Manchester Data Platform User Group

Network, learn, ask a question, meet other folks - these are all things that happen at user group events. These events are a really great opportunity to socialise in an informal learning experience.

Remember to tell your friends and the people you work with; make sure you register as soon as you can.

In-Person only event. Not being recorded.

Please complete the registration form with your full name and organisation you are from - we collect this information to give to building security to let you into the event.

17:45 – 18:00 Intro and updates
18:00 – 19:00 Juliana Smith: Uncovering the Secrets of Dashboard Design.

Great dashboards don’t just show data—they guide users to insights effortlessly. In this fast-paced session, we’ll unlock the power of alignment, white space, and page scanning patterns to create visually stunning, easy-to-navigate and accessible Power BI dashboards. Learn how to hack human perception with smart design choices, so your audience finds what they need before they even realise they’re looking for it! Expect real-world examples, and plenty of “aha!” moments. Ready to level up your dashboard game? Let’s go!

19:00 – 19:15 Break & Pizza
19:15 – 20:15 TBC

Network, learn, ask a question, meet other folks - these are all things that happen at user group events. These events are a really great opportunity to socialise in an informal learning experience.

Remember to tell your friends and the people you work with; make sure you register as soon as you can.

In-Person only event. Not being recorded.

Please complete the registration form with your full name and organisation you are from - we collect this information to give to building security to let you into the event.

17:45 – 18:00 Intro and updates
18:00 – 19:00 Bharav Patel - From Blind Spots to Total Vision: Observability at Petabyte Scale.
System downtime erodes customer trust and causes financial losses in today's digital landscape. This session demonstrates how to transform infrastructure monitoring using logs, metrics, and traces for comprehensive visibility. By implementing advanced strategies, machine learning for anomaly detection, and AI-assisted data interaction, businesses can proactively identify and mitigate issues, minimizing downtime and maintaining reliable digital ecosystems. We'll use OpenSearch to illustrate these platform-agnostic concepts.

19:00 – 19:15 Break & Pizza
19:15 – 20:15 Olivier Van Steenlandt - Database Deployment Automation using Database Projects & Azure DevOps
You have implemented Database Projects and Azure DevOps for database development successfully in your organization and you want to make your life easier by automating your database deployments? If the answer is yes, this session is for you!
At the beginning of this session, we will do a quick recap of Database Projects and Azure DevOps. Just to make sure that we are all on the same page.
During the session, we will set up an example build and deploy pipeline. Since there are a couple of ways to deploy changes from Azure DevOps to your target database, We will discuss a couple of scenarios and I will show you which method I'm using.
- 1 Pipeline to rule them all
- multi-step deployment
During this session, we will also cover the deployment pipeline differences between SQL Server and AzureSQL.
At the end of this session, you should have all you need to start with database deployment automation.

Network, learn, ask a question, meet other folks - these are all things that happen at user group events. These events are a really great opportunity to socialise in an informal learning experience.

Remember to tell your friends and the people you work with; make sure you register as soon as you can.

In-Person only event. Not being recorded.

Please complete the registration form with your full name and organisation you are from - we collect this information to give to building security to let you into the event.

17:45 – 18:00 Intro and updates
18:00 – 19:00 TBC

19:00 – 19:15 Break & Pizza
19:15 – 20:15 TBC