Building Community In Tech - Lessons from the Power BI DC User Group

Building a community in tech has never been more powerful--or rewarding!--than it is in 2025. That said, it’s hard to get started when you don’t know where to start!

How do you reach out to potential speakers? Should your events be in person, online, or hybrid? How much time does it take to co-organize a user group? Is volunteering to organize an event or meetup truly worth the time investment? What happens if you organize an event and no one shows up? Can you really organize a conference with no budget?

After organizing the Power BI DC User Group together for more than two years, we’re happy to say that we have answers! This session is for anyone who has wanted to help create room for deeper connection in their local tech communities, but is looking for a better understanding of what it takes before they jump in. As always, we’ll also glean insights from our mentor and leader emeritus, Shannon Lindsey, for insights on how to set your own community group up for success.

Semantic Model Ideation for Power BI

Building a performant star schema semantic model for Power BI enables simpler DAX, improved load time and responsiveness, and ensures that you are able to use the visuals that will best communicate your data. When starting with a snowflake, disparate data sources, or one big table, it can be a challenge to build something from the start that is going to fit your user requirements.

Enter the semantic model ideation process. I use this process to help clients create performant secure data models aligned to a star schema and Power BI best practices. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of what information they need to start this process, how to work through the steps, and how to validate the proposed model will support their visuals. We will work backwards from what data you need to support the user questions, what Power BI needs to support the visuals and front end performance, and an overview of the approach to building out your medallion architecture technical requirements for Synapse or Databricks to enable Power BI semantic models.

Lost in Translation: Overcoming Data Literacy Gaps

Data isn't a goldmine - it's expensive. To collect, to store, to protect, to analyze, to present - and that's without even factoring in the hidden cost of literacy gaps in your organization. That 2 hour meeting with 15 individuals trying to untangle why the numbers aren't adding up? It cost you more than those 30 hours. We aren't always able to quantify the hidden cost, but we can learn to see the signs that we have gaps worth addressing.

Data visualization does not provide intrinsic value - the real potential for impact comes from data-informed decision making.

The Data Literacy Index shows that large enterprises with higher corporate data literacy — i.e., the ability of a workforce to read, analyze, utilize and communicate data — reap the rewards of a 3–5 % higher enterprise value. Despite this, only 24% of business decision makers are confident in their ability to use data. This talk will discuss the signs of data literacy gaps, the framework for rolling out a data literacy program at your organization, and the benefits of improving data literacy in your organization.

From Chaos to Clarity: Implementing Code Reviews in Power BI

In an enterprise setting, code review of the data models underneath interactive data viz is often overlooked. If you want to avoid wild west style dashboard development, this is a crucial practice to standardize and implement. In addition to enabling easier collaboration on a given dashboard, this process can also educate individual developers on data modeling best practices and increase the overall data viz capacity at an organization. Leslie will show us how she handles code review of Microsoft Power BI data models, some external tools that can help with identifying necessary code changes, and documentation of the code review process.

Familiarity with Power BI data modeling will enable attendees to get more value from this talk.

It's Only a Model - Demystifying Row Level Security in Power BI

Securing data in Power BI may not involve killer rabbits or holy hand grenades, but it is a quest worthy of the Round Table. This Monty-Python inspired workshop guides attendees through the mystical (and practical) world of Row-Level Security (RLS), with special attention to the perils and peculiarities of enterprise and government cloud environments.

This workshop is designed to provide Power BI developers, ranging from novices to experienced developers, with a solid foundation to implement RLS in Power BI.

Workshop attendees will learn how to set up RLS start to finish using two approaches, covering setup in both Power BI Desktop the Service. We will tackle some common challenges, discuss model considerations and how they impact RLS, and untangle the differences between access and security in Power BI. The workshop will also address governance considerations and some of the unique challenges present within government cloud infrastructures.

Previous experience in Power BI RLS is not required. Familiarity with data modeling in Power BI helps, but is not required. Familiarity with relational databases will enable attendees to learn something from this session.
Power BI Desktop (still free!) will need to be downloaded prior to session. Power BI Template (*.pbit) will be provided to enable attendees to complete the desktop portion - approximately ~85% of the workshop. Access to a Power BI Workspace will enable attendees to complete the service portion of the workshop.

Unlocking the Power of Data: A Guide to Effective Viz Presentations

In today's data-informed world, the ability to present information in a clear, compelling way is a game-changer. But how do you go from data overload to a presentation that resonates? Join Leslie for an illuminating talk that will elevate your presentation game. In this session, you'll discover:

Practical pointers that can instantly improve your data viz presentations.
Visual cues that make your data easy to understand at a glance
Why the integrity of your axis labels and scales matters, and how to get them right.
The principles behind embedding visuals that not only capture attention but also reinforce your message.

Whether you're a data viz beginner or a seasoned pro, you'll leave this talk armed with actionable insights to make your next data presentation a hit.

Challenging the Norm: An Agile Approach to Data Visualization

Traditionally, Power BI Reports are developed in a waterfall approach - requirements, data shaping, front end visuals. The data modeling phase often happens entirely out of view of stakeholders and report users, with few to no feedback loops. Given that most organizations have significant gaps in standardizing which metrics to use and often even have different interpretations of their meaning, developing reports without early stakeholder input to validate assumptions can lead to significant rework, including model redesign.

In this talk, we'll explore the essentials of adopting an agile approach to data visualization development. Agile approaches promote iterative cycles and continuous feedback, helping teams align visualizations with organizational goals and stakeholders’ mental models. We'll walk through real-world examples to demonstrate how this iterative approach not only saves time and resources but also results in more effective and performant interactive reports and dashboards. Attendees will leave with an immediately usable, practical approach to reducing rework by implementing low-friction feedback loops on both code and visuals early and often.

The Data Must Flow

Without centralized Dataflows, organizations leveraging Power BI often face data inconsistencies, increased maintenance, and performance issues due to managing individual data connections and transformations across multiple reports. This decentralized approach also hampers governance and leads to redundant efforts, making it challenging to ensure data quality and efficiency across the organization. Sound familiar?

Join the #PowerQueryEverything movement and dive into the upgraded Power Query experience through Dataflows!

This talk will cover use cases for dataflows, how to orchestrate them for better performance, governance and standardization, and the number one topic folks want to hear about - how to convert queries in existing reports or semantic models to use dataflows without breaking everything.

This session is about 25% content to cover fundamental concepts for those who are unfamiliar or self taught, and 75% more advanced concepts around orchestration for enterprise or government level deployments.

This session is adapted to work for developers across all four US clouds - no "What about GCC" sadness for federal developers and consultants working in sovereign clouds.

Love the Chart, Hate the Axis: Navigating Feedback in Data Viz

Giving feedback on data viz is hard. Receiving it can be even harder, particularly when the feedback you are receiving does not align with information design principles. In this hands-on workshop, we will discuss and then practice both sides of the feedback loop. You'll learn how to give constructive feedback that’s specific, useful, and kind. You'll also get strategies for receiving critique without getting defensive, and how to refine and push back on feedback when it is appropriate. Whether you're working with stakeholders, peers, or clients, you'll leave with tools to make feedback less awkward, more effective, and focused on our ultimate aim - to create data products that help inform decisions, support workflow, or change minds. This session will be relevant to beginners and those with more technical depth alike.