Most Active Speaker

Linda Torrång

Linda Torrång

Data Platform Engineer, DataMasterminds

Rättvik, Sweden

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With a diverse background in journalism and retail, Linda brings both business insight and attention to storytelling to the table as a data warehouse developer. Coupled with her passion for learning new tech and trying new things.

Awards

  • Most Active Speaker 2024
  • Most Active Speaker 2023

Area of Expertise

  • Business & Management
  • Information & Communications Technology

Topics

  • Microsoft Business Intelligence
  • Microsoft Power BI
  • Azure Data Engineering
  • Azure Data Platform
  • Azure SQL Database
  • Fabric Data Engineering

Driving Success through End-User Engagement in Power BI

Is No One Using Your Reports?

If your reports aren’t being used, it’s crucial to determine whether the issue lies in technical aspects or a lack of user understanding. This session highlights the importance of proper user training, engagement, and a comprehensive planning process, ensuring that business users are not only equipped with the tools but feel empowered to extract meaningful insights, create value, and fully engage with the data.

We'll explore how data governance and thoughtful planning from the outset can establish a solid foundation for successful Power BI adoption, ensuring both the technical and human factors are aligned for long-term success.

In addition, I’ll cover key Power BI features designed to enhance user adoption and engagement in a data-driven environment.

Anyone can be an alphabet soup ally

Folks that belong to the queer community are often referred to as LGBTQ+, Jess and Linda represent a small portion of the letters within this alphabet soup and they will guide you through some common situations where you can be a good ally.

There is no one right answer, but there are ways for you to prepare for certain situations so you know what your best move might be to provide support and allyship.

As IT gets more diverse we need to act accordingly. To make everyone and anyone feel welcome, accepted, and respected.

We will discuss acknowledging and accepting the privilege that some of us have, from our skin colour, our gender or even our access to education and how we can use this privilege for good.

Listening and learning from other's experiences that differ from yours opens up a possibility for change.

The change often starts with the leadership, and when they lead the way, others will follow.

We will help you become that kind of a leader.

Even outside of the workplace support is important. We will teach you methods to grow from being a passive supporter to an active ally.

Active engagement, empathy, and commitment to helping others can make a big change.

This session will provide tips for people who are new to being an ally and for existing allies who want to add skills to their toolbelt.

By recognising the power of allyship, we aim to inspire others to help make this community as inclusive and diverse as possible and to support all of our alphabet soup friends.

Another query language — do we really need KQL?

As data professionals, we often ask ourselves: Why yet another new coding language. In the release of Fabric the KQL (Kusto Query Language) was also a part of the need to have a full implementation capability.

When we already have Python, PySpark, Scala and T-SQL? What problems does KQL solve, and when is it the right tool for the job vs. T-SQL?

In the world of data, choosing the right tool for the job can be the key to success. Both languages are powerful, and they are designed for different purposes and platforms. Understanding their strengths, differences, and ideal use cases can make or break your project when working with diverse data ecosystems.

Through a comparative discussion, we’ll give you the knowledge to know the strengths of each.

The foundational differences between T-SQL and KQL: syntax, execution, and purpose.
Ideal scenarios for using T-SQL versus KQL.
Key features like joins, aggregations, and data transformations, and how they are implemented in each language.
Practical use cases, including transitioning between the two when working in hybrid systems.
Tips and tricks on how you can use your T-SQL skills in the KQL world.

Whether you’re a T-SQL professional curious about the capabilities of KQL, or a KQL enthusiast looking to expand your database coding skills, this session will provide valuable insights to bridge the gap between these two powerful languages.

Let’s explore the best of both worlds and equip you with the knowledge of choosing the right tool for the right job in your projects.

Empowering Success: Focusing on End-User Engagement with Power BI

How do we effectively demonstrate the value of Power BI to our business users?

When implementing Power BI into a business, the end users are often told when the decision has already been taken. Leaving them with the information that they must abandon their current methods of working with data to simply embrace using Power BI instead. However, without proper information and engagement with these users from the start, driving adoption becomes a significant challenge.

If reports and dashboards are not being utilized, it is our responsibility. There may be various reasons for why this fails, regardless of the reasons, what truly matters is addressing the issue and finding solutions and preventing this failure from happening again in future. Tools are just that - tools to achieve an outcome. In the case of Power BI, the desired outcome is to empower business users to extract more insight and create more value from the data they work with on a daily basis.

This session will emphasize the importance of user enablement, ensuring users understand not just how to use the tool, but much more important: why it is being implemented and how it will serve their needs better in the first place. Why do we want them to leave the safe haven of Excel? What value does a single point of truth bring? Why does this matter to THEM?

In addition, I will showcase some user-centric features designed to enhance adoption in Power BI, to empower users to feel engaged in a data-driven environment.

Effortless Row-Level Security: Automate and Centralize

Are you tired of managing access control for everyone in your organization? Would you like to implement it once, and let it run itself?
Let's automate it!

Data security and access control are central to any organization's data governance strategy. Row-Level Security (RLS) is a powerful feature that ensures that only authorized users can access specific data.
However, establishing and managing RLS can be a complex and time-consuming process.
This session will delve into a comprehensive strategy for streamlining RLS implementation and automation to create an integrated and self-sustaining security framework.

By attending this session, you will gain a deeper understanding of how to deploy RLS in a single, centralized location and automate it.
You will leave with the knowledge and tools needed to implement a robust and self-sustaining RLS framework that efficiently protects your organization's sensitive data and ensures compliance with privacy and security regulations.

Multitasking for Mortals - How to Stop Multitasking and Start Getting Things Done

The Hydra has five heads. You don't.
Stop expecting yourself to multitask like a five-headed monster!

We often find ourselves in multiple projects and challenges and try to work on everything at once. Unfortunately that will not lead to the results you hope to achieve - simply because the human brain is incapable of true multitasking.
What can be done? Either you scale down, scale out or burn out.

By embracing better structure and learning to do mindful, conscious context switching, not only will you be able to do more with maintained or improved focus - you will also be able to do so in multiple areas simultaneously. This is "multitasking" in a way that actually works for the mortal brain.

An ounce of planning is worth a pound of result. Good planning will decrease stress and increase your chances of achieving your goal. I'll show you how.

Learning to Listen - Making the Most of Mentoring

Mentoring someone in the community is one of the most profound experiences imaginable. You will get to influence and guide someone who might have several decades worth of experience but has never been involved in the community, someone that is just getting started on their journey, or might be anywhere in between.
You are an established technical expert, a renowned speaker, a firmament in the communty - certainly you can teach your mentee everything they need to know? While you may very well be able to, but that might not be what your mentee needs. In fact - it was never about you.
On the other side of that coin, being mentored by someone in the community can be both exciting, scary, frustrating and challenging - but if everything works out, it can also enable you to take the next step in your career. On the surface, handling mentoring as a veteran in the industry may bring different challenges than as someone who is just getting started, but fundamentally it all comes down to the same thing: trust.
In this session, a mentor and a mentee share their views on what it means to be a mentor and a mentee, talk about the challenges they both face in their respective roles and in their respective lives, and explain the importance of listening.

How to avoid the most common junior mistakes

Everyone will start their career as a junior - that is the very definition of someone new in the field. As juniors, we have a clear tendency to make the same mistakes as other juniors all around the world.

Imposter syndrome - check.

Working too much - yep.

No clear skill development plan - that too.

The list could go on. I sure have made my share of "junior mistakes" and would like to spare others from at least some of the agony.

Let's try to steer clear of unnecessary agony and learn from those who came before us. Let's try to make the world of data a healthier place to work in.

It's hard enough to keep up with fast-changing technology as it is - we really don't need to make things even more difficult for ourselves by making the same mistakes over and over again.

This session will discuss some (way too) common mistakes, and share some possible solutions to make starting life in the tech lane a bit easier.

Feedback link: https://sqlb.it/?7185

+5 Wisdom - Learn to Ask Better Questions to Solve the Right Problems

Asking questions is easy. Anyone can do it, and, in fact, it is done every day. Asking good questions is harder. It takes some thinking about the problem before the question comes to mind, but it can be done.
Asking really good questions is very, very hard. It's so hard that the really good questions are rare. Why is that? It might be because we're asking the wrong questions.

We think that the technical community tends to jump straight to trying to solve the problem as stated instead of considering if the problem identified is even the actual problem in the first place! By taking a step back and considering the bigger picture instead of focusing solely on the stated problem, we can not only find other solutions, but we might even find better questions to ask. In essence: look further. Ask better questions.

As a journalist, Linda used to be all about open ended questions in order to let the subject frame the problem. As a solutions architect, Alexander was all about trying to avoid the detailed technical solutions to a people problem. Together we found better ways to find the answers that mattered.
We want to help you figure out how to ask better questions - and subsequently how to become a better problem solver.

We will discuss why words matter, when you should not always listen to what is said, and how your choice of questions will always give you the answers you deserve.

dataMinds Connect 2023 Sessionize Event

October 2023 Mechelen, Belgium

Data Saturday Holland 2023 Sessionize Event

October 2023 Utrecht, The Netherlands

Power BI Next Step 2023 Sessionize Event

September 2023 Copenhagen, Denmark

Data Moshpit 2023 Sessionize Event

September 2023 Berlin, Germany

Data Saturday Stockholm 2023 Sessionize Event

May 2023 Stockholm, Sweden

SQLBits 2023 - General Sessions Sessionize Event

March 2023 Newport, United Kingdom

Data Toboggan - Cool Runnings 2022 Sessionize Event

July 2022

Data Saturday Stockholm 2022 Sessionize Event

May 2022 Stockholm, Sweden

SQLBits 2022 Sessionize Event

March 2022 London, United Kingdom

New Stars of Data #3 Sessionize Event

October 2021

Linda Torrång

Data Platform Engineer, DataMasterminds

Rättvik, Sweden

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