Michael McKinley
Data. Made actionable.
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Michael McKinley is the founder of McKinley Consulting. Michael has managed projects and workstreams in consulting for the last six years, in areas including data analytics, change management, operations excellence, and supply chain transformation.
Mr. McKinley is currently leading a BI team at AllianceBernstein, a mid-level global investment bank. The reports his team generates are viewed by senior leadership, including the CEO, and are reported to Wall Street.
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Optimizing DAX for Complex Models: Tips and Tricks
Is your DAX struggling under the weight of your complex Power BI models? Unlock the secrets to writing DAX that’s not only correct but blazing fast. In this action-packed session, we’ll explore advanced optimization techniques that can transform the performance of your measures and calculations.
Learn how to leverage key concepts like filter context reduction, efficient use of variables, and performance-friendly aggregations. Whether you’re dealing with large datasets, intricate relationships, or high-demand reports, these tips and tricks will help you take your DAX skills to the next level.
Come prepared to boost your models’ efficiency and wow your stakeholders with lightning-fast analytics!
Power BI API: Automating the Analytics Lifecycle
Take your Power BI solutions beyond the Desktop! In this session, we’ll dive into advanced use cases for the Power BI REST API, showcasing how to automate your workflow, streamline your development, and integrate into your custom portals. Learn how to automate report deployment, create personalized experiences with row-level security, and leverage real-time data updates to keep your visuals fresh.
Whether you’re building internal tools or client-facing applications, this session will provide actionable insights and practical examples to help you unlock the full potential of the Power BI API. Join us to supercharge your analytics solutions!
TMDL: Transforming Metrics, Driving Logic – Advanced Techniques in Power BI
Take your Power BI metrics to the next level with TMDL (Tabular Model Definition Language)! This advanced session dives into the power of TMDL for managing, modifying, and enhancing your Power BI models programmatically. Discover how TMDL enables you to fine-tune your dataset properties, create calculated columns, manage relationships, and even implement custom measures—all without needing to open Power BI Desktop.
Whether you’re streamlining workflows, managing large-scale datasets, or working in collaborative environments, mastering TMDL will revolutionize how you build and maintain your analytics. Join us to learn how to harness TMDL and elevate your Power BI expertise!
Supercharge Your Power BI Development with AI, Agents, and MPCs
Unlock the next level of Power BI development with the latest AI tools—ChatGPT, Copilot, MCPs, and beyond. This session explores how AI is reshaping every stage of the Power BI lifecycle, from design to delivery, and introduces cutting-edge advancements like model context protocols (MPCs) and autonomous AI agents.
Learn how AI now empowers Power BI developers to:
• Accelerate DAX creation and troubleshooting with context-aware suggestions tailored to complex calculations.
• Demystify data modeling challenges, including filter context, relationships, and performance bottlenecks, through AI-guided recommendations.
• Design impactful visuals and data stories, leveraging AI to generate layouts, narratives, and presentation-ready insights aligned to your audience.
• Streamline repetitive workflows with AI agents that can build reports, publish to the Power BI Service, optimize models, and summarize insights autonomously.
• Orchestrate end-to-end development with MPCs, chaining together AI tasks across multiple tools and modalities to deliver smarter, faster BI solutions.
• Enhance governance and documentation, with AI automating report descriptions, data lineage mapping, and compliance-ready outputs.
Whether you’re new to Power BI or a seasoned expert, discover how AI is transforming BI development from reactive problem-solving to proactive, intelligent automation—helping you work smarter, deliver faster, and drive real business impact.
Supabase—No, Seriously, SQL Pros Should Care
You might think Supabase is just another trendy developer tool with no relevance to seasoned SQL professionals—but hang on: it’s worth your time.
Supabase is a powerful, open-source platform that wraps Postgres at its core with modern capabilities like instant APIs, authentication, real-time subscriptions, file storage, and analytics. It empowers teams to build scalable, production-ready applications fast—while still giving you, the SQL pro, all the transparency and control you love.
In this fast-paced session, we’ll cut through the hype and look at why Supabase actually matters for SQL folks. You’ll see how it embraces relational databases, respects schema design, and lets you apply your SQL expertise in an ecosystem that developers love.
Expect demos, practical examples, and some straight talk about what Supabase gets right (and where it still needs help). If you’re skeptical, perfect—this session is for you.
Modern Power BI Training: From Data Rookie to Dashboard-Ready In One Day
Learn Power BI the modern way—faster, smarter, and ready for real-world work.
This full-day, hands-on workshop is built for busy professionals who want to do more with data—without getting buried in jargon or lost in a sea of online tutorials. Whether you’re a business analyst, Excel power user, operations lead, or data-curious professional, you’ll walk away with the skills and confidence to build insightful, interactive dashboards using Microsoft Power BI.
This isn’t your old-school training session.
You’ll learn a streamlined, modern approach to Power BI that focuses on the most important concepts—and skips the outdated ones. Along the way, we’ll incorporate AI-powered tools and tips to accelerate your workflow, improve report quality, and reduce friction in your development process.
By the end of the day, you’ll have built a complete Power BI solution from scratch—and know exactly how to apply what you’ve learned when you get back to work.
Key Takeaways
You’ll learn how to:
• Build a complete Power BI report from scratch
• Ingest and transform raw data using Power Query
• Apply key data modeling concepts for accurate insights
• Write simple but powerful DAX measures
• Use AI tools to reduce friction and speed up development
• Design engaging, interactive visuals
• Publish, share, and operationalize your reports in the Power BI Service
• Confidently use Power BI back on the job—immediately
Workshop Schedule (This can be adjusted to fit the timeline of the facility, for example.)
• 8:00–8:30 – Introduction & Setup
• 8:30–8:50 – Where to Get Started: Beginning at the Finish Line
• 8:50–9:30 – Data Ingestion & Transformation, Part 1
• 9:30–9:45 – Morning Break
• 9:45–10:30 – Data Ingestion & Transformation, Part 2
• 10:30–11:15 – Data Modeling
• 11:15–12:00 – Creating DAX Measures and Visuals, Part 1
• 12:00–12:30 – Lunch Break (Provided)
• 12:30–2:15 – Creating DAX Measures and Visuals, Part 2
• 2:15–2:30 – Afternoon Break
• 2:30–3:30 – Publishing, Sharing, and Operationalizing in Power BI Service
• 3:30–4:00 – Wrap-Up and Q&A
This is the Power BI class we wish we had when we started.
Bring your laptop and your curiosity—leave with a working dashboard, modern skills, and a faster path to insight.
How To Get Started on a Brand New Report
Starting a new reporting project can be daunting, but having a clear, structured approach can make all the difference. This session will introduce a practical framework for tackling reporting projects effectively, starting with a deep understanding of the end goal and the needs of the report consumer.
You’ll learn how to plan and design reports collaboratively, identify the right data, and build solutions that address real-world challenges. We’ll also explore best practices for documenting requirements, maintaining open communication with stakeholders, and ensuring feedback-driven iteration.
In just 20 minutes, you’ll walk away with actionable insights to guide your next reporting project from concept to delivery.
Application Lifecycle Management for Business Intelligence: ALM for BI
Managing Power BI development in a team setting can be challenging—avoiding code conflicts, ensuring seamless collaboration, and deploying updates effectively require a strategic approach. In this session, I’ll share how principles from application development can be applied to Power BI, introducing state-of-the-art practices for managing the BI development lifecycle.
You’ll learn how to:
• Enable multiple developers to work on the same dataset simultaneously.
• Store your Power BI models as code in your source repository.
• Use Git for version control, change tracking, and collaboration.
• Integrate with ticketing systems and implement deployment pipelines for continuous integration and delivery.
Whether you manage a team of BI developers or work on one, this session will equip you with tools and strategies to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in BI development and scale your Power BI projects effectively.
Data Modeling for Business Intelligence
As you grow in your business intelligence journey, transitioning from single-table datasets to complex data models often leads to unexpected challenges—like inaccurate results. These challenges typically stem from not fully understanding how BI tools, like Power BI, operate under the hood.
This session offers an approachable introduction to data modeling, focusing on the foundational concepts you need to design effective and efficient models. We’ll explore how Power BI’s engine works, how it interprets filter contexts, and why these mechanics influence our data modeling decisions. Designed for beginners, this session simplifies technical concepts, helping you take the next step on your BI learning curve with confidence. Whether you’re troubleshooting existing reports or creating new ones, you’ll leave with practical skills to build better models and solve problems effectively.
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