Data Modeling vs DAX in Power BI: Solving Problems the Right Way (with Markus Ehrenmuller-Jensen)

LIVESTREAM DATE/TIME 📅

February 6th 2026 - 9:30AM (Pacific Time)

DESCRIPTION 📄

When should you solve a problem in the data model, and when should you solve it with DAX?

In this livestream, Markus Ehrenmuller-Jensen will walk through practical scenarios where you can take either route: modeling changes, DAX measures, or even report-level settings. Instead of “it depends,” you’ll see how to choose a clear, maintainable approach.

In this session, we discuss:

• How a solid data model can simplify or eliminate complex DAX

• When it actually makes sense to push logic into DAX instead of the model

• Typical patterns: role-playing dimensions, cascading filters, synced slicers, and more - Trade-offs around performance, maintainability, and usability

• How to think about long-term governance when mixing modeling and DAX solutions

Whether you’re a Power BI developer who loves writing measures or a data model purist, this session will help you decide where each piece of logic really belongs.

GUEST BIO 👤

​Markus Ehrenmuller-Jensen is the founder of Savory Data, with a career spanning project leadership, data engineering, and business intelligence architecture since 1994. He holds degrees in software engineering and business education and serves as a professor of databases and project engineering at HTL Leonding, a technical college. He is also certified in PL-300 (Power BI Data Analyst), DP-203 (Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification), DP-600 (Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate), and DP-700 (Fabric Data Engineer Associate).

Markus actively contributes to the global data community, speaking regularly at international conferences such as SQL Bits in London, Power BI Next Step in Copenhagen, Data Saturdays throughout Europe, and SQL Days. He co-founded SQL PASS Austria in 2013 and the Power Platform User Group Austria in 2016; both organizations merged in 2021 to form Data Community Austria. Since 2014, he has organized Data Community Austria Day in Vienna, fostering knowledge sharing among data professionals. In recognition of his technical leadership and community involvement, Markus has been honored as a Microsoft Data Platform Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 2017.​

In addition to his speaking engagements, Markus contributes articles to reputable journals and has authored the book "Data Modeling with Microsoft Power BI," published in June 2024.

RELATED CONTENT 🔗

Markus's Website
Markus on LinkedIn
Markus on Bluesky
Data Modeling with Power BI (O’Reilly)
Selection2List DAX Package
Markus's GitHub

(Livestream Replay) Semantic Model Ideation for Power BI - Leslie Welch

DESCRIPTION 📄

Building a performant star schema semantic model for Power BI enables simpler DAX, improved load time and responsiveness, and ensures that you are able to use the visuals that will best communicate your data. When starting with a snowflake, disparate data sources, or one big table, it can be a challenge to build something from the start that is going to fit your user requirements.

Enter the semantic model ideation process. My team and I use this process to help clients create performant secure data models aligned to a star schema and Power BI best practices. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of what information they need to start this process, how to work through the steps, and how to validate the proposed model will support their visuals. We will work backwards from what data you need to support the user questions, what Power BI needs to support the visuals, and an overview of the approach to building out your medallion architecture technical requirements for Synapse or Databricks to enable Power BI semantic models.varius morbi.

GUEST BIO 👤

Leslie Welch is the Principal Fellow of AI & Analytics at Excella with over 16 years of experience in automation, data analysis and visualization, and strengthening organizations’ knowledge of data. Leslie has worked end to end in the data arena from capture and ETL to database design/engineering to analysis and dashboard design to ML use cases with a focus on improving productivity, performance, and data quality. She has extensive experience in enterprise deployment of Power BI, both as an admin and Power BI architect and a trainer and technical community organizer. She is passionate about data governance, truth telling in data, and responsible application of ML/AI. Leslie is co-organizer of Power BI DC, and frequently attends and speaks at data community meetups in the DC metro area. Leslie was recognized as a 2023 New Power Woman in Tech by DCA Live, and made the 2024 RealLIST Engineers for her role in helping the DMV tech ecosystem grow.

RELATED CONTENT 🔗

Leslie's LinkedIn
Meetup Group

Best Practices for Integrated Notes & Annotations in Power BI

Video by: Reid Havens

Learn about 6 locations to leave notes, comments, or annotations in Power BI desktop (PBIX) files. This approach covers notes both for report consumers, and model developers, tune in to learn more!

RELATED CONTENT 🔗

Show DAX Expressions on Field Tooltips
Bookmark Notes

(Livestream Replay) Level Up your Power BI Game with Field Parameters! - with Nikola Ilic

DESCRIPTION 📄

Game changer! How many times you’ve heard this when a new feature hit the Power BI ecosystem? But, not all of these features lived up to these high expectations. Field parameters don’t belong to that group, as they truly changed the way we’re building our Power BI solutions.

In this demo-packed session, you’ll learn what are Field parameters, in which scenarios they’ll become your “best friend”, and how to solve some of the most common challenges related to Field parameters implementation (who said, the selected value of the field parameter and conditional formatting).

GUEST BIO 👤

Power BI and data addict, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Pluralsight Author, blogger, speaker...Interested in everything related to data - always eager to extract valuable info from raw data in the most effective way. Multi-year experience working with (predominantly) Microsoft Data Platform (SQL Server, SSAS, SSIS, SSRS, and Power BI). Father of 2 and true football (and Barca) fan!

RELATED CONTENT 🔗

Nikola's Blog
Nikola's Twitter