22-25 April 2026 
SQLBits 2012
BI from space: PowerPivot with NASA data
In this session, you will learn how to combine data from web services, tables and cubes to build a powerful model, and visualise it in Excel.
PowerPivot, while being an Excel add-in, was built by the SQL team, and is one of the most powerful data integration tools in the Microsoft stack. In this session, you will learn how to combine data from web services, tables and cubes to build a powerful model, and visualise it in Excel. An introduction to Time Intelligence using DAX will lead us on to the new features in version 2, and we will move from the Date table to relationships, perspectives and KPIs.
You will also see the difference between developing in the Excel addin vs Visual Studio.
Speakers
Mark Stacey's previous sessions
Is your data big enough for a PDW?
You have tuned your SQL server to it's limits, you have maxed the RAM on your server, and still your data warehouse is too slow. Is a Parallel Data Warehouse the next step?
Analysis Services for the DBA
Mark will explain the use cases for Analysis Services, illustrate how it improves performance for large data sets and eases report writing, and will go through a practical example of building a first Analysis Services solution
BI from space: PowerPivot with NASA data
In this session, you will learn how to combine data from web services, tables and cubes to build a powerful model, and visualise it in Excel.