Microsoft GirlSpark Power BI session 2018

Brief Introduction to Microsoft GirlSpark:

This is an event co-organized by Microsoft Hong Kong, LinkedIn Hong Kong, and The Women’s Foundation which includes a series of hands-on activities with the purpose of making full-time women seeking degrees in various universities well-aware of the diverse career pathways in the IT (Information Technology) industry and to utilize the technology to spark for a better future.

Among the various workshops being conducted in Microsoft, Cyberport for GirlSpark one of the most important one was on “Power BI” which is currently used by almost all companies worldwide. Before I tell you about the event, I think it’s imperative to mention what Power BI is all about.

Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence cloud service meant for the non-technical business users to interact, visualize and share data. It’s absolutely free and is user-friendly. Using Power BI would make it easier for you to analyze data efficiently. It brings data to surface by connecting users through easy to use dashboard and various other features. If you are looking out for getting your data more interactive with yourself, this Microsoft application is surely what you need to look for.

The Day Begins…

Walking out of the bus terminal in Cyberport 3, I remember having a secluded feeling, however, within minutes I reached the lift lobby where I could see the girls clustering everywhere; I heard some of them talking about artificial intelligence likewise didn’t really feel the need to press the lift call button. A few seconds later we boarded in the lifts and flew all the way to the fifteenth floor of the building. It was kind of brouhaha everywhere. Some of the Microsoft employees were making arrangements while others were preparing themselves for the presentation. The girls were gossiping. I arrived a bit early so I grabbed a drink and started to look out for the Microsoft Surface Pro in the corridors. However, that reclusive feeling did not last long until I came to meet my friend and a partner, MSP Alison. Within minutes other MSPs started coming as well.

The workshop was conducted by Michelle, a Business Intelligence intern at Microsoft Hong Kong. The session started at about quarter to ten in morning. All the girls were from leading universities of Hong Kong some of which include Hong Kong U, HKUST, CityU, CUHK and PolyU. We were asked to disperse around and help anyone in need. Michelle started by first giving them a brief explanation on Power BI and where is it used. She gave a step by step guide to girls which they were supposed to follow. I could see many girls who knew about Power BI already. The girls were welcomed to raise any question and most of those were answered by the MSPs moving around in there. Some of the girls even encountered difficulties setting up power BI in their laptops, but MSPs were there to help around.

Some of the technical stuff taught to girls include making queries, editing those, changing the data type, addition of categories and subcategories, different ways of representing data i.e. on a map, bar charts etc., making data more interactive and much more. Michelle also tested them by giving them short questions or exercises may be to check out if they’ve really understood the use of Power BI.

The sheer interest of the girls in the technological field could be judged from the fact that some of them even asked me about the web development i.e. Search Engine Optimization to be more precise. It was more related to how can we make the website more popular and search for website becomes more optimized for various search engines and the techniques involved in doing so. It was fun talking them about these technological matters.

The best part of the workshop was that at the end of the session the girls were playing on with the data over power BI with ease. Though most of them were feeling anxious at the start and others a bit frazzled during the presentation as they were finding difficult to catch up, but eventually I could see the sense of satisfaction glimmering over their faces. It was a good day indeed.