PASS Summit is without any doubts largest and biggest Microsoft SQL Server and Data Platform conference in the world. This happens in Seattle usually in October, and for 2016 it would be 25-28th of October 2016. This conference gathers almost 5-6K SQL Server and Data Professionals from around the world. As a speaker in Microsoft BI field, I’ve been honored to speak in last three PASS Summits from 2013. I am honored again that this year in 2016 I will be speaking again on two topics both Power BI related. I can’t wait to see you all there in this wonderful conference.
Details of My Sessions
Data Preparation is the Keystone
Description:
Prepare to be amazed with what you can achieve using Power Query in this demo-heavy session. Power Query is the data extraction, transformation, and mash up tool. It can be accessed through Excel or from Power BI Desktop. There are numerous data transformation features that can be used to solve real-world data preparation challenges.
We will use customer case studies to go through scenarios of preparing data for modelling, and visualization. You will learn how to use features of Power Query such as generators, custom functions, and lots of built-in functions to solve those scenarios. You will also learn some data preparation techniques through Excel itself.
Extra:
I’ve spoke this session in PASS BA 2016. However with many updates in Power BI and Power Query service, I’ll update the slides with all new features that is related to my talk here. Also I’ve got really great and useful feedback from PASS BA, So I will be applying all those feedback in my new presentation here. Final word: if you have been or watched my PASS BA Session, expect an updated and enhanced version of this talk in Summit, and if you haven’t been there, this would be a great tutorial to get your head around how to do data preparation with Power Query.
Top 10 Amazing Things about Power BI You Don’t Know
Description:
Have you spotted a location on Power BI map without having an exact address (like earthquake location)? Have you looped through source files in your Power Query and applied custom functions on them? Have you changed your data model to help Power Q&A to respond intelligently? Have you used Power BI for real-time data analysis? Have you used Power BI and Azure Data Factory to have an end to end Azure BI solution? Have you done many other amazing things with Power BI?
In this session you can expect many live demos and to be impressed by the extraordinary things you can do with Power BI. You will learn tips and tricks to empower your Power BI solution. Tips and tricks that you learn in this session helps you to make your Power BI solution more scale-able, robust, and high performance.
Extra:
I have written this abstract in March I believe, when Power BI was so different from now. In fact this product changes every month. Some of the tips and tricks might get old, but I’ll add new tips and tricks instead. I’ve already blogged some amazing things about Power BI in my online book post. For Summit session I make sure to talk with the latest technology available for Power BI, and show you amazing things you don’t know about it.
About Pass Summit
If you haven’t been in SQL PASS Summit before, I highly recommend you to go for it. For me it is a long way from Auckland to Seattle, but definitely it worth the travel time and the money. Even if you have to pay for your own. all first class speakers of the world come there to speak, I just name a few; Brent Ozar (T|B), Paul Randal (T|B), Kimberly Tripp (T|B), Kevin Kline (T|B), Alberto Ferrari (T|B), Andy Leonard (T|B), Brian Knight (T|B), Chris Webb (T|B) and many many others who their names will fill down this space if I want to mention them all and I’m sure you know them mostly.
I personally haven’t seen such great quality talks and sessions in any other conferences, you will see wide range of topics covered from SQL Server Development, DBA, and Performance Tuning to Business Intelligence, EIM, and new Microsoft Azure SQL Server and Data Analysis offerings, there is even a track for professional development.
Having this conference in Seattle also brings another advantage which is having Microsoft Corp speakers. You will hear talks and attend in sessions from Product Groups and Program Managers of Microsoft about their new offerings along with best practices and internals of products. PASS Summit always start with awesome keynotes. Here is my blog about first day keynote at PASS Summit 2015.
Socializing is the other big advantage of this conference, over 6000 people all in one conference in one week is the greatest opportunity to meet other people in your profession. If you be in a consulting business it will help business development and recruitment drive of your business. If you are working on in house development project you will see many people with the profession who might face same challenges and scenarios before and would be helpful for you. There will be many opportunities for you to socialize with others, lunch times or dinners and all the time in exhibition hall. There is also a community zone where you can go just sit and talk with people from SQL Family all around the world.
And at the end, it is all fun, you will have SQL Karaoke, and Community dinner with many many other fun events which makes this week one of your great weeks of the year 
Here is list of all sessions for PASS Summit 2016:
http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2016/Sessions/GeneralSessions.aspx
My Previous summit sessions
If you are interested to know about my previous summit sessions look at links below:
PASS Summit 2015:
PASS Summit 2014:
Top 5 Functionalities of Power Query that you don’t know
Deeper Data Insight and Prediction with Data Mining
PASS Summit 2013:
SSIS Package Failed in Production, Here’s how to troubleshoot
Reza is author of more than 14 books on Microsoft Business Intelligence, most of these books are published under Power BI category. Among these are books such as Power BI DAX Simplified, Pro Power BI Architecture, Power BI from Rookie to Rock Star, Power Query books series, Row-Level Security in Power BI and etc.
He is an International Speaker in Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft Business Applications Summit, Data Insight Summit, PASS Summit, SQL Saturday and SQL user groups. And He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer.
Reza’s passion is to help you find the best data solution, he is Data enthusiast.
His articles on different aspects of technologies, especially on MS BI, can be found on his blog: https://radacad.com/blog.