Sharing is talked about a lot nowadays, house sharing, ride sharing, even reminding your child to share with others (or you if they have a bar of chocolate!). Something that is even more important than sharing chocolate (if that is even possible!) is the value of sharing knowledge across our organisations.
Within a data community as diverse and dynamic as the Essex Centre for Data Analytics (ecda), there are an incredible mix of ongoing projects and expertise. When we come together during sessions, we create opportunities to spark new ideas, learn from each other, and inspire innovation across our organisations. It is during these sessions that the Living Library was created (the opportunity to contact an expert for a specific conversation) which got me thinking about what I can do to share knowledge with others in the community, and naturally for me, I gravitated towards the area I love to work in the most, Power BI.
When Dave, Wysh and I first discussed what we could share in our information sessions, we had so many ideas and we’d heard from many people about the breadth of things they wanted to learn. We ultimately narrowed down and focused on creating a set of five sessions that, when put together represented a solid set of tools that could be applied to a whole host of Power BI problems, and could stand alone as separate sessions if people could only attend one of the five.
We started by sharing a session on Date Tables back in early February of this year. We chose this because it is a perfect example that brings together lots of different elements of data theory within Power BI, from understanding where date tables sit in a relational model to how to customise them using DAX.
It was important for us to share the theory behind these subjects in the most interactive and collaborative way, by adding in demonstrations, inviting participants to code along with us in real time and including polls to engage as many people as possible. Throughout all five sessions, we used different techniques to bring some of the heavier subjects to life, such as playing a game of Blockbusters in our final session on Geography.
We continued the journey with our second session on Relational Data Models, designed to take our audience further along the journey in how to build effective models whilst also putting into practice the learnings from session one. Session three focused on advancing knowledge on how to effectively tackle analysis questions using DAX, showing our audience how to use DAX formula to solve problems and get the most out of working with relational models.
Once we had the answers, the next rational focus for session four was Dashboard design. We explored ideas on how to best display dashboards in a user-friendly way, whilst also exploring concepts on colours, layouts, and letting the data breathe to let your story shine through. I also demonstrated how to build and use bookmarks to get the most out of your page. Through audience feedback it became evident that live demonstrations really made an impact on how confident the attendees were to then progress onto practising their newly learnt skills using the Power BI materials provided. In our final session on Geography, we tapped into a recent change in mapping visuals in Power BI, with Dave presenting some amazing practical work completed using mapping and distance in a real-world example.
Throughout these sessions we applied similar principles about sharing knowledge in a way that brought the theory to life, showing plenty of examples and live developments, whilst always including questions that related to the previous session to help confirm understanding.
Our sessions had a combined audience of 656 people, with those people coming from 15 different organisations, across areas such as Education, Healthcare, Local government and Policing.
Now our final session has been delivered, we look back at the ideas we shared, including the mountains of positive feedback we received, we can confidently say that Dave, Wysh and I had a lot of fun designing this learning, and that we put the audience at the heart of our sessions. This training had real world implications where our audience now feel confident in using Power BI and feel equipped with the tools to apply their learning effectively. Here’s a glimpse into what some of our audience members from various Essex organisations had to say:
“Daniel and Dave are simply wonderful - such easy to follow and friendly training. I am trying to
get better with Power BI so I can help my team more, and this has helped me so much.”“They are incredibly informative and well-structured. I feel more confident using the platform. Your examples have been helpful and I appreciate how clearly everything has been explained. I'm looking forward to applying what I've learned to improve our reporting and data analysis.”
“To be shown practical methods to compiling the data and building/honing dashboards from two self-taught people has boosted [the team's] confidence to no end. They feel like they can do what they see others doing too and that cannot be underestimated.”
Seeing the appetite and demand for the knowledge that we shared confirms the power of collaboration. When members of the Essex data community come together to exchange ideas, everyone benefits, and in turn our organisations are strengthened, ultimately delivering better outcomes for the people of Essex.
If you work in the public sector within Essex, whether at a council, within health or emergency services, you can access ecda’s DataTalks sharepoint to catch up on our Power BI training anytime using the link here: Power BI Training
You can also find out about future events and community meetings that we are hosting, as well as access other learning resources and opportunities.
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