Get your pen and paper ready as just like if you meet me in person and I get talking about this stuff, I’m about to rattle off a bunch of resources I like to share.

User Groups

I was lucky enough to have a tech lead in my first IT job that convinced me to go to a SQL Server User Group meeting over lunch, and now it’s like Pokemon Go, gotta find em all.

There are user groups for topics, user groups for platforms; you name it, there could be a group for it. Check out Meetup, EventBrite, LinkedIn. So for people in the ACDT timezone, here are a few;

• Adelaide Power BI User Group
• Adelaide Data Analytics User Group
• Adelaide-Agile Community
• Azure Data Services (Brisbane)
• Power BI Women – Town Hall (Seattle)
• Data Platform Downunder Meetup
• Adelaide .NET User Group
• Auckland Power BI and Analytics
• Sydney Power BI User Group
• Perth Microsoft Data and Analytics User Group

For a whole bunch more see Azure Data Community (don’t let the name fool you they cover On Premises too) or Power Platform Communities.

Learning

Free/Paid, self paced, videos, instructor lead there’s loads of options when it comes to learning.

• aka.ms/learn – this is a great site to learn everything Microsoft from excel, teams, dataverse, Power Platform, Azure, Azure DevOps, Azure Synapse, and much more and it’s constantly expanding.
• aka.ms/pbitraining – ever heard of the I.A.D (In a Day) training? Well, check out this site. Microsoft has put together all the In a Day training material for Power BI.
• 30 days to learn it – They say people love purpose and mastery, well why not timebox your learning and try for certification at the end. 30 days to learn it has a series of tracks where you can pick your learning journey, master it and then challenge yourself with discounted certification if you reach the goal on time.
• Pluralsight (not free but if you have Visual Studio you might get some course time with it, or lookout for the sales)
• Enterprise DNA
• Skillwave
• Radacad Academy
• Youtube
  • Guy in a Cube
  • Azure Friday
  • Data Exposed

Events

Ah so miss events getting to meet other like minded data professionals, expand my perspective. Some of these have been on hold but you’ll also find some switched to virtual or even hybrid so you can join from the comfort of your own home.

• SQL Saturdays
• RedGate Data Community Summit
• Difinity
• SQLBits
• DPS
• Global DevOps Bootcamp
• Global Power BI Summit
• MS Ignite
• Data Saturdays
• SQL Server & Azure Conference

Now that’s not everything and I’ll try and get these in a nice page setup with links and everything, feel free to reach out to me about these.