. We will implement different change detection patterns and compare execution performance for each. Then, we’ll explain a Data Flow Task’s bottleneck when loading binary large objects – or Blobs.

Finally, we’ll demonstrate a design pattern that uses a Script Component in a Data Flow to boost load performance to MySql, whether on-premises or in the cloud.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”cloudmigrationssisazuredatafactory”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Back to the Future: Accelerating the Cloud Migration of Legacy SSIS with Azure Data Factory[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This session focuses on the new features to unblock/accelerate cloud migration of legacy SSIS, such as 2008 or earlier versions, with Azure Data Factory (ADF). We will first show you how to provision Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime (IR) – dedicated ADF servers for running SSIS – and extend it with custom/Open Source/3rd party components.

We will next show you how to enable the following scenarios: running SSIS packages stored in Azure Files as first-class activities in ADF pipelines, accessing Azure SQL DB/Managed Instance with OLEDB connectors that are configured for Azure Active Directory authentication with ADF managed identity, testing SSIS packages in ADF from SSDT, scheduling SSIS jobs in ADF from SQL Server Agent/3rd party orchestrators that invoke Azure-enabled dtexec.exe, etc. We will finally show you the complete SSIS Migration Playbook to perform batch package assessments and batch package/job migrations using Data Migration Assistant/Service, dtutil.exe, scripts, etc[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”snowflakeonazure”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Snowflake on Azure[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Snowflake – the data warehouse built for the cloud – is now available on Microsoft Azure! If you’re in the cloud, or looking to move to the cloud with Microsoft Azure, then you need to check this session out.

We’ll take a look at how you can move your data and take advantage of the cheap storage that Azure Blob Storage provides to build your data lake of structured and semi-structured data, and how you can use the elastic compute capabilities of the cloud to provide both instant scalability whilst controlling costs. We will also see how to connect tools like Power BI and Spark/Databricks to your Snowflake data lake/data warehouse and kick start your analytics in the cloud.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”azuredataofferings”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Azure Data Offerings[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Have a guess how many Database/Data storage options Microsoft Azure has.
Hint, it was 27 back in April 2019.

This session will talk through the various “database” options available on the Azure platform, focusing on their specific features and differences, and describing which workloads are best suited for a particular offering.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”modelwithazuremachinelearningservices”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Build your first Model with Azure Machine Learning Services[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Azure Machine Learning Service provides SDKs and services to quickly prepare data, setup ML experiments, train and deploy the models. In this session you will learn about the Azure AI landscape, how to build a model with Azure Machine Learning Service followed by the data science process.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”visualguidanceforpowerbi”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Visual Guidance for PowerBI[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This colorful presentation is all about what works and what doesn’t when you are building your data visualizations and reports. We will review the guiding principals in designing your canvas, compare the chart types, recommend the best types of visuals to various business questions. Best practices in the industry, for intuitive and compelling user interface to deliver the Data Driven decision support your Business Needs.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”predictivemodelingwithR”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Predictive Modeling with R[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Many people thing first about predictions when they hear the term data science. And of course, predictive modeling is one of the most important data science tasks. There are many supervised, or directed algorithms for this task. In this session, you will learn about the most important algorithms like neural networks and logistic regression. You will be exposed to the knowledge about all kind of trees and forests, including decision and regression trees, random forests, and gradient boosting trees. A simple algorithm K-nearest neighbors can be useful for some occasions as well.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”flowandpowerapps”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Take control of Flow and PowerApps Governance[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The power couple Flow and PowerApps has hit business with a surprising amount of energy and delight, business agility has never been faster. But at some point, in the calm between creating new apps and flows, we do wonder – how are we going to support all these?

IT is charged with guarding business policies and mitigating business risk. As much as the power platform is a blessing for the business, it can be just as much as it is a risk. How do we reconcile the challenges we are facing on both sides?

Ultimately, Flow and PowerApps governance is a discussion every maker needs to have with their business and IT. The more equipped we are for this discussion, the better the outcome would be.

Join us for an informative, outcomes-driven and lively discussion on Flow and PowerApps governance. We will talk about out of box options, and then going beyond out of box into custom governance solutions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”powerappsandflowbestpractices”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]PowerApps and Flow Best Practices, working with Data[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Microsoft PowerApps and Flow have seen tremendous adoption in recent years. With an ever-growing need for rapid and agile solution development, these two products have the potential to solve business problems with very minimal development efforts.

However, as with any product, with great simplification comes greater problems. As a data professional, it is our responsibility to make sure the data layer is accessed with proper security and efficiency. In this session, I will explore different methods to connect to the data from PowerApps and Flow. In this demo filled session, I will cover different scenarios for sending and receiving data in PowerApps using Flows.

Key Learning: The attendees will learn design best practices in PowerApps and Flow while working with data layer.

Demos:
1. Connecting to SQL Server databases
2. Receiving data into PowerApps using Flow
3. Sending data from PowerApps using Flow and receiving a response “[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2”]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”roadtohellpavedwithgoodintentions”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The road to hell is paved with good intentions[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]AI and Machine Learning are the current leading trends in data and more developers and data scientists are getting involved in the next level of delivering knowledge and insight from the masses of data around us. Are we actually doing it correctly? Are we thinking about how biases in the training data sets (and the human biases that are part of the development of the algorithms) are affecting the results? Are we actually delivering insight? This talk walks through some real life examples and examines our role as data professionals in ensuring sound results.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”moderndatawarehousewithazure”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Your Modern Data Warehouse Journey with Azure[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Game on! It’s time to move or create your data warehouse in Azure. What are the options?

Azure offers an endless list of services that will be a good fit for your data warehouse solution. This session covers the main services and classifies them into the various layers of a data warehouse architecture.

I am also going to show you how easy it is to start developing and delivering within the Azure environment and share some tips that can help you start this journey. Azure Data Warehouse, Databricks, Data Lake and Data Factory are some of the services that will be part of this session.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”aiinpowerplatform”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]All the ways to do AI in Power Platform[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Can PowerBI do predictive analytics? How good it is for this purpose? We will explore the newest AI builder, all the different ways to build basic prediction models in PowerBI and even a connection to the Azure ML studio to get some of the models.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”sqlserverbigdataclusters”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]SQL Server Big Data Clusters – Your single Data Hub, at scale[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]With SQL Server 2019, Microsoft is introducing a new couple of features for data virtualization, data mart scale out and big data analysis. They all together form the SQL Server Big Data Clusters.

After a short intro on the Big Data Cluster architecture, we will focus on how you can use T-SQL – a language that you’re familiar with – to use PolyBase, the SQL Storage Pool and the SQL Data Pool to bring all your data together and scale for performance or cost, depending on your needs![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”makeeverythingmicrosoftflowin2020″][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]How to make everything with Microsoft Flow in 2020[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Microsoft Flow is one of the strangest product from Microsoft. It is workflow, it is automation, it is Serverless Middleware, it orchestrates code in the cloud like Azure Functions.
This is an introduction to Flow – but we go deep and wide – we show what is Flow, but also all the different kind of scenarios and solutions that we can build with Flow.

Flow is a product that everyone, from Power Users to IT Pros to Developers need to understand and hopefully in your toolbelt.
When we don’t have an action, how to make our own actions. When we don’t have a trigger, make our own triggers. From patterns, to expressions to insane tricks.

Ultimately, we warn you – building Flows and watching them automatically run your job is extremely addictive.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”paginatedreportingpowerbi”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Paginated Reporting in Power BI[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Interactive reporting has changed the way that organisations share and consume information. Users can slice and dice their data in so many ways without needing to ask developers to change the reports. However, most organisations do still need paginated (fixed format) reports as well.
In this session, Craig will introduce you to Paginated reports in the Power BI Service. We will discuss the details of how this is implemented, licencing, and what your options are.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”etlbigdatausingdataflowsinazuredatafactory”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]ETL in Big Data using Data flows in Azure Data Factory[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

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[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”top5omissionsfromazuresqldatabase”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]My Top 5 omissions from Azure SQL Database applications and how to fix them[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]As a consultant, I am often called upon to help troubleshoot Azure SQL Database applications. Most of these could have been addressed with better design and planning.

Come along to this session and discover the common omissions from a robust Azure SQL Database implementation and how you can go about fixing these in your own environment before they bite you.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”powerbiarchitectureusingdataflowsandshareddatasets”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Evolving your Power BI Architecture using Dataflows and Shared Datasets[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In this session we will look how the release of dataflows and shared datasets has changed the way we design our Power BI solutions. Starting with a single Power BI file, containing the queries, data model and reports, we will look at the features allowing you to decouple these components to move your solution into a more enterprise architecture.

We will walk through a solution and watch it grow into a mature architecture, and you’ll see demos of dataflows, shared datasets and data visualisations sourced from your datasets in the cloud. We’ll talk through the benefits and some pitfalls, all with the goal of getting you ready to grow your Power BI estate straight away![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”intelligentsearchsolutionusingazurecognitivesearch”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Develop an intelligent Search solution using Azure Cognitive Search[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Azure Cognitive Search provides an AI first approach to search and content understanding using built-in Cognitive Services. Whether you have structured, semi-structured or unstructured data, Azure Cognitive Search will discover knowledge quicker and easier and present it to your end users.

In this session, you will learn about
Introduction to Azure Search
Add Cognitive capabilities to your search
Create index and build queries using Azure Search
Using Cognitive Search in real world scenarios[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”practisingsafecustomvisuals”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Practising Safe Custom Visuals[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Custom visuals provide further extension to Power BI’s already awesome visual palette and there are some incredibly useful and beautiful visuals available out there in the world. You can also install visuals directly from files you build yourself, or built by others.

While you should ideally be able to trust that custom visuals are improving your ability to tell your data story, it’s often worth knowing exactly what these can and can’t do with respect to your data so that you can make informed decisions around the right ones to use.

In this session, we’ll talk about considerations to make when selecting custom visuals for your reports, what potential pitfalls to look out for when evaluating them (including demonstration of a “black hat” custom visual), and how to manage usage policies for custom visuals by your users at an enterprise level.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”practicalproblemsolving”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]It’s broken, now what?! (Practical problem solving)[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]We’ve all experienced weird situations in IT – things break without any real apparent reason. Sometimes, error messages can be helpful, but mostly they are cryptic and lead to no real explanations/solutions.

In this session, I will show a variety of problems that I have run into in the past and explain how I approached them. Sometimes finding simple solutions, but sometimes having to be creative and employ methods that may not be so intuitive.

You will leave the session with a better understanding on how to approach solving any technical issues you experience at work.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”datavisualizationethics”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Two Truths That’s A Lie: Data Visualization Ethics[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Data visualization is an impactful and influential method of telling a story, so it’s important to be as open and truthful as possible when telling your story. The Society of Professional Journalists have a code of ethics that begins with a single mission, Seek Truth and Report It, but what is truth in data? Data can tell multiple stories. How do we protect our company and reputation?

In this session, we will discuss how everything from color to chart can be used to change the meaning of visualization. We will cover the things that influence and manipulate. Finally, we will put it all together, creating two opposing stories using the same data-set.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”powerbipremium”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Power BI Premium – What is it, how does it work and how can it help my organisation[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I will cover what Power BI Premium is, what features it offers.

Then walk through showing people how it works by walking through demo’s using those features such as (Free users, Incremental Refreshing, Paginated Reports, XMLA End Points & more as new features become available. And if there is anything of particular interest people are looking for.)

I will also cover off what actually happens when using some of the features in Power BI Premium and how this could affect the performance not only of reports, but of your Power BI Premium capacity.

During the entire session, I will also explain how it can help your organisation to ensure that you can deliver the best reporting solution to your end users be that internal or external.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”devopsanddatascience”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]DevOps and Data Science[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Historically Data Scientists have typically worked off to one side of a business in a silo. However as data science projects have been brought into business processes there is the need for structure and process.

Often data science discussions are initiated assuming data is ready to analyse and able to give us a reliable predictive model.Data Science is exciting and initially process can fall by the wayside as it is far more fun to focus on the algorithms and technologies used within a project.
Microsoft created the Team Data Science Process (TDSP) which has been designed to provide an agile, iterative methodology to deliver predictive analytics solutions efficiently. DevOps builds on TDSP as it focuses on tools, process and people to deliver business value to end users.

In this session, see how DevOps best practices can be applied to Data Science and can provide a method for planning the process and outcomes of coding, building, testing and deploying Data Science projects.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”azurecosmosdbforthesqlprofessional”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Azure Cosmos DB for the SQL Professional[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Azure Cosmos DB is Microsoft’s Globally Distributed, Multi-Model database service.
Those embarking on this journey will find themselves entering the world of JSON documents, NoSQL, Containers (not the docker ones), graphs and many new concepts that the SQL Professional may possibly find slightly daunting, potentially ambiguous and even a little off putting.
The multi-model capabilities of the Cosmos DB database Service provide different APIs for access and we’ll look at these, explore why NoSQL may be a better choice than SQL on some occasions and delve into things that differentiate Cosmos DB from standard relational databases such as SQL Server.
Cosmos DB is excellent for the ingestion and timely processing of telemetry data and anybody contemplating a DevOps environment may want to check out what the service has to offer.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”connectingloTdatawithartificialintelligenceinmodernazureloTsolutions”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Connecting IoT Data with Artificial Intelligence in Modern Azure IoT Solutions[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This talk is about intersection of IoT and artificial intelligence.
IoT solutions to generate more data than traditional systems and users can analyse.
Nowadays, AI enabled software solutions that optimize equipment and process performance for large industrial customers. These solutions use large volumes of real-time, batch data from equipment and processes in real time, and apply AI/ML algorithms to predict failures and anomalies as well as optimize performance.
The concept is explained in the context of Azure IoT and Azure AI platforms.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”datascientistsfromjupyternotebooktosqlservermachinele”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Things I’ve learn’t from working with Data Scientists from Jupyter notebook to SQL server machine le[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Abstract:
In this session we’ll cover
– Jupiter notebook
– SQL Server machine learning in DB
— how to install
— check setup
— adding additional python modules
– how to run python scripts using sp_execute_external_script[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”datagovernance”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Data Governance – What does it mean and why do you need to care about it?[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Data Governance includes the people, processes and technologies needed to manage and protect a company’s data assets in order to guarantee understandable, correct, complete, trustworthy, secure and discoverable data.

This session will walk though all aspects of understanding, auditing, documenting, regaining control, securing and supporting a modern enterprises data estate.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”gettingstartedwithmanageddeltalakeonazuredatabricks”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Getting started with managed Delta Lake on Azure Databricks[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes
Level: 200 – Intermediate

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]At Spark + AI Summit in April 2019, Databricks announced Delta Lake, open source storage layer engine built on top of Apache Spark for optimising data pipelines that brings reliability to data lakes.

Delta Lake is not a storage system like Azure Data Lake Storage. It works on top of Azure Data Lake Storage to enable robust pipelines serving clean, quality data to support high performance batch and streaming analytics. Delta Lake provides ACID transactions, scalable metadata handling, and unifies streaming and batch data processing. Delta Lake runs on top of your existing data lake and is fully compatible with Apache Spark APIs.
In this session, we will go through how to configure Delta Lake based on generic workload patterns and demonstrate how it provides optimised layouts and indexes for fast interactive queries.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”selfservicebi”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text] Self Service BI: The Value is in the Refresh[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]2 text transaction files, a pivoted eExcel budget file, 20 Power Queries, 6 dimensional tables, and one interactive Excel dashboard = mind blowing awesomeness in under 60 minutes. But while the analysis is important, the real value in the refresh.

Can your model pull in another 22 text files and next year’s budgets in less than a minute? This model can. Come and see how today’s Excel gives us the ability to not only rapidly create business intelligence, but also allows us to build engaging and interactive models that can be quickly updated and shared via Power BI.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”usingdatatoacceleratetransformation”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Using data to accelerate transformation[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Companies today are undertaking digital programs to bring momentum and transformation in response to customer demands. As a result, a leaders ability to lead and succeed in a complex, changing environment has become more critical than ever. Technology driven technology projects are being replaced with accelerated, data-driven digital tools which deliver significant benefits to fulfill promises to customers.

By attending this webinar, you will learn to:

Adopt an innovative approach to leadership which brings data and intelligence together
Create a successful digital transformation approach that encourages innovation at scale and learns from failures
Using data as an asset and turning those assets into capital with fresh looks at KPIs and success metrics.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”dw/biprojectslearnfromcollaborationprograms”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]What can DW/BI projects learn from collaboration programs[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]More often than not, organizational change programs and DW/BI projects do not intermingle with each other; however, these programs have learned over time how to build user-centric approaches that raise employee engagement and awareness resulting in increased ROI and adoption. In this session we are going to review some of the key lessons learned from large scale change programs and how we can incorporate those into your next DW/BI project.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”smartenergysystemswithlotbasedpredictiveanalysis”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Management of Smart Energy Systems with IoT-Based Predictive Analytics for More Efficient Energy Consumption[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Smart energy solutions and related systems like smart homes, smart cities are growing and stay the essential part of the whole ecosystem, so need use to optimize the energy consumption.

Modern Smart Energy systems can be highly successful, but they require intensive monitoring, control and management.

Predictive analytics is one of the most important functionalities, required for modern intelligent systems, related to management of the energy consumption. There are two different aspects:

– Prediction of the energy price and availability

– Prediction of possible failures of the smart energy system equipment.

In the past predictive analytics was quite expensive feature, because statistical algorithms require more computing power. With cloud-based IoT-based

Predictive Analytics is easier, cheaper and more easily accessible for design, implementation and maintenance.

This talk is about real use case, business and technical challenges build modern smart energy solutions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”lostindatahowmetadatacanhelpdriveselfservicereportingportal”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Lost in Data – How metadata can help drive a self-service reporting portal[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]With the ever increasing pressure on organizations to be data driven there is an urgency for organizations towards a more self-service reporting environment. Many business users get lost in the myriad of databases and systems and are struggling to find the information they are looking for.

In this session I would like to help you understand what metadata is and how it can assist your organization in driving a self-service reporting portal. We will look what tools are available (such as Azure Data Catalogue) to assist your data engineers in implementing your self-service portal.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”deliveringglobalbusinessgrowthonthepowerplatformandazure”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Delivering Global Business Growth on the Power Platform and Azure[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In this session we will describe our CRM roadmap approach for the last 3 years and how we have transformed the user experience.

This has served as the basis to enable intelligence that we have exposed to our business via PowerBI and enabled customer interactions through our customer portal on Azure.

Topics covered – Dynamics for Sales, PowerBI, Azure Cosmos DB[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”buildingthebusinesscase”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Building the Business Case[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]How many great ideas never make it into production? Learn how to take your great idea to the business and get approval from the boss!

In this session, Steve will take you on a business journey mixing his own personal experiences as a business owner with case studies from the real world.

You will walk out of this session with tips to help you build a great business case to turn your data project idea into reality![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”powerbidatamodelandrelationshipsimplified”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Power BI Data Model and Relationship Simplified[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 100[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Have you ever asked any of these questions from yourself: Which table you should get your values from? How your tables should be related to each other? What is the dimension table? What is the fact table? How you can build a star schema in Power BI? Why bringing values from one table gives you the wrong result? What are types of relationships? What is bi-directional vs single directional. What is the cardinality of the relationship? And many other questions?

If the answer to any of questions above is yes, this session is for you. This session covers the most basic but fundamental aspects of Power BI modelling. You will learn how to build a proper data model with understanding the building blocks and concepts of modelling and relationships. To build a complex data model, nothing is stronger than a powerful building block, and that is what you will learn in this session.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”whydatalakeprojectsfail”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Why Data Lake Projects Fail[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Many organisations are either building data lakes, have a data lake strategy, or are thinking about building a data lake. According to industry reports, however, up to 85% of data lake projects are failures. Hear some of the reasons why, and learn some strategies to avoid making the same mistakes in your own organisation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”thesummitofselfserviceanalysisortheabyssofsilos”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The Summit of Self-Service Analytics, or the Abyss of Silos[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Self-service data analysis is a shiny feature to have especially with recent tools such as Power BI. Users can build their own data model and visualise it the way they want. This gives them the ability to analyse their data without the dependency for a developer and avoid bottleneck in products that leads to powerful decision making. However, the promise of self-service is also combined with the fear of having silos of data everywhere. Not having a single version of truth, and spreading the business logic everywhere, lots of re-work and the abyss of silos. In this session, Reza takes you through both sides; the Summit of analytics, and the abyss of silos. The potential challenges of adoption of self-service in every organisation, how to face them, and how to solve them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”statisticalanalysiswithtsql”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Statistical Analysis with T-SQL[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 400 – Expert

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Transact-SQL language in latest editions of SQL Server has so many business intelligence (BI) improvements that it might become your primary analytic database system. You might even decide to use T-SQL for advanced analyses directly, without including R, Python, SSAS or Azure ML.

However, to get the maximum out of these language constructs, you need to learn how to properly use them. This in-depth session shows extremely efficient statistical queries that use the window functions and are optimized through algorithms that use mathematical knowledge and creativity. During the session, the formulas and usage of those statistical procedures are explained as well.

This session is useful not only for BI developers; database and other developers can successfully learn how to write efficient queries. Or maybe you want to become a data scientist? Then you need to know statistics and programming. You get the best of both in this session.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”digitalinnovationintheblockchainage”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Digital innovation in the blockchain age[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Business/Executive
Length: 45 minutes

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]With blockchain, we can imagine a world in which contracts are embedded in digital code and stored in transparent, shared databases, where they are protected from deletion, tampering, and revision. The technology at the heart of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. But a true blockchain-led transformation of business and government is still many years away, though. Please join Stefano Tempesta in this session for an open conversation on the potential to create new foundations for our economic and social systems based on trust, where every agreement, every process and every payment would have a digital record and signature that could be identified, validated, stored, and shared. Intermediaries may no longer be necessary. Individuals, organizations and machines would freely transact and interact with one another with little friction.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”powerplatformdatamigrationwarstories”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Power Platform Data Migration War Stories[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Although the Power Platform is relatively new, online data services are not. With the majority of on-premise customers or private cloud customers moving to the public cloud data migration exercises to the Power Platform are now common.
Many fundamental principles can be applied to your data migration strategy but when it comes to cloud services you will face new challenges.
This session will cover some the DOs and DON’Ts of an online migration with hints and tips on how to maximise your through put and ensure a clean quality result based on successful real-life large data migrations.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”startingthedataanalyticsjourneywithazure”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Starting the Data Analytics Journey with Azure[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 100 – Basic[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Ready to start your journey in Data Analytics? Wondering which Azure service offering will help you to develop your skills? Or maybe, what the difference is between the services?

This session will answer and expand upon each one of these questions. We are going to cover the main characteristics of some of the Azure services such as Azure Databricks, Azure Jupyter Notebooks, Azure Machine Learning Studio and SQL Server Machine Learning Services.

At the end of the session, you will know which service is right for you and will be able to start developing Data Analytics solutions in Azure.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”aiandmlinpowerbiforeveryone”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]AI and ML in Power BI for Everyone: Analyst, Developer and Data Scientist[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 -Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]There are different possibilities for everyone to enjoy the Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning in Power BI Desktop and Service. In this session, an overview of these features will be presented, and audience gets familiar with the new AI and ML feature in Power BI from Key influencer visual to QnA, for analyst. Also the major capability if running machine learning in Power BI desktop and service for developer and Data scientist will be shown.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”advancedaggregationsforpowerbiandanalysisservices”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Advanced Aggregations for Power BI and Analysis Services[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power BI
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 300 – Advanced[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Aggregations will speed up any sized Power BI report. This session covers creative uses of several aggregation techniques to help take your data models to the next level.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”buildsmartapplication”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Build Smart Application: Ai Builder in Power Apps and Flow[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]There are some pre-built tools and Ai capability born with AI Builder in Power apps and Microsoft flow. In this session, an overview of what is Ai Builder and How it works will be presented. Next, some demo on creating a form processing using Flow and AI Builder will be shown. Next, other AI Builder capability like object detection, text classification, sentiment analysis and so forth will be shown.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”azureservices+hardware=drivedigitaltransformation”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Azure Services + Hardware = Drive Digital Transformation[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]On the ground, there are small devices like raspberry pi, drone etc or sophisticated device like Azure Kinect DK has capabilities to capture data around us. The data could be in form of number(temperature from sensors), image, video, audio etc. Azure Kinect DK, recently launched Microsoft device, contains a depth sensor, spatial microphone array with a video camera, and orientation sensor as an all in-one small device with multiple modes, options, and software development kits (SDKs).

However on cloud we have various services like Azure DataBricks, Azure Cosmosdb, Cognitive Services, ADF and more which provide powerful compute and AI model to be consumed to drive innovation.

In this session we’ll explore the possibilities for developers to bring these two world together to drive better future. The key take-away are

1) Understanding of Azure Kinect dk
2) Azure compute and AI services
3) Reference architecture
4) Ideas to drive back in your organization “[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2”]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”aiinfusedtherealworldaiusecasesinmicrosoftbusinessapplications”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]AI infused the real world – AI use cases in Microsoft Business Applications[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: AI
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Have you ever wondered how is AI built in Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications? Come to this demo heavy session and explore the real use cases of AI in first party business apps by Microsoft, we’ll explore Customer Insights, Sales Insights, Customer Service Insights and the yet to GA Virtual Agent[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”understandingthesqlserverflavorsintheazureandarchitectingtheoptimalcloudsolution”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Understanding the SQL Server flavors in the Azure and Architecting the Optimal Cloud Solution[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Database/Azure
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Microsoft has a number of SQL Server “flavors” in it’s Azure platform. Partners and vendors are recommending the wrong solutions. Organisations are deploying the wrong solutions. As a result performance can be sub-optimal and costs exorbitant. In this session we will have a look at the various flavors of SQL Server in Azure and make understand their strength/weakness and importantly their use cases. We will cover Azure’s SQLDB, Elastic Pools, Managed Instances, Hyperscale, and SQLDW. We will also touch upon Analysis Services, Data Lake and Data Factory. Our mission: to ensure you design and architeture that delivers and does not break the bank!
Along the way we will dissect a number of architectures and solutions proposed by partners and deployed by organisations to highlight how a sub-optimal architecture was designed.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”lifeiseasierwithsharepointandpowerplatform”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Life is easier with SharePoint and Power Platform![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]One of the most common needs in any organisation is to automate business processes and when it comes to automating business processes, there is nothing like SharePoint and the Power Platform to get the job done!

If you’d like to learn how to automate a simple business process using SharePoint and MS Flow then this is the session for you.
For good measure, this session will also touch on PowerApps, Power BI and how they work together with SharePoint.

This will be a demo-based session and by the end of it you’ll be raring to build Power Platform solutions on SharePoint![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”integratingpowerbiandpowerapps”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Integrating Power BI and Power Apps[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]While you may already familiar with Power BI, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow and perhaps the latest addition Power Virtual Agents; you may not know that Microsoft is bringing these tools together into a unified brand called: the Microsoft Power Platform. In this session Microsoft Senior Program Manager, Charles Sterling will give an all-demo view on how you can use these products together. Demos to include how integrate Power Apps and Power BI so you can do things simply not available to each product like writing back to report data sources, creating dashboards from different work spaces or adding filters to your dashboards![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”gettinghandsonwithmicrosoftpowervirtualagent”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Getting Hands On with Microsoft Power Virtual Agent[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]In this session Charles Sterling will take you on all demo tour of the newest member of the Power Platform: Microsoft Power Virtual Agents.

If you aren’t familiar with Microsoft Power Virtual Agents, they enable you to easily create and maintain intelligent chatbots without having to code.

Demos to include creating topics, deployment and Power Automate Integration.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_id=”intelligentappswiththeazurecognitiveservices”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Building intelligent Apps with the Azure Cognitive Services[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Track: Power Platform
Length: 45 minutes

Level: 200 – Intermediate[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Leading enterprises are using AI to power innovation across industries, including healthcare, automotive, and finance. In this talk, we will cover how enterprises are using the Azure Cognitive Services like Custom Vision, Text Analytics and Speech Services to bring intelligence to their products and processes.

We will demonstrate how users can combine these services and the Power Platform to quickly create low-code, intelligent solutions.

We will also show how customers can mitigate privacy and security concerns around using the cloud with on-premise containers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″]

[/vc_column][/vc_row]