Keeping up to date with Power BI

To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, “Power BI moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Power BI Desktop receives an update every single month and all other areas of the Power BI ecosystem are being updated constantly, so how exactly are you supposed to keep up to date with what’s going on? These are my tips for staying current.

Twitter

For me, Twitter is the undoubted KING of Power BI news sources. You should definitely follow the official Microsoft Power BI account @MSPowerBI for official updates, including release notes for new features, but if you also follow the hashtag #PowerBI you’ll discover an army of Power BI enthusiasts sharing news and their opinions on the platform. There’s also a significant number of Microsoft employees amongst this group as well as Microsoft MVPs who are always helpful and engaging.

YouTube

If you’re partial to falling down the YouTube Rabbit Hole, then there are some great channels dedicated to Power BI out there.

Guy In A Cube is the original and best PBI YouTuber, and their weekly livestream is a weekly community event.

SQLBI, run by Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari post at least 2 videos a week and the channel is THE go to resource for DAX. There are some great walks throughs, and I also enjoy the #unplugged series, which shows real time problem solving, proving that the Italians are in fact human and don’t get it right first time every time.

If you’re more into the visual elements of Power BI then Reid Havens channel, Havens Consulting, is a must. He has some really innovative techniques for solving complex data vis conundrums, and the quality of his videos is top notch. He also has a weekly livestream where he’ll interview guests, and the quality and variety of those guests has been cracking so far.

An honourable mention goes to Power BI Guy which is a relatively new channel, but provides nice informal bitesize chunks of PBI tips.

And it would be remiss of me not to mention of course that Greyskull Analytics also has a channel.

Podcasts

Having moved to home working during 2020, I’ve been slightly robbed of the opportunity to catch podcast airtime as it’s something I used to do on my commute. Since the beginning of 2021 though I’ve made a more concerted effort to throw on some headphones and go out for a walk to catch up with my favourite shows, and I’ll often stick one on in the background whilst I cook a large meal.

The BIFocal podcast is a great Power BI news round up and they also discuss some interesting topics.

Raw Data by P3 Adaptive is brought to you by the artists formerly known as PowerPivotPro. I love this show. It’s genuinely entertaining and it turns out that Rob Collie, who has been a staple in the Power BI Community since forever, is a really charismatic host. They get bonus points for the SICK neon green mullet logo too.

Kasper De Jonge, who works for the Power BI Customer Advisory Team, also has his own show Kasper on BI where he interviews a range of guests about their involvement and experiences with Power BI. It’s another insightful listen.

And whilst it’s not a Power BI specific show, I also need to mention The Data Pubcast run by my good friend Nick Latocha. They cover more generalist data topics such as building data teams, data ethics and data governance. Again, they have a really good range of guests.

Forums

Perhaps internet forums are now a little archaic in the 2020’s, but I still find them a good source of info. I’m active on the Reddit Power BI sub (I’m u/j0hnny147 in case we cross paths) where there’s a really good community of all abilities sharing help and advice.

I have also been known to grace the pages of the Power BI User Group forum and there is of course the official Microsoft Power BI Community, but it’s fair to say that these days Reddit is definitely my main squeeze.

Blogs

Well duh! You’re here reading this aren’t you?! The Power BI blogs that I read are almost an extension of the Twitter community, and its Twitter promotion that will most often direct me to a blog.

Chris Webb’s blog at crossjoin.co.uk tends to explore quite niche areas and the blogs are quite detailed and technical, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need, and they’re written well.

Nikola Ilic is a prolific blogger and his blog data-mozart.com is another favourite. He covers the whole Microsoft Data Platform, though I think there is definitely a Power BI bias.

Final thoughts…

Trying to keep on top of Power BI news might seem a daunting task. As a dedicated Power BI developer, it’s something that you should try to set some time aside to do. That being said, the range of options available via the community are often delivered with a light touch and in an entertaining manner. If you take a plunge into the pool of Power BI resources at your disposal, you’ll discover that keeping abreast of developments does not need to be an onerous task.