PowerPivotPro on Tour « PowerPivotPro

Heading Down to Uniontown (MrExcel HQ)!

May 10, 2013

Chandoo: “It’s 46 miles to Uniontown, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a stack of Excel books, it’s overcast, and we’re wearing sunglasses.”

Rob: “Hit it.”

Hitting the Road. Holding a Mini-Summit.

Chandoo and I are jumping in the car this afternoon for a short journey down I-77 to a place MrExcel calls home. Well, at least, that’s where Bill lives and works today. He is, sadly, moving to Florida this summer. (The second friend of mine to leave Ohio for Florida since I moved here – traitors! Smile )

This is going to be fun, having the three of us in one place like this. But I’m a little bummed that we couldn’t get a good picture of us sitting IN the car. There was too much glare on the windshield.

Otherwise, we were prepared to re-enact this classic scene:

Me, Chandoo, and Bill in One Place? Serious Stuff? Maybe.

When a bunch of Excel “heavies” get together like this for a day, you might think the gathering looks like this:

Sometimes, that’s true. But they just as often turn out more like the barbecue scene from Mystery Men:

I’m interested to see which way today goes Smile

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Chandoo’s “Excel Love” Spring US Tour!

April 21, 2013

The Chandoo Tour Bus: Rolling Into Chicago, NYC,
Washington DC, and Columbus this May and June!

Excel and PowerPivot Masterclasses!

The one and only Chandoo is coming to the USA this Spring to teach some of his signature two-day “masterclasses” on Advanced Excel and Dashboards, as well as a first-ever edition of PowerPivot and Data Analysis.

I’m particularly excited by that last one, as he’s invited me to teach it in conjunction with him! That’s gonna be pretty damn cool – a “dueling pianos” format seems to be in order Smile .

Class Dates

Note that these are all Thursday/Friday classes, except for the Columbus Dashboard class, which is Tuesday/Wednesday (followed by PowerPivot class on the same Thursday/Friday).

Chicago May 30-31 – Advanced Excel and Dashboards
New York June 6-7 – Advanced Excel and Dashboards
Washington DC June 13-14 – Advanced Excel and Dashboards
Columbus OH June 18-19 – Advanced Excel and Dashboards
Columbus OH June 20-21 – PowerPivot and Data Analysis (co-taught by me)

Pricing and Discounts

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Back from PASS BACON!

April 16, 2013

The Excel “Screen Saver” Greeting Attendees of My Talk
(No it wasn’t an animated GIF in the talk, just here on the blog)

Well folks that was an intense trip. I had a great time. Some highlights:

Steven Freaking Levitt!

Freakonomics Author Steven Levitt Liked the PowerPivot Mashup I Showed Him
(Or at least, he politely pretended to like it)

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PASS BACON Session Posted

March 7, 2013

Yes, I Finally Got My Abstract Out of My Head and Onto Paper
(The PASS Folks Have Shown Me Much Patience, Thank You!)

PASS BA CONference = PASS BACON

Business Analytics Conference. But I can’t look at it and NOT see Bacon.

Dark Matter: Domain Experts & Nextgen Spreadsheets Are Our Future

(If you like this title, I take full credit. If you don’t like it, I blame Tom LaRock for being a poor sounding board. I can’t lose!)

Here’s the abstract in full:

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PASS BA Conference: Discount and “Hangout” Code

February 27, 2013

April in Chicago beats April in Paris this year. Why? Because this April in Chicago is the PASS Business Analytics Conference featuring Steven Levitt (of Freakonomics fame) and yeah, gridheads like me too.

I want you to join me there. PASS has arranged for me to share with you a discount code that you can use when registering for the event.

The code is BAC858BL and it will entitle you to two things:

1) First, you get $200 off the regular conference price.

2) Second, you get to spend time with me, Karen Lopez (@datachick), Lara Rubbelke (@SQLGal), and Thomas LaRock (@SQLRockstar) and pick our brains about data, analytics, business, and whatever else you want to talk about. I think this takes the form of a breakfast (commonly referred to as First Coffee) but am still awaiting the details.

Those of us that live and breathe data for a living – particularly those of us who tease insight out of data – are finally going to have a place to connect, share, and learn from one another. The “accidental architect” that Thomas refers to on his blog is a role that resonates with me as well, I’ve seen that progression first hand many times over – most Excel Pros are “accidental” Excel Pros for instance.

You don’t “get there” without understanding all the tools and options available. You don’t get there without leaving your desk and talking with others, sharing experiences, and learning – unless you can get other people to come to your desk of course, which is pure magic and rarely achieved.

For many folks that journey gets a big jumpstart this April in Chicago.

I can’t wait to be there to help get this party started quickly, as C&C once said.

Some Sessions that Caught My Eye…

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“Announcing” the Business Analytics Conference

February 13, 2013

April 10-12 in Chicago. Featured Speakers Steven Levitt and Rob Collie!

Yes, Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame will be keynoting a conference in April, which makes him a featured speaker. I will ALSO be speaking at the same conference, which also makes ME a featured speaker… but I suspect they will give me a much smaller room in which to speak Smile

The Authors of These Two Revolutionary Books, “Together” for the First Time!

Of course I am wildly exaggerating here – yes we’re speaking at the same conference, but it’s not like Steven knows me. I’m a huge “fanboy” of his book however… and it’s rumored that I may indeed get a chance to meet him! I’m gonna ambush him with a PowerPivot demo. More on this later.

Why You Should Attend (aka Why Rob is STOKED About this Conference)

For years, I’ve held the following beliefs:

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CFO Magazine Webcast on Monday

December 7, 2012

If You’re a CPA, and Need CPE Credit, Consider
Watching Me Show Off PowerPivot for an Hour

I’ve had an interesting new experience this week – I recorded a webcast for CFO Magazine. Bill does these all the time and asked if I’d be interested in doing one this month.

I’m usually game for this sort of thing, and it did turn out to be fun. Squeezing a whirlwind tour of PowerPivot as well as a bunch of specific how-to techniques into a single hour – there’s a certain pace to that which I kinda liked. I had to be thrifty with what I showed.

(I suspect Bill is a lot faster at recording these than I am however – I spent probably 20 hours recording a one hour webcast.)

Anyway, two key points:

The webcast is not free. It is certified as training for accountants and there is a $149 fee for the session, so unless you are a CPA, I suspect you are going to skip this one.
It includes a copy of my book. The $149 fee for the course does not go to me – that goes to the CFO Mag organization. But you do get a copy of the book, and yes, they do pay me for the book.

What I Cover in the Webcast

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Attending the SharePoint Conf? Or Do You Live in or Near Las Vegas? Meet Me for Dinner!

November 11, 2012

I’m flying to Vegas tonight for the Microsoft SharePoint Conference. I give a talk on Wednesday, so if you’re attending, drop in for my session. I’ll also be doing “Ask the Experts” on Wednesday night.

And even if you’re not attending, but happen to live in Vegas or nearby, we’re doing a PowerPivot-themed dinner with me and a few Microsoft folks on Wednesday night around 8:30 or so. Drop me a note or a comment if you’d like details (rob, at a place called PowerPivotPro.com). It’s an unofficial event, so everyone pays their own way, but it would be fun to meet up and talk some shop.

Conference attendees are of course welcome at the dinner as well Smile

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Mini Post: Speaking in NYC on Monday

October 3, 2012

I’m really excited to announce that I will be speaking at the Microsoft offices in Manhattan Monday evening next week! Talk starts at 6 PM and we have the room until 8:30 PM, so there will be plenty of time for questions and informal discussion after I’m done.

What’s even cooler for me is that this group, MSBIgDataNYC, is run by Andrew Brust, CEO of Blue Badge Insights and the author of the Big Data Blog on ZDNet.

I’ve been following Andrew’s work ever since I started the blog in 2009 and have had the pleasure of participating in a few of his events at conferences, but never on his home turf. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken at ANY event in New York City. I generally don’t get nervous about speaking engagements anymore, but I confess to a few butterflies of anticipation for this one Smile

I believe there are seats still available but move fast just in case:

Click Here to Reserve a Seat

And remember, you do NOT have to be a BI pro or Big Data specialist to attend! If you’re an Excel practitioner, show up and hold your head high. You will like what I have to say.

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