iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Thanks to everyone who joined us last Thursday for the Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham 👏 Great to host another awesome discussion, plus a brilliant session from Laura-Jayne Adamson on faster #MicrosoftFabric development with the fabric-toolbox🧁 #DataCommunity

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

A big thank you to our sponsors at Purple Frog Data 💙 They’re hosting a fantastic session with MVP & Senior AI Engineer Lewis Prince: “The Hidden Risks of AI (and how to avoid them)” A must-attend if you’re working with AI👇 📅 May 14 | 🕛 12PM BST 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hidden...

eventbrite.co.uk

The hidden risks of AI (and how to avoid them)

Everyone’s using AI, but are they using it responsibly? Learn how to build ethical, trustworthy AI solutions.

021

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Our sponsors at Power BI Sentinel are bringing the insights!💙 Join their upcoming executive briefing on the data & AI challenges leaders can’t afford to ignore, featuring MVP CEO Alex Whittles. Wed, Apr 15 | 4-4:30PM BST👇 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-data-a...

eventbrite.co.uk

The Data & AI Challenges Leaders Can’t Afford To Ignore

A 30-minute executive briefing on the data and AI challenges shaping leaders, featuring insights from global industry forums like Gartner®

010

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

📅 April 2nd | 13:00 GMT Join Jess Pomfet for a session on automating your morning database checks. From backup verification to error log analysis (automate it all with #dbatools!)🔧 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

010

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Check out this great upcoming session from our sponsor Purple Frog Data. AI is everywhere… but are we using it responsibly? 👀 Join MVP & Senior AI Engineer Lewis Prince: 📅 May 14 | 🕛 12pm BST | 💻 Online 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hidden...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Ready to level up your DBA game?😮‍💨 Join the Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham on Thursday, April 2nd for 'Create the perfect morning checks report with dbatools' with Jess Pomfret. Learn to automate alerts, generate HTML reports & reclaim your mornings! www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

meetup.com

Create the perfect morning checks report with dbatools with Jess Pomfret, Thu, Apr 2, 2026, 1:00 PM | Meetup

**Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham** **Thursday 2nd April 2026 at 13:00 GMT** **Session Title:** Create the perfect morning checks report with dbatools **Speaker

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Shoutout to our sponsors at Power BI Sentinel 💙 They’re hosting a brilliant 30-min briefing on the data & AI challenges leaders can’t ignore, featuring MVP CEO Alex Whittles. 📆Wednesday, Apr 15 from 4PM to 4:30PM BST 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-data-a...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

April 2nd @ 13:00 GMT 👇️📆 Jess Pomfret shows you how to build the ultimate #DBA morning checklist automation with #dbatools. Stop wasting time on manual checks and start getting instant notifications. 🔗 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

010

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Coming April 2nd: Discover how to automate morning database checks with dbatools! 🤖 ✅ Missing backups detection ✅ Failed job alerts ✅ Error log analysis ✅ Disk space warnings ✅ Beautiful HTML reports Join Jess Pomfret for this hands-on session. RSVP: www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

meetup.com

Create the perfect morning checks report with dbatools with Jess Pomfret, Thu, Apr 2, 2026, 1:00 PM | Meetup

**Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham** **Thursday 2nd April 2026 at 13:00 GMT** **Session Title:** Create the perfect morning checks report with dbatools **Speaker

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Manually checking your databases every morning?☕ Join us on April 2 for 'Create the perfect morning checks report with #dbatools' with Jess Pomfret. Get alerts delivered straight to your inbox. 🔗https://www.meetup.com/microsoftdataplatformbirmingham/events/313277070/

meetup.com

Create the perfect morning checks report with dbatools with Jess Pomfret, Thu, Apr 2, 2026, 1:00 PM | Meetup

**Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham** **Thursday 2nd April 2026 at 13:00 GMT** **Session Title:** Create the perfect morning checks report with dbatools **Speaker

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Only 24 hours to go! Ready to unlock the real value of AI for your business? Join Branden Millward tomorrow at 13:00 GMT! Register now 👉 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

💡 AI doesn’t have to be scary — Branden Millward will show you where to start and how to make it useful! 📅 Thursday 5th March ⏰ 13:00 GMT (online!) Join us 👉 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

🧠 Want AI explained without the buzzword bingo? Join Branden Millward on: 📅 Thursday 5th March | ⏰ 13:00 GMT 💻 Online event 👉 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Your business + AI = major potential. Learn where to begin at our next meetup! 📅 Thurs 5th March ⏰ 13:00 GMT 🎤 Branden Millward Register now 👉 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

No user group this month, but we won't leave you empty-handed! 👋 To fill the gap, our sponsor, Purple Frog, is hosting a free webinar on Agentic AI (22 Jan, 12–1pm GMT). If AI is on your 2026 roadmap, this is one you don’t want to miss. Register 👇

agentic-ai-for-smes.eventbrite.co.uk

How businesses can use Agentic AI to work smarter

A practical introduction to Agentic AI. Learn through real-world use cases, a live demo, and an open Q&A session at the end.

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Happy New Year to our amazing data community! 🎉📊 Thank you for making 2025 a year full of collaboration. Here’s to another year of connecting, sharing knowledge, and exploring everything the Microsoft Data Platform has to offer✨💙

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Just a reminder, we won’t be running a January meetup as we’re giving everyone a little extra time to settle into 2026.😊 But don’t worry… We’ll be back in February with more great sessions, speakers, and learning opportunities! Keep an eye on our Meetup page: www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Merry Christmas to our wonderful data community! ❄️🎄 We hope your holidays are SELECTively joyful, JOINed with friends and family, and completely UNTHROTTLED!😉 Thank you for being part of an amazing year!

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Day 24 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎄❤️ A huge thank you to everyone who joined our first-ever Data Advent Calendar! Your guesses and enthusiasm made it magical. Wishing you all a warm, restful festive season. See you in the New Year! 🎁✨

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Day 23 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Visualisation challenge: You want to show Santa’s global route. ❓ Which visual do you choose? 🌍 Map / 📊 Bar / 🧮 Table / 📦 Card

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Day 22 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 DAX: SUMX( FILTER(FactGifts, FactGifts[Month] = "December"), FactGifts[Count] ) ❓ What does this calculate?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Day 21 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Fabric throttling issue? ❓ What’s one metric you’d check in the Capacity Metrics App?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Day 20 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 IDENTITY(int, 1, 1) ❓ What does IDENTITY define?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Day 19 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Power BI modelling moment: You find 2 active relationships between the same tables. ❓ How does Power BI handle that?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Day 18 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Visual challenge: Large number of categories ❓ Which chart best reduces clutter? Treemap / Pie / Column / Cards

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Day 17 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 SELECT DISTINCT TOP 3 ElfName FROM Elves ORDER BY YearsExperience DESC; ❓ What does this query return?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Day 16 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 DAX simplification challenge: IF([NaughtyPoints] > 7, TRUE(), FALSE()) ❓ What’s a cleaner version?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Day 15 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Modelling puzzle: ❓ What distinguishes a snowflake schema from a star schema?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Day 13 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 SELECT DATEPART(WEEKDAY, '2025-12-25'); ❓ Which weekday number is Christmas this year?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Day 12 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Comparing two teams… ❓ Which chart is the worst choice? Pie / Bar / Table / Line

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Day 11 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 DAX teaser: AVERAGEX(VALUES(DimChild[ChildID]), FactGifts[Count]) ❓ What does VALUES() return?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Day 10 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Naming challenge: 🎄 DimReindeer 🎅 Reindeer_Dimension ❓ Which one fits better naming conventions?

100

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Day 9 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 SQL time: SELECT REPLACE('ho-ho-ho','-',''); ❓ What’s the output?

010

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Day 8 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 You have fact tables at different granularities❓ Which modelling design pattern could help?

100

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Day 7 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Your totals disappear in Power BI when using a slicer… ❓ Which function restores them? A) REMOVEFILTERS B) SUMX C) HASONEVALUE

100

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Day 6 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Elves WHERE HatColour IN ('Red','Green','Green'); ❓ How many times is “Green” evaluated?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Day 5 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Visualisation poll: Dataset = toy production over 12 months ❓ Which visual would you use? Line / Bar / Area / Scatter?

020

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

A tree-mendous thank you to Qays Aldaoud for today’s brilliant session on Fabric’s Capacity Management and Throttling Policies! What a perfect way to end a year filled with growth, learning, and community cheer! 🎄💡

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Day 4 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 DAX challenge of the day: Total Gifts := CALCULATE(SUM(FactGifts[Count]), ALL(DimChild)) ❓ What does ALL() remove here?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

🎄 We’re live in 1 hour! Grab a cuppa ☕ and join us for our final 2025 meetup with Qays Aldaoud, deep-diving into Fabric capacity & throttling. See you soon!⬇️ 🔗 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Day 3 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Schema guessing time 👀 Table: Deliveries Columns: ToyID, Region, DeliveredAt ❓ What might this dataset represent?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

⛄ Tomorrow’s the day! Join us at 13:00 GMT for a brilliant session with Microsoft’s Qays Aldaoud as he walks us through Fabric’s Capacity Management & Throttling Policies. Final meetup of 2025, let's finish it strong! 🔗

meetup.com

Fabric’s Capacity Management and Throttling Policies, Thu, Dec 4, 2025, 1:00 PM | Meetup

**Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham** **Thursday 4th December at 13:00 GMT** **Speaker:** Qays Aldaoud **About:** Qays is a Senior Support Escalation Engineer at

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Day 2 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 Your model: 🧊 FactOrders ❄️ DimCustomer 🎁 DimAddress ❓ What’s the issue if DimCustomer also contains address fields?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Only 48 hours to go! 🎄✨ Don’t miss our last meetup of the year with Qays Aldaoud, breaking down Fabric capacity & throttling in a practical, real-world way. See you Thursday at 13:00 GMT! 🔗 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Day 1 of our Daily Data Puzzle Advent Calendar! 🎁 SELECT LEN('Snowflake') + 3 AS Result; ❓ What’s the output?

000

Microsoft Data Platform Group Birmingham @msdatagroupbrum.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Our last meetup of 2024 is coming up! 🎁 Join Qays Aldaoud on Dec 4 @ 13:00 GMT for a festive deep dive into #Fabric capacity and throttling. End the year with new knowledge ✨ 🔗 www.meetup.com/microsoftdat...

000