Tag Archives: Congratulations
Congratulations to the Winners of the “Back to School” Contest!
For our Back to School contest this year, we had so many amazing entries, showcasing creativity, design expertise, excellent use of Power BI, and of course a genuine love for education! Before we get to the winners, I want to take a moment to introduce our judges.
Because this was a Back to School contest, we could not have picked the winners without the help of two educators:
James Burke | Middle School STEM Teacher
Nicole Lange | Former High School Biology Teacher
Additionally, entries were evaluated by several members of the Power BI Product Team, including Rien Hu, June Punkasem, Kim Manis, Amanda Cofsky, Tessa Hurr, and Miguel Martinez.
Contest Winners
Our first place winner is Periodic Table of the Elements by David Eldersveld.
- We loved how useful this lesson is; it’s a perfect supplement for any high school chemistry course.
- Also, the author showcased superb use of Power BI features, such as report page tooltips, bookmarks, dynamic conditional formatting and dynamic measures.
If you are interested in learning how exactly the lesson was made, the author published a video playlist demonstrating the various parts of the creation process.
Our second place winner is Learning to Stay Healthy by Paul & Martin Consulting.
- The lesson leveraged a wide range of Power BI capabilities to create dynamic backgrounds, What If parameters, and included several custom visuals and data sources.
- It’s a visually fun and inviting lesson that we could easily see in any high school nutrition class.
The third place winner and also the community favorite is Estimate Electricity Energy Usage and Cost by Duc Nguyen.
- The lesson was a creative, fun way to connect energy to our daily lives; therefore, it’s very useful for middle school and high school energy lessons.
- The author demonstrated great use of Power BI by creating a truly interactive lesson, spanning across several data sources.
Congratulations to all winners and thank you to everyone that participated this year!
Congratulations to the Winners of the “Bookmarking Feature” Contest!
You may remember that the “Bookmarking Feature” contest launched a few weeks ago to feature the recently updated bookmark feature in Power BI Desktop.
We had so many amazing submissions that showcased your creativity as well as the functionality of the bookmark feature. Power BI Program Managers Will Thompson and Amanda Cofsky reviewed each entry and, with great difficulty, have narrowed down the winners!
Bookmark Feature Winners
Our grand prize winner is The Power BI Whisky Experience by Ryan Bentham. Judges had this to say about the report: “This is a well-designed report with a fun topic. It makes great use of bookmarking in several ways to create an app-like experience. It’s a lot of fun to change all the parameters and see what kind of whiskeys come up!”
Our first runner up is Team Performance vs. Target by Pawel Jaszczynski. It should be noted that this report was the best business-focused report that was submitted. Our judges also note that “this report is a very beautiful and well-organized report. It also takes great advantage of both drill-through and bookmarking to create a great example of a report that could be used daily in a sales department.”
The next runner up is Power BI Quest by David Eldersveld; judges’ note: “Seeing this entry was very exciting for us! When we first started working on the bookmarking feature, one of the first things we thought was how fun it would be to use the feature to create a ‘Choose your own adventure’ style game, so it was very cool to see someone actually do that!”
Thank you so much for your awesome participation! If you missed this contest, check out the “Year in Review” Contest!
Congratulations to the Winners of the “Timeline Storyteller” Contest!
Congratulations to the winners of the Timeline Storyteller contest!
Last month, we asked you to show us creative uses for the Timeline Storyteller custom visual for Power BI, and you delivered some amazing contest submissions!
Each entry was reviewed by both the Microsoft Data Journalism Team and the Microsoft Researchers who created the Timeline Storyteller feature. Check out the winning submission and two runners-up!
Microsoft believes in enabling better data-driven storytelling, through access to tools like Power BI (which provides out-of-the-box analytics and visualization capabilities) and programs like the Microsoft Data Journalism Program (which works with journalists and media organizations to provide training, guidance, and custom support for data storytelling efforts with Power BI).
Timeline Storyteller Winning Submission:
Congratulations to Devin Knight for being the grand prize winner! The judges agree that the TV Network Ratingsreport was a fun use of the Timeline Storyteller feature that was easy to engage with and had clear annotations and an understandable storyline.
The runners up were:
Tropical Cyclones, by Mike Honey (judge’s note: nice intro and topical subject matter!)
WWI Bombing Operations – Thor Data Set, by Yana Berkovich (judge’s note: interesting topic and data set!)
Timeline Storyteller offers a unique interactive experience by combining a wide array of design choices across timeline representation, scale and layout with modern techniques for presenting, annotating, and interacting with the data. It enables people to present different aspects of their data using different dimensions while providing controls for filtering, highlighting, and animated transitions, all which promote a more cohesive and engaging storytelling experience. This custom visual is just another great example of the growing library of custom visuals for Power BI available in the Office Store. To learn more about Timeline Storyteller and the research that informed its creation, read our blog post from September here.
We are seeing a lot of excitement and interest in the Timeline Storyteller, given that interactive, data-rich stories are in high demand now more than ever. We also understand the need to be able to quickly and easily create unique data stories that inform, educate, and engage audiences. Microsoft has been leaning in on an effort to help journalists with this by providing training and guidance on using Power BI to find their story through its modeling and data exploration capabilities, and to tell their story by creating interactive visualizations. With Timeline Storyteller, journalists can now visualize a sequence of events in a compelling way using the extensive palette of design options included in the custom visual. Plus, with Power BI publish to web functionality, journalists can easily publish their interactive timeline stories to their website, reaching an unlimited number of readers with the scale of the Microsoft cloud.
To learn more about the Microsoft Data Journalism Program, click here or e-mail us with questions.
Congratulations to the winners of the What If contest!
A few weeks ago we launched a “What If” contest to promote the release of our new What If feature in Power BI Desktop. Many of you were anticipating this feature for a while now, and we wanted to celebrate its arrival in style!
We received a number of amazing submissions that showed off the creativity and flexibility that What If offers data analysts and report-makers. Each entry was reviewed by Power BI Program Managers Will Thompson and Amanda Cofsky, and they had such a difficult time deciding on a winner that we created two categories of winners: Fun and Business.
What If Winners: Fun Category
Our grand prize winner in the fun category is Tank Wars, by Jason Thomas. This was a very creative use of the sliders, and it has some smart DAX working behind the scenes.
The runners up in the fun category are:
Hangman, by Alex Groberman (judges note: A really clever and genuinely fun game. Plus: fishes!)
Dancing Cat Generator, by David Eldersveld (judges note: The judges are both cat mad so this had to have an honorable mention. Catchy tune as well.)
What If Winners: Business Category
Our grand prize winner in the business category is Profitability with What-if in hierarchy horizontal chart, by Tri Nguyen minh. The judges really liked the visual ‘balancing’ that viewers can do with the What If sliders. This report is a great way to show the impact of changes at each stage in the hierarchy, and is a clever way of taking advantage of images combined with bars to show the hierarchy visual.
Here are the runners-up in this category. The judges noted that both entries show off the What If feature in a really clear, simple, and business-relevant way.
Objective attainment, by Nicolas Agrapart
Analyse How Increase in Customer Satisfaction Can Maximize Profitability, by community member “ThirdI”
Each of the grand prize winners will receive a Super Swag Prize Pack, while the runners-up will get a Power BI t-shirt.
Thank you so much for your awesome participation! If you missed this contest, there’s still time to submit your report to the Timeline Storyteller Custom Visual Contest!
Congratulations to the Featured Data Stories for May and June!
We put out the call to you a couple of months ago to create fantastic reports for the Data Stories Gallery, and we were amazed by your submissions! Congratulations to the grand winner and runners-up from May and June.
The theme for May was data storytelling. These entries were judged by the Microsoft Data Journalism Team. Microsoft believes that data enables reporters, bloggers, broadcasters and analysts alike to tell unique and interesting stories. Data visualization is a powerful tool that can help form a narrative and present valuable insights in a compelling way, and with Microsoft Power BI, writers can emphasize messages and engage audiences through interactive and data rich stories.
The way we tell stories has changed, in part, due to the ever-growing volume and availability of data. Media outlets are tasked with providing credible, data-backed stories that enable readers to explore the personal angle of the story. This demand for interactive data stories is pervasive across beats, but a lot of journalists and media outlets don’t have the time, resources, or tools to create compelling interactive data visualizations. We hear from a lot of journalists that data stories are often a high-risk, expensive investment for newsrooms because of limited bandwidth, the lack of tools or technical expertise to create interactive graphics, and the challenge of drilling down into local or relevant stories from national or global datasets.
Microsoft has been pioneering a new, simple and scalable solution to overcome these barriers with the Microsoft Data Journalism Program and Microsoft Power BI. With Power BI publish to web, writers can publish interactive Power BI data visualizations with their stories and reach an unlimited number of readers. Since this capability was released, Microsoft has been working with journalists and media organizations to understand how to realize this opportunity. To learn more about the Microsoft Data Journalism Program, visit the website or email them with questions.
May Grand Winner:
Susie’s report displays a very clear, simple story. There are good insights, with the ability to see national, regional, and local drill down.
June Grand Winner:
Alex’s report not only shows good design, but it’s also a very helpful way for Power BI users to find the right custom visual for their project.
Nine other reports will also be marked as Featured. Congratulations to the following reports (in no particular order):
May Featured Data Storytelling Reports
June Featured Reports
Submit your story
Want to see your work become a Featured story? Post it to the Data Stories Gallery, and then tweet a link with the hashtags #powerbi #datastory. At the end of each month we’ll review all tweeted stories, and choose several to become featured. Featured stories will be selected for telling a compelling story, being original and creative, and effectively using Power BI.
The author of the story that we pick as the grand winner for each month will win a Power BI t-shirt and a badge of recognition for their Community profile.
Congratulations to the Data Insights Summit Analytics Challenge winners!
Last month we celebrated the Microsoft Data Insights Summit with a Data Analytics Challenge, and as usual we were highly impressed with all the submissions!
We asked for entries in three different categories: Complex Data Preparation, Advanced Analytics, and Just for Fun. Entries were judged on the following criteria:
- Data Prep: How well you tackle the data prep challenges associated with the dataset
- Insightfulness: How well you answer the analysis topic, and what insights you uncovered
- Data visualization and storytelling: How well you create a report and visuals to explain your insights
- Creativity: What you do to surprise us, for example mash together an interesting additional dataset, or use a clever presentation trick
Take a look at the great videos and insights uncovered by the three winning submissions.
Complex Data Preparation
Congratulations to Rishi Sapra and the Altius team! Rishi’s submission featured two videos: one narrating insights, and one outlining their approach to the challenge. See the report.
Advanced Analytics
Congratulations to Scott Ferguson! See the report.
Just for Fun
Congratulations to Kane O’Donnell at Aware Group! They trained a recurrent neural net on script data from television show “The Simpsons”, so that they could generate ‘new’ script lines for each character. We’ve embedded the cool report below:
All of the winners will receive a Super Prize Pack and free pass to the 2018 Data Insights Summit. We very much enjoyed everyone’s submission, and they all will be receiving credit for the Microsoft store. Thanks again to everyone who entered, and see you next year!
Congratulations to the Featured Data Stories Gallery submissions for March and April
We put out the call to you a couple of months ago to create fantastic reports for the Data Stories Gallery, and we were amazed by your submissions! Congratulations to the grand winner and runners-up from March and April.
The theme for May is data storytelling. We’re putting together some special guest judges for May, so if you haven’t submitted a report yet — or have submitted in the past — this is an exciting month to participate!
March Grand Winner:
Paul’s report displays a great use of custom design and implemented good UX/UI design.
April Grand Winner:
The Enlighten team’s report shows off their homemade custom visuals and has a sleek, clean design that puts the data up front.
Eight other reports will also be marked as Featured. Congratulations to the following reports (in no particular order):
March Featured Reports
April Featured Reports
Submit your story
Want to see your work become a Featured story? Post it to the Data Stories Gallery, and then tweet a link with the hashtags #powerbi #datastory. At the end of each month we’ll review all tweeted stories, and choose several to become featured. Featured stories will be selected for telling a compelling story, being original and creative, and effectively using Power BI.
The author of the story that we pick as the grand winner each month will win a Power BI t-shirt and a badge of recognition for their Community profile. As mentioned above, the theme for May is data storytelling. Data isn’t just numbers in a table — it can be used effectively to educate, entertain, and inspire. Tell us a story with your data!
Congratulations to this month's Featured Data Stories
Last month we put out the call for submissions using mapping tools — along with other topics that interest you — for the Data Stories Gallery, and we got some fantastic entries! Congratulations to the grand winner and runners-up.
Grand Winner:
David’s report displays a great use of custom visuals, mapping functions, and using public datasets. It’s both fun and functional!
Four other reports will also be marked as Featured. Congratulations to the following reports (in no particular order):
Submit your story
Want to see your work become a Featured story? Post it to the Data Stories Gallery, and then tweet a link with the hashtags #powerbi #datastory. At the end of each month we’ll review all tweeted stories, and choose several to become featured. Featured stories will be selected for telling a compelling story, being original and creative, and effectively using Power BI.
The author of the story that we pick as the grand winner each month will win a Power BI t-shirt and a badge of recognition for their Community profile. The inspiration topic for this month is: tables and matrices! It can be a challenge for new data analysts to create useful and attractive reports with tabular data, so show us your best tricks.
Congratulations to this month's Featured Data Stories Gallery submissions
Last month we put out the call for submissions using free public datasets — along with other topics that interest you — for the Data Stories Gallery, and we got some fantastic entries! Congratulations to the grand winner and runners-up.
Grand Winner:
Patrick’s report packs a lot of information on each page, without being cluttered or losing focus on the story.
Five other report authors will also have their reports marked as Featured. Congratulations to the following submitters (in no particular order):
Submit your story
Want to see your work become a Featured story? Post it to the Data Stories Gallery, and then tweet a link with the hashtags #powerbi #datastory. At the end of each month we’ll review all tweeted stories, and choose several to become featured. Featured stories will be selected for telling a compelling story, being original and creative, and effectively using Power BI.
The author of the story that we pick as the grand winner each month will win a Power BI t-shirt and a badge of recognition for their Community profile. The inspiration topic for this month is: mapping! We want to see your best reports that involve maps and geographic data. (If you haven’t tried the newest ArcGIS maps features yet, now’s your chance!)
Congratulations to this month's Featured Data Stories Gallery submissions
Last month we put out the call for spooky-themed submissions — along with other topics that interest you — to the Data Stories Gallery, and we got some fantastic entries! Congratulations to the grand winner and six runners-up.
Grand Winner:
Greg’s report is an excellent use of Power BI and tells an interesting story.
Four other reports will also be officially marked as a Featured story. Congratulations to the following submitters (in no particular order):
Submit your story
Want to see your work become a Featured story? Post it to the Data Stories Gallery, and then tweet a link with the hashtags #powerbi #datastory. At the end of each month we’ll review all tweeted stories, and choose several to become featured. Featured stories will be selected for telling a compelling story, being original and creative, and effectively using Power BI.
The author of the story that we pick as the grand winner each month will win a Power BI t-shirt and a badge of recognition for their Community profile. The inspiration topic for this month is “custom visuals”: show us a great data story using your own custom visuals or those in our Visuals Gallery.