Triangle NC Business Intelligence User Group (tripassBI)

The first meeting of tripassBI was held on 27 Jan 2011. The location was graciously provided by FM:Systems in Raleigh.

We had a small crowd, which was to be expected since it was advertised as a search for volunteers! The good news is that we did get through that part and discussed upcoming events, sessions and even 2012 material. First, let me introduce the two new Committee Chairman.

Logistics Committee Chairman will be Jimmy Dixon. He can be reached at the chapter’s e-mail address: Logistics@tripassBI.org. This position will handle the following items for the chapter:

• Arrange Meeting Locations
• Coordinate Food/Refreshments

Sponsorship Committee Chairman will be Mike Thomas.  He can be reached at the chapter’s e-mail address: Sponsors@tripassBI.org. Gary Hollis volunteered to help Mike as needed.  This position will handle the following items for the chapter:

• Sponsors for Meals
• Saturday Sponsors
• SWAG
• Books (Sandra Mueller will handle this one item for now)

Communications Coordinator position did not get filled.  We elected to divide some of the media’s up between people to ensure coverage without overtaxing anyone.

• LinkedIN — Jimmy Dixon will manage
• Facebook — Jimmy Dixon will manage
• Twitter — Sandra Mueller and Jimmy Dixon will manage
• E-Mail — Sandra Mueller will manage
• Web Page — Sandra Mueller will manage bulk — Jimmy Dixon will manage meeting details

Speaker Coordinator responsibilities will be handled by Sandra Mueller who can be reached at Sandra@tripassBI.org.  Responsibilities will include:

• Arrange for Speakers (and try to coordinate a book of their choice for meetings)
• Provide Directions for Meeting
• Microsoft Event Announcement
• Post Slides
• Live Meetings — adding two Live Meetings to the learning bucket will allow a greater pool of speakers.  On the second and third month of the buckets we will add a Live Meeting session to help increase depth into topics.  We will not have a Live Meeting on the month when we do workshops.

Saturday Workshops:

• Premise is to have learning buckets consisting of 3 months.  The first month will have a Saturday workshop for an in-depth learning session on the topic.
• There will be three workshops in 2011 as follows:
  1. April 23rd – Introduction to SSRS Report Design
  2. July 23rd — Introduction to Data Warehouses
  3. October 22nd — Introduction to SSIS using SQL Server 2011 “Denali”
• Material, examples and exercises will work with the SQL Saturday material.  Reports built will be name tags for SQL Saturday, sponsorship funding reports, schedules, etc.  The data warehouse and cube will be build from SQL Saturday data, etc.
• Open Tasks:
  1. Sample SQL Saturday Data — Jimmy Dixon will convert/create sample data.
  2. Various Formats for Data Loads — SSIS block specific
  3. SQL DB for SSRS workshop — Jimmy Dixon and Sandra Mueller will create.
  4. Setup Guide (for attendee’s to setup laptop pre-workshop) — Mike Thomas will handle this through possible virtual machines or MSDE licenses.

Miscellaneous Items:

• Chapter Logo — Sandra Mueller has contacted Elizabeth Szabo who has a daughter into designs.
• Printable Flyer — Want a flyer as a pdf document for members to post around work.  Discussion ensued about creating a joint poster/flyer with tripass.  Sandra Mueller to work on the design and coordination with other chapter, Jimmy Dixon to work on the reproduction.  Jimmy Dixon also offered to touch in with a contact on design considerations.
• 2012 — Discussion about certification lead to a decision to shelve the issue until 2012.  Reasoning was that SQL Server 2011 – code name Denali has some significant differences in both SSRS and SSIS.  SSIS in particular will be completely different from a management/configuration perspective.  Therefore studying for exams that would be old by the end of the year seemed counterproductive.  Additionally, this years topics are on an introductory level.  The first exam covers intermediate topics which we, as a group, will be more able to handle in 2012.

The meeting was a success from the perspective us starting work as a team.  The slides used are available in a PDF document you can download.

Next meeting will be February 24th.  Stay tuned for location and topic.

All — we have a location for our first meeting.  This will be a PLANNING meeting, we will not have a featured topic or speaker.  The intent of the meeting is to explain the concept of the user group (quarterly bucket learning, Saturday workshops, etc.) and to discuss topics, logistics, volunteers.  If you want to shape this group — then this meeting is for you!

Please register for the meeting. Being our first an accurate headcount is important!

We will meet at:

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All — we have a tentative schedule set.  The BI User Group will meet on the 4th Thursday of the Month – or the 4th Saturday for the first month of each quarter.  The first quarter we will have planning meetings, and some general presentations; starting the Saturday’s in April.

27 Jan 2011 — Planning Meeting!

24 Feb 2011 — Planning Follow-Up and a Presentation

24 Mar 2011 — Information About Saturday Setup and a Presentation

23 Apr 2011 — Saturday Workshop — Intro to Report Design

26 May 2011 — Presentation on Report Design (building on where we stop on 23 Apr)

23 Jun 2011 — Presentation on Report Design (building on where we stop on 23 Apr)

23 Jul 2011 — Saturday Workshop — Intro to Data Warehouse Design

Things are still fluid at this time.  The location we might be using has a conflict with several dates so I am trying to find another.  One of the first things I would like to get a volunteer for is logistics.  Someone who isn’t over an hour drive to everything.