AI-Powered Insights with Amazon QuickSight: Data Analytics and Dashboarding
Details
THIS LIVE MEETING CAN BE ATTENDED BOTH IN-PERSON AND ONLINE, BUT IT WILL NOT BE RECORDED. You snooze, you lose!
*Scroll down to get directions for how to attend this meeting, either in-person or remotely. In-person attendance is recommended, but not required.*
Liz Kladder of Soliant Consulting will introduce Amazon QuickSight, AWS’ scalable, cloud‑native business intelligence platform backed by generative AI. Whether you’re just starting your data analytics journey or looking to find ways to empower your clients in making better data-driven decisions, this session will highlight how these tools can give your clients a deeper understanding of their business.
QuickSight helps companies to turn their data into meaningful insights through data exploration, dashboarding, and reporting. Users can easily create, manage, and collaborate on dashboards as well as schedule reports using a variety of data sources, including FileMaker. The built-in gen-AI features allow users to ask natural language questions about their data, quickly spot trends, and run detailed "what-if" scenarios.
During this session, we’ll explore:
- Real-world QuickSight dashboards and reports
- Querying data using natural language
- Empowering your clients to investigate their data
- Best practices (and lessons learned) when porting FileMaker data to QuickSight
Join us to see how business intelligence can complement your FileMaker solutions.
Meeting Schedule:
- 9:15 AM — Room opens
- 9:30 AM — Coffee & social time
- 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM — Meeting & discussion with Liz
HOW TO GET TO THE MEETING ROOM ON THE 20TH FLOOR OF THE EAST TOWER OF MARINA CITY (300 North State Street):
Getting yourself to a meeting downtown can be a fun and pleasant experience if you plan ahead!
METRA
If you are coming from the suburbs, taking the Metra train is recommended. Marina City is a 25-30 minute walk or a $10-12 cab ride from Ogilvie and Union stations. If you’re walking, cross the river and walk north on Wacker until it curves to the right (east). If the weather is nice, take the stairs down to the riverwalk to maximize your experience. Then, continue to follow the river to the east until you see two iconic buildings that look like giant corn cobs. The meeting is on the 20th floor of the East Tower, the building on the right.
DRIVING
If you would prefer to drive, discounted valet parking is available at $25 for 12 hours (Sully has passes). Use 300 N State St. as your destination in your preferred mapping app. Once there, pull into the large ramp upward toward the Hotel Chicago and House of Blues on the west side of State Street. Follow the yellow lines that curve left toward valet parking. Use any lane to pull up as far as you can toward the glass domed valet stand. Then, turn off your car and wait for an attendant.
CTA (the L)
The closest L stop is Clark and Lake. Find the river (north of the L stop), walk to it and look for the corn cobs. You're headed to the one on the right.
Getting Inside The Building:
To enter the landmark Marina City East Tower, you must first go to the concourse. This can be confusing, as the concourse is below street level. There are three entrances to the concourse level.
- On State Street, at 300 N State, below street level.
- On Dearborn Street, at 323 N Dearborn, below street level.
- In the glass dome that houses the valet stand.
Once on the concourse level, look for the EAST tower security office. Tell the lobby guard you are here for a CAFDA meeting on the 20th floor. Be prepared to show a photo ID and sign into a guest book. Then, use any of the five elevators to go to the 20th floor.
STATE STREET EMERGENCY BRIDGE REPAIR
Additionally, please note that the State Street Bridge has been closed for emergency repairs since April of 2025. Both cars and pedestrians will not be allowed on the bridge until it is completed. If you’re walking East along the river from the train station, use the Dearborn bridge and concourse entrance instead of State Street. Don’t just wait until you hit State Street and hope to cross there! There is currently no vehicle or pedestrian access to the State Street Bridge. Sorry! Pick another bridge (please don't try to swim).
Access to Marina City’s valet parking is indeed still open, albeit only by traveling through the intersection of State and Kinzie. Your destination address remains the same. Just be careful that your mapping app doesn’t try to route you over a closed bridge.
How to attend CAFDA remotely:
A zoom link for this CAFDA meeting is already posted on our free CAFDA forum at https://forum.chifm.dev/. Please take a moment now to DM Sully for an invitation to the forum so you can grab the link. We'd be glad to have you, no matter where you are.