It’s been already five years…Time flies and that’s so true! On this same date four years ago, I did a short retrospective of year 1…Then, I did the same thing three years ago for year 2. In December 2022, I “covered” year 3. Finally, last year, I described year 4. Now, it’s time to reflect on everything that happened in the previous 365 days.
Blogging
In terms of blogging, it was the same as the previous one – I’ve published 24 posts (including this one)! There’s been a lot of hectic periods with a lot of regular work to do, so I was hardly finding spare time to write. But, hey, it’s still 2 blog posts per month, which is not that bad at all! It’s not that I didn’t have ideas or motivation to write (I have a serious backlog of ideas for blog posts) – I simply struggled to find time to write:(…
The thing is that I often spend a lot of time writing one article, as sometimes it takes literally a few days (not 5 minutes per day for 10 days, but literally a few days of effective work in preparing the post).
I’ll repeat: I firmly believe that content is king! Therefore, I tried my best to produce quality content that would be both interesting and helpful to other people. And, trust me, there is no better feeling when someone gives you feedback that your text/idea helped to solve their problem.
Or, even better – when someone tells you that your blog posts helped them pass the exam! When I started the “Mastering DP-600” exam series of articles, not in my wildest dreams, I expected to (positively) impact so many people around. But, the fact is that a lot of individuals found these articles helpful in preparing for the exam. And, I’m the happiest person when I hear that!
Now, we have a brand new exam, DP-700 (Microsoft Fabric Data Engineer), which should soon become generally available (it’s still in beta as of today). Therefore, I’ll do my best to create content around this exam – hence, the dedicated page is already there!
In the 1st year, data-mozart.com was visited by ~22.000 users, and had 36.000 unique sessions, while in year 2, there were ~73.000 users and ~105.000 sessions. Then, in year 3, there were ~103.000 users and ~ 151.000 unique sessions…In year 4, ~159.000 users and ~260.000 sessions. I don’t know what to say about this year’s numbers:
Around 215.000 users and 361.000 sessions! Translated into page views, it’s ca. 400.000 page views:
That’s honestly an INSANE! That’s WOW! Translated to pure numbers, this is a ~35% increase compared to the previous year! These numbers make me really proud and give me an enormous motivation boost to continue publishing. The absolute winner was the blog post where I announced the FREE Power BI Bootcamp, which was slightly more popular than the one where I demystified the Parquet file format or the one in which I explained how to work with tables in Microsoft Fabric.
Speaking
This was again a very productive year from the speaking perspective. I’ve presented at 28 events during 2024, which means more than 2 presentations per month! Again, most of the sessions were delivered virtually (18) – but there were some delivered in person as well (10)!
As a speaking highlight, I’d mention the first ever Microsoft Fabric Conferences – in Las Vegas in March, and doing a full-day workshop with my good friend, Shabnam Watson, in Stockholm at the European #FabCon in September. It was an incredible experience, but I also enjoyed presenting in person at other fantastic events: Data Grillen, Data Point Prague, Data Ceili, Community Summit North America, and many more!!!
And, I owe huge gratitude to all of the organizers, for giving me an opportunity to present, and all attendees for deciding to spend their most precious asset – TIME – with me! THANK YOU!
My speaking plans will slightly change in 2025 – my son just started school. Hence, I reduced travel to a bare minimum, giving a preference to virtual events.
Writing a book “Fundamentals of Microsoft Fabric”
Somewhere in February, I was approached from O’Reilly Media about writing a book (and engaging in some other ways too, but more on that later). At first, I was hesitant, knowing that writing a book requires enormous amount of time (which I usually struggle to find) and dedication.
Finally, somewhere in May, I decided to do this – but, not alone! Hence, I joined forces with my very good friend Ben Weissman and we are now writing a book! It’s 70% done and can already be read as the early release, where we add a few raw chapters every month. The initial impressions and feedback are encouraging and we both can’t wait to have the printed edition ready, hopefully in the opening months of 2025. Until then, Fabric will apparently evolve further, so we are hoping that we don’t need to start writing the 2nd edition before the 1st is ready for printing:)
Huge, huge thanks to Michelle Smith, for providing all O’Reilly opportunities and supporting me along the way. Also, a big shout to our editor Shira Evans for her tremendous work on this project.
Running a 2nd edition of the free Power BI Bootcamp
Somewhere in January, I decided to run a 2nd edition of the free Power BI Bootcamp. The first (in 2022) was a huge success and I wanted to provide another opportunity to individuals eager to learn Power BI. The idea was to provide women and individuals who can’t afford paid training, with an opportunity to upskill themselves and help them achieve their professional goals. More about the idea and motivation can be found here.
I was thinking about running a few groups of ~15 people, but I’ve received an overwhelming 250 applications! So, how do you decide who to reject, when all the stories behind these applications absolutely deserve a seat in the Bootcamp? You simply reach out to your fellow community friends and they will happily jump in to help! Therefore, HUGE THANKS to Andrea Janicijevic, Pragati Jain, Mohammed Adnan, Elena Drakulevska, Miguel Felix, Nicky van Vroenhoven, Cristian Prifti, Cristian Angyal, and my “brother from another mother” Augustin Bukvic, for taking over the lead of the groups, so we could have helped no less than 250 individuals!
This was an amazing experience and definitely one of the highlights of this year!
Youtube-ing
I started the Data Mozart Youtube channel in the summer of 2021, as many people asked for a video to complement the blog post. After 11 videos in 2021, and 7 videos in 2022, 9 videos in 2023, I published no less than 21 videos in 2024! Almost the same as in the previous three years! I plan to continue publishing new and fresh video content in 2025, especially around the DP-600 and DP-700 certificates.
Regarding the DP-600, I have to mention a free 4-hour webinar I did a week ago: more than 2.400 registered people, and more than 300 individuals during the live stream. The video already has 5k+ views! In case you missed it, you can watch it here.
Again, I couldn’t do it without a helping hand from the community. Therefore, huge thanks to: Parvinder Chana, Johnny Winter, Pragati Jain, Thomas Martens, Andy Cutler, Govindarajan D, Mst. Rubayat Yasmin, Miguel Félix, Eugene Meidinger, Ricardo Rincon, Shannon Lindsay, and Pam Spier – for helping in handling audience questions, providing the license for playing quiz, and promoting the session through the official Microsoft channels. I deeply appreciate your help and support!
The more work on YouTube resulted in a huge spike in the number of subscribers – as of today, I’m close to 4.600 subscribers – more than a 100% increase compared to last December!
In addition, together with my friend Augustin Dokoza Bukvic, and our co-host Jeroen(Jay) ter Heerdt, each month we do a live stream called “Live from Redmond”, where we bring someone from the product or engineering team, to talk about the coolest feature from that month’s Power BI update. Make sure to check this show on the Data Jazzers YouTube channel!
Courses
I was very active in 2024 as a Pluralsight author. After creating 3 Pluralsight courses in 2021, 5 more in 2022, and 3 courses in 2023 (and updated two older ones), I created 5 courses this year which gives 16 courses in total! What a year!
Huge thanks to Austi Whetten for believing in me, but also to all the other lovely, kind, and supportive people from Pluralsight. It’s really a privilege to be part of the Pluralsight family.
I’m also working on two courses for O’Reilly Media: Mastering PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst, and Mastering DP-600 Fabric Analytics Engineer. I hope to have both courses ready and published in Q1 of 2025. Again, huge thanks to Michelle Smith for her support in these projects.
What next?
Well, 2024 was (again) a year to remember – mostly in a positive way!
I would lie if I said it wasn’t exhausting sometimes, especially in the last months of the year – but, I truly enjoy working with data, and even more enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience. There is no better reward than when someone says to you that your article or idea helped to solve a problem or pass the exam!
I hugely appreciate how much I’ve learned, and how much I’m still learning on a daily basis from different data community experts – that being said, I promise to continue making music from the data in 2025!
If you come so far reading this article, then I’d really like to give you special kudos! Thanks for reading, happy holidays, enjoy the festive period in peace and health with your loved ones, and hope to see a lot of you in person in 2025!
Cheers!
Last Updated on December 22, 2024 by Nikola
