Welcome to the CBIG site!
The Charlotte BI Group, or CBIG as we like to call ourselves, is a technical user group focused on Business Intelligence topics.
As a member, you will learn about Business Intelligence best practices, recommended architectures, design patterns, development platforms and techniques, as well as administration and configuration topics with an emphasis on the Microsoft BI stack and related toolsets. From time to time we'll also cover other important BI skills such as business analysis, requirements gathering methodologies, usability, and testing.
Our meetings will approach learning in a casual, fun and social way. You'll be given opportunities to get to know fellow BI, SQL Server, and Analyst professionals in the area. We'll also do our best to keep you informed about regional events & happenings in the technical community.
** Be sure to visit the Join CBIG page to receive invitations to monthly CBIG meetings and special events! **
Upcoming CBIG Meetings
June 2013
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Agenda:
- 5:30 pm Dinner & networking
- 6:00 pm Intro & "Spotlight Sponsor" session from Intellinet
- 6:15 pm Presentation from Julie Smith and Rob Volk
Spotlight Sponsor: Intellinet
Speakers: Julie Smith and Rob Volk. Julie Smith has spent the last 12 years bending data using varied tools such as MS Access, MySQL, and SQL Server 2000-2012. She is a Business Intelligence Consultant at Innovative Architects. She is an active speaker, blogger and writer in the Microsoft SQL Server Community. She is one of the co-founders of The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta, which educates elementary aged children with ADHD, High Functioning Autism and other learning differences. In spite of being a SQL Server MVP, she remains “very simple woman with warm fuzzy secret heart.” Rob Volk is a database administrator from the Atlanta, Georgia area, having worked in the wireless telecom, utility billing, and credit card processing industries for the past 10 years. He started using SQL Server with version 6.5 and is very glad to have upgraded since then. He has presented at several SQL Saturdays and user groups. In his spare time he accomplishes more than he does on the job, just don't tell his boss.
Presentation Topic: Using Data Explorer + Other Tools for Data Assembly, Cleansing, Organization & Decision-Making
Presentation Description: In this session we will cover the basics of using Data Explorer + other BI and event management tools using data from the SQL Saturday website. We will look at lesser-known features like XML feeds, harvesting data from other websites, and social media sources. We will use Business Intelligence tools such as the new Data Explorer to analyze this data and help guide decisions about speaker & session selection, sponsors, and pre-conference sessions. Finally, we will look at other free tools like Yammer, Trello, and EventBrite and how they can help organize the details of an event. If you've ever been frustrated managing an event or project via Excel and e-mail, you'll be pleasantly surprised!
RSVP: http://cbig0613.eventbrite.com/
Location: New Horizons Computer Learning Center, 9140 Arrowpoint Boulevard, Suite 400, Charlotte, NC 28273 ***1st building on the right once you enter the business park***
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
LinkedIn Group
Join our CBIG LinkedIn group
Upcoming Events
TechEd - New Orleans, LA - June 3-6
SharePoint Saturday - Atlanta, GA - June 8
Hadoop Summit - San Jose, CA - June 26-27
SQL Saturday - Charleston, NC - October 12
BIML Script Workshop - Charlotte, NC - October 15
PASS Summit Pre-Conference Sessions - Charlotte, NC - October 14-15
PASS Summit - Charlotte, NC - October 16-18
SQL Saturday, BI Edition, Charlotte, NC - October 19 (Hosted by CBIG!)
July 2013
Date: Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Agenda:
- 5:30 pm Dinner & networking
- 6:00 pm Intro & "Spotlight Sponsor" session from Enterprise Software Solutions
- 6:15 pm Presentation from Katherine Fraser
Spotlight Sponsor: Enterprise Software Solutions
Speaker: Katherine Fraser has been working in the IT field since 1995, focusing on database modeling and development in multiple domains such as financial services, manufacturing, and logistics. In her current position as a BI technical fellow, she helps different product groups in her company design and build data stores and reports, analyze information and visualize data. Katherine has a Masters degree in Information Systems and has a weird passion for data storage and retrieval. She is also co-leader for the Triad PASS BI chapter.
Presentation Topic: Are Pie Charts Always Evil? Information Design for Excel.
Presentation Description: You just imported 5 million rows into PowerPivot. Now how do you make it look great in Excel 2013? We'll look at the different chart types and visualization options, including Power View, and talk about how to use them effectively. Following the recommendations of Edward Tufte, we'll build sample data views that achieve "graphic excellence" and avoid "chartjunk." Learn how to choose the best chart type for your data, create hierarchies to enable aggregation, utilize cards and tiles and integrate images. This session is all about using Excel to clearly display complex, multivariate data.
RSVP: http://cbig0713.eventbrite.com/
Location: Microsoft, 8050 Microsoft Way, Charlotte, NC 28273.
August 2013
Date: Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Agenda:
- 5:30 pm Dinner & networking
- 6:00 pm Intro & "Spotlight Sponsor" session from Cardinal Solutions
- 6:15 pm Presentation from Steve Wake
Spotlight Sponsor: Cardinal Solutions
Speaker: Steve Wake is a Sr. BI Consultant at Pragmatic Works with more than 20 years of experience in various IT organizations. Steve is a Microsoft Certified Professional with an MCSE in SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence and MCITP in SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence. Steve has experience in Manufacturing, Retail, Charities, Telecommunications and Financial Services organizations & switched to consulting to share/expand/teach on his experiences with Microsoft Business Intelligence. Steve is also very involved in the local community, speaking at events across the country and is currently President of the Denver SQL Server User Group. Steve blogs regularly at http://blog.wakebi.com and is on Twitter @stevewake, LinkedIn and Google+.
Presentation Topic: TARDDIS: Time and Reusable Date Dimensions in Script
Presentation Description: Data warehouses need date dimensions to track the data over time and building them can be time consuming (and usually left until the end of project). In this session we will go through all of the concepts around designing and building a date dimension from scratch. We will also cover how to automate all of this so that you only have to go through the process once and it can be reused multiple times or modified and rebuilt very quickly. Through demos and sample code I will show that you do not need to be a Time Lord to build a date dimension that can be easy to support and modify and also be easily re-generated (just like a Time Lord).
RSVP: http://cbig0813.eventbrite.com/
Location: Microsoft, 8050 Microsoft Way, Charlotte, NC 28273.
September 2013
Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Agenda:
- 5:30 pm Dinner & networking
- 6:00 pm Intro & "Spotlight Sponsor" session from Mariner
- 6:15 pm Presentation from Ben DeBow
Spotlight Sponsor: Mariner
Speaker: Ben DeBow is a consultant who works with customers of all sizes on their mission critical applications and SQL Server deployments. His versatility allows him to assist with everything from virtualization and consolidation to schema design, performance tuning, disk architectures, and everything in between. He has tuned and deployed some of the largest and most complex SQL Server solutions in the world. An active member of the SQL Server community, Ben is also an MCDBA, MCSE, and MCITP. He is also the co-founder of SQLHA with Allan Hirt, and can be reached at http://www.sqlha.com.
Presentation Topic: Coming Soon!
Presentation Description: Coming Soon!
RSVP: Coming Soon!
Location: Microsoft, 8050 Microsoft Way, Charlotte, NC 28273.
October 2013
Date: No meeting in October due to the PASS Summit in Charlotte October on 15th-18th and SQLSaturday in Charlotte on October 19th hosted by CBIG!
November 2013
Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2013
December 2013
Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2013