Putting Wales on the map in Power BI with Icon Map with James Dales

Description
Maps in Power BI don’t have to stop at points and bubbles. In this demo-heavy session, we’ll explore how Icon Map can be used to build rich, layered geographic experiences that put Wales firmly at the centre of your reporting.

Using open datasets from sources such as StatsWales and Natural Resources Wales, we’ll combine multiple spatial layers to add real-world context and unlock deeper insight.

We'll explore advanced capabilities such as:

- How to add 3D terrain to highlight the impact of the Welsh valleys
- Strategies for dealing with large datasets
- Incorporating detailed, conditionally-formatted polygons
- Using drill-down, drill-through and tooltips
- Including images and icons
- Representing real-time Fabric data sources
- Load geometry from your Fabric or Postgres databases
- Using the map as the starting point to filter and slice the rest of your report

About James Dales
Having previously led the Power BI and Microsoft Fabric capabilities at both UK and global level for a large multi-national Microsoft consultancy, in 2024 James has established an ambitious geospatial data company Tekantis to focus on geospatial analytics and data products in the Microsoft Power BI and Fabric ecosystem.

James is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and is the co-leader of the London Fabric and Power BI user group. In 2019 he became the first member of the Power BI Contributors Program, working alongside the Microsoft engineering team to build new functionality into the Power BI product codebase. He has a keen interest in geospatial and real-time analytics and is the author of the Icon Map custom visuals.