About us
The Power BI & Fabric Manchester User Group is a free to attend event that has been going for almost 10 years and our members to meets every month in Manchester on a Thursday evening.
We host a variety of events including talks from expert speakers and hands-on introduction to Fabric & Power BI. We are a thriving Fabric & Power BI community including end users & industry experts all who use Fabric Power BI – and enjoy using it.
Follow us on Twitter, @PBIMCR.
Follow our Linked-In page and watch past videos here
PBIMCR code of conduct:
The Fabric & Power BI User Manchester Group is committed to fostering a respectful, friendly, and professional environment for all members, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance, disability, age, race, or religion.
We have a zero-tolerance policy for any behavior that degrades individuals based on these attributes, as well as any form of harassment or discrimination. It is essential for all members to understand and adhere to these standards, and we encourage everyone to contribute to a safe and welcoming atmosphere.
At our in-person events, we expect attendees to:
- Be friendly and welcoming.
- Listen with purpose and create space for diverse communication preferences.
- To show courtesy and respect to our speakers (i.e. Phones on silent, No getting up mid-talk to get drinks)
- Consider how you can make someone’s experience better.
- Be patient and understanding of varying communication styles.
- Acknowledge that not everyone may be using their native language, which can lead to misinterpretations.
- Communicate thoughtfully, aiming for clarity and productivity.
- Respect differing opinions and seek to understand rather than criticize.
- Make a conscious effort to include those who may differ from you.
- Assume good intent in others' statements and questions.
- Focus on continuous learning by improving your knowledge and engaging with others.
In summary, we ask that all members treat each other with respect, kindness, and empathy. Use inclusive language, communicate thoughtfully, avoid destructive comments, accept constructive criticism gracefully, and create space for others. If you need assistance, please reach out to the organisers.
Upcoming events
2
PBIMCR presents 'A Case Study on PBI & Security Analytics in Fabric & PBI'
Slalom, 17 Marble Street, Manchester, GBJoin us for June's PBIMCR meet-up
When: Thursday 25th of June 2026
Time: arrive for 530pm with talks starting from 6pm start prompt
Location: Slalom, 17 Marble Steet, M2 3AW
Complimentary drinks & pizza provided by our hosts Slalom & sponsors Robert WaltersDuncan Boyne
“Can Someone Turn the Heating On? An Accidental Case Study in Power BI”A manufacturing company had a problem.
Their internal testing failure rate sat comfortably below 1%. Their customers, however, were seeing replacement rates as high as 15%.
The strange part? It wasn’t consistent.
Some customers barely experienced issues at all. Others saw failures come in waves. Summer spikes. Winter spikes. Complaints would rise, disappear, then return again months later.
- The data looked good.
- The engineers were smart.
- The dashboards were working.
- So why was the real-world experience telling a completely different story?
In this interactive session, I’ll walk through the accidental investigation that uncovered the issue, not through advanced AI, complex modelling, or some magical DAX formula, but through curiosity, context, and asking what felt like very dumb questions.
Questions like:
- What’s different between testing and storage?
- What happens after the product leaves the workshop floor?
- Why are certain customers affected more than others?
- And eventually:
- Why is nobody putting the heating on?
This session is part Power BI story, part consultancy lesson, and part reminder that data professionals are not just report builders, we are storytellers. Sometimes the numbers only make sense when you step away from the dashboard and start understanding the humans, processes, and assumptions behind them.
You’ll leave with a practical framework of questions every consultant and analyst should ask, along with a different perspective on how to approach problem solving, stakeholder conversations, and the stories hidden inside your data.
Darlington Chigozie Okeke
'Security Analytics with Microsoft Fabric & Power BI'Machine-learning-based malware detection systems generate large volumes of structured and semi-structured data: behavioural features, anomaly scores, classification outputs, and confidence metrics. While much attention is given to building detection models, far less focus is placed on how these outputs are operationalised, analysed, and communicated at scale. This is where Microsoft Fabric and Power BI become critical.
In this session, I present a deep technical walkthrough of transforming ML-based malware detection outputs into a scalable analytics solution using Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, based on my MSc Cyber Security research into heuristic-based Trojan detection on Windows.
The talk focuses on:
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Designing Fabric Lakehouse schemas for ML-generated security telemetry
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Modelling detection outputs (labels, probabilities, feature scores) as analytical fact tables
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Using Spark SQL and T-SQL for feature aggregation, windowed analysis, and trend extraction
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Building semantic models optimised for high-cardinality, time-series security data
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Writing advanced DAX measures for detection accuracy, false positives, and behavioural drift
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Visualising long-term trends and anomalies using Power BI dashboards
Rather than revisiting ML theory, the emphasis is on data modelling, analytics engineering, and performance optimisation within Fabric and Power BI. While the data originates from a security context, the architectural patterns demonstrated apply equally to observability, fraud detection, and other event-driven analytics workloads.
This session is aimed at Power BI and Fabric practitioners who want to push beyond traditional BI scenarios and work with complex, real-world analytical data.
Topics Covered: Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Analysis Services, Azure AI, OneLake, Real-Time Data
1st time attendees what to expect:
Engaging tech talks/demos/presentations and an opportunity to network in a friendly community environment with complimentary drinks and pizza served.65 attendees
PBIMCR presents Obi Iheanachor & Andy Cutler @ANS Group
ANS Group, 1 Archway, Hulme, Manchester, GBJoin us for July's PBIMCR meet-up
When: Thursday 30th of July
Time: arrive for 530pm with talks starting from 6pm start promptLocation: ANS Group, 1 Archway, Birley Fields, Hulme, M15 5QJ
Complimentary drinks & pizza provided by our hosts ANS Group & sponsors Robert Walters
Obi Iheanachor
Session Title
Building AI-Augmented Power BI experiences with Fabric
Session Abstract
Power BI dashboards are everywhere yet many organisations still struggle to turn insights into timely, confident decisions. Dashboards show what happened, but rarely help users understand why, what changed, or what to do next.
In this session, we’ll explore how Microsoft Fabric enables a new generation of AI-augmented Power BI experiences that move beyond static reporting into genuine decision support. Rather than replacing traditional BI, this talk focuses on evolving it, using AI to enhance semantic models, surface insights, and guide users while preserving governance and trust.
You’ll see practical patterns for:
Augmenting Power BI dashboards with AI-generated explanations, summaries, and anomaly narratives
Using Fabric’s lakehouse and semantic models as the foundation for trustworthy AI interactions
Designing AI features that respect security, data models, and business logic
Identifying where AI adds real value and where traditional BI still works best
Avoiding common pitfalls when introducing AI into BI workflows
The session is grounded in real-world architectures and implementation lessons, not demos or hype. It’s aimed at Power BI developers, data engineers, and analytics leaders who want to increase the impact of their BI platforms without disrupting existing teams or processes.
Attendees will leave with concrete ideas they can apply immediately to make their dashboards more actionable, trustworthy, and valuable to the business.About Obi:
Obinna has been in the data industry for over 5 years now and specializes in building data solutions that help solve critical business problems.
In the course of his career, he has worked with firms across the business sector, health sector, and start-ups where he has used his expertise to inspire data-driven decisions.Andy Culter
Title:
My Dopamine Has Gone Missing: A Tale of Frustration & EnlightenmentAbstract:
I sat down to study for a certification...not an unusual thing for me to do. After 5 minutes my mind had wandered, I pulled myself back together and got on with the learning. Except I couldn't...my mind wandered again. I started to read a book, after 10 minutes my mind had wandered... I started a work task and you guessed it, my mind had wandered. What was wrong? I'm not lazy, I'm not unfocused, I have no blockers in anything I want to do and work on. So what was the problem? I searched for the answer and found Dopamine...In this session I will talk about my journey from frustration to enlightenment and how I rediscovered I could learn, read, and work again unhindered by distractions.
Topics Covered: Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Analysis Services, Azure AI, OneLake, Real-Time Data
1st time attendees what to expect:
Engaging tech talks/demos/presentations and an opportunity to network in a friendly community environment with complimentary drinks and pizza served.18 attendees
Past events
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