Speaking at SQLKonferenz 2019

PASS Deutschland is celebrating 15 years at SQLKonferenz 2019! I’m honored that I get to be part of it. From February 19-21, I will be hanging out in Darmstadt, Germany with Damon the Data Monster – and a couple hundred other old and new friends :)

I attended my first SQLKonferenz in 2015, and had an absolutely fantastic time. It was the first multi-day SQL Server conference I ever attended, and it was only my third time speaking! I was a nervous wreck :) But things went well, I made new friends, and I have wanted to go back ever since. This is finally the year! :D

Continue reading →

Video: Azure Data Factory Data Flows Introduction

In January 2019, I was honored to be asked to contribute to the PASS Insights BI Edition Newsletter. I said yes, of course! :) I chose to create an Azure Data Factory Data Flows introduction video. This is a sneak preview of the upcoming Data Flows feature, with a quick walkthrough of how easy it can be to create scalable data transformations in the cloud – without writing any code!

Please note: As of January 2019, when I recorded this video and published this blog post, Azure Data Factory Data Flows is still in preview. Features will be added and things will get changed, just like all the other Azure products. But! Hopefully this shows what you can look forward to.

At the end of this blog post, I have tried to answer some frequently asked questions about Azure Data Factory Data Flows.

Video: Data Flows Introduction

Azure Data Factory Data Flows | Cathrine Wilhelmsen | BI Insights

Watch this video on YouTube

Continue reading →

2019 Life and Priority Tweaks

New year, new beginnings, new you, isn’t that what they usually say? For me, it’s more like pressing play after having paused everything during my Christmas break. I’m continuing my smaller life and priority tweaks instead of making big changes and resolutions :) But it is a new year. It’s going to be different than the last one. And the ones before that. (Like every year, really. Funny how that works.)

I don’t often write personal posts, but these life and priority tweaks might affect how active I will be in our community this year, so I felt like writing a little bit about why.

Life and Priority Tweaks - A Winter Sunrise

Oh, who am I trying to trick? I’m really only writing this so I could show off this picture of a pretty winter sunrise, taken from my parents’ house during Christmas :D

Continue reading →

Hello, SQLSaturday Oslo 2019!

YAY! We are very happy to announce that SQLSaturday Oslo is back for the sixth time in 2019! This full day of free training will be held on Saturday, August 31st, and will cover a variety of topics within Microsoft Data Platform, SQL Server, Azure, Power BI, Analytics, and more. We will also offer a full day of paid pre-conference workshops on Friday, August 30th.

Continue reading →

Generating SQL using Biml (T-SQL Tuesday #110)

T-SQL Tuesday #110: Generating SQL using Biml

The first T-SQL Tuesday of 2019 is hosted by Garry Bargsley (@gbargsley), and the topic is “Automate All the Things“. Garry wants to know what this phrase means to each of us. What do we want to automate? What is our go-to technology for automation? To me, this was super easy. Surprise, surprise! It’s Biml, of course :) Since this post is part of T-SQL Tuesday, I wanted to go back to the basics and write about how you can generate SQL using Biml. But first, a little bit of background for those who are not that familiar with Biml.

Continue reading →