Slide Karaoke - Ultimate Showdown!

Proposed session for SQLBits 2026

TL; DR

A fun, high-energy Slide Karaoke finale where data experts present with random, unseen slides. Expect humor, creativity, audience voting, and friendly competition as speakers turn the unexpected into entertaining data-driven talks.

Session Details

Get ready to wrap up a serious day of learning with a dash of humor, spontaneity, and friendly competition! Slide Karaoke brings together a range of speakers who speakers reveal their hidden talents while vying for bragging rights. This session promises to be a one-of-a-kind experience that will leave you in stitches and awe, and the speakers scrambling for their non-existent notes!

A intrepid group of contestants will have just 5 minutes to deliver a presentation on an informative data-related topic of their choice. The catch? They'll be presented with random slides they've never seen before, and they must seamlessly incorporate these mystery slides into their talk. Our panel of judges will evaluate each performance based on a set of agreed-upon criteria, including audience voting!

You'll witness Data & Analytics experts demonstrating their wit, grace under pressure, and uncanny ability to turn the unexpected into pure entertainment. Expect a delightful fusion of knowledge and hilarity, as our speakers go head-to-head in this high-spirited showdown.

3 things you'll get out of this session

- Appreciate effective communication techniques under pressure - Recognize the value of improvisation and storytelling in data presentations - Observe how complex or unfamiliar content can be explained engagingly - Gain inspiration and confidence for presenting in unpredictable situations - Engage with the data community through interactive, audience-driven learning

Benni De Jagere's other proposed sessions for 2026

A Whirlwind Tour of the Fabric Capacity Metrics App - 2026

Copilot in Fabric - Explained for the Administrator! - 2026

Deep Dive into Microsoft Fabric Capacities: Fundamentals, Concepts, and Advanced Strategies - 2026

Demystifying the on-premises data gateway (for Power BI Semantic Models) - 2026

End-to-end Monitoring for Microsoft Fabric - 2026

Exploring permission boundaries in Microsoft Fabric - 2026

Fabric Capacities, beyond the obvious - 2026

Panel Debate: Real-World Microsoft Fabric Administration - Lessons from the Trenches - 2026

Star Schema ALL the things! But why? - 2026

Understanding Fabric Capacities - 2026

Benni De Jagere's previous sessions

Nose-Dive Narratives: Slide Karaoke 2024

Get ready to wrap up a serious day of learning with a dash of humor, spontaneity, and friendly competition! SQLBits presents "Slide Karaoke" where SQLBits speakers reveal their hidden talents while vying for bragging rights. This session promises to be a one-of-a-kind experience that will leave you in stitches and awe, and the speakers scrambling for their non-existent notes!

Asking questions to get meaningful answers

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Setting yourself up for success when submitting to present

During this session we'll cover how you find those elusive speaking opportunities and how you can make the most of it with just a few simple things to keep in mind. Most importantly, what can you do to help understand organizers or selection committees why exactly your session would be a good fit for them, and why you think it would be a good fit for their audience.

Star Schema ALL the things! But why?

Come along in this journey from source to model to report using a practical mindset, thinking about the design decisions and ramifications along the way. At the core of the session lies the message to think about best practices, with the added step to test, assess, and benchmark what exactly they do for you.

You're a Power BI Admin? Let's get your threads aligned for Fabric!

This session will focus on the life of a Power BI Admin moving over to the extended Fabric realm, and keeping their things in check. We'll look at the familiar topics of capacity and workspace management, and how they align with the new workloads that have been introduced. We'll notice there's a very large overlap, as Fabric has been built on the foundations of Power BI.

How to write a Session Abstract, to get chosen to speak

Writing an abstract is hard, especially for a session you'll probably only be presenting a few months down the road. But have you considered consciously on the words you're writing in there, and what kind of expectations they set to other parties? Having a balanced abstract will help set the expectations for your presentation correctly, before it actually starts. Clearly outlining the goals helps all parties involved, most importantly yourself!

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Asking questions to get meaningful answers

Asking questions is a very powerful tool, but can be bothersome to wield. By making sure we're supplying the other party with the compact information they need, and making sure we're "forcing" them to give a decent answer, there's a lot more information we can receive. By getting the information we need, we'll be able to proceed quicker, and getting to results faster.

Power BI dataflows? Why you need to implement it!

During this session, the core concepts of Power BI Dataflows will be explained, and we'll discuss how Power BI Dataflows could alleviate some of the specific problems you might be experiencing in your current architecture.

Troubleshooting Power BI Report Performance

Starting off with the new Performance Analyzer Pane, we'll demonstrate how you can pinpoint bottlenecks in your Power BI reports, and take actions on these insights.