LIVESTREAM DATE/TIME 📅
May 1st, 2026 - 9:30AM (Pacific Time)
DESCRIPTION 📄
Power BI mapping has… historically been “fine” in the way a rental car with three warning lights is “fine.” In this session, James Dales (Microsoft Data Platform MVP, co-leader of the London Fabric & Power BI User Group, and creator of Icon Map) walks through what’s new in modern mapping for Power BI and why Icon Map has evolved into a premium visual.
We’ll cover:
Why Icon Map is now paid and what it delivers over legacy Icon Map and Azure Maps
Icon Map Pro vs Icon Map Slicer: what each one does and when to use them
The Icon Map Catalog and how it changes map-building workflows in Power BI
Best practices for building clearer, faster, more interactive geospatial reporting experiences
Whether you’re building operational dashboards, location intelligence reports, or real-time analytics, you’ll leave with practical guidance on how to level up your maps without making your report behave like a slideshow.
GUEST BIO 👤
Having previously led the Power BI and Microsoft Fabric capabilities at both UK and global level for a large multi-national Microsoft consultancy, in 2024 James co-founded an ambitious geospatial data company Tekantis, to focus on geospatial analytics and data products.
James is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and is the co-leader of the London Fabric and Power BI user group. In 2019 he became the first member of the Power BI Contributors Program, working alongside the Microsoft engineering team to build new functionality into the Power BI product codebase. He has a keen interest in geospatial and real-time analytics and is the author of the Icon Map visuals for Power BI.
