Next Generation Maps in Power BI with Icon Map (with James Dales)

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.

RELATED CONTENT 🔗

Icon Map Website
Icon Map LinkedIn
Jame's LinkedIn

(Livestream Replay) Better Maps in Power BI with ICON MAP - with James Dales

DESCRIPTION 📄

Have you ever had requirements to do more with maps than you can achieve with the out of the box Power BI visuals? The Icon Map custom visual was created to fill these feature gaps, and enable more advanced capabilities, such as drawing images, lines and polygons on maps. James will walk us through demos showing the features and how to configure them.

GUEST BIO 👤

James Dales is the Global Capability Lead for Power BI at Avanade and is a Microsoft FastTrack Recognised Solution Architect. As a Microsoft Data Platform MVP he is the co-leader of the London 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 product itself. He has a keen interest in spatial analytics and is the author of the Icon Map custom visual.

RELATED CONTENT 🔗

Icon Map
LinkedIn

(Livestream Replay) Power BI Mapping Masterclass - with Allice Drummond

Join us as Alice Drummond and myself discuss everything maps in Power BI! Decisions like "which maps should I use?" will be discussed, plus we'll also have some deep dive demos on some of Alice's favorite maps (MapBox, Icon Map).

GUEST BIO 📄

Alice is Co-Founder of DiscoverEI and an MVP for the Data Platform, and her passion is combining Power BI and design to bring environmental data to life! Drawing on her background in environmental engineering, Alice works collaboratively with government organizations to turn mountains of environmental data decisions, and runs tailored Power BI training courses for the environmental and water industries. Alice is a regular speaker at Power Platform community events and conferences, and co-hosts the ANZ Power BI for Enviro’s Meetup.

RELATED CONTENT 🔗

Alice’s Twitter
Alice's LinkedIn
DiscoverEI Website
DiscoverEI Blog
DiscoverEI YouTube

Introducing the Azure Map Visual in Power BI

Video by: Reid Havens

Learn about the new (in preview) Azure Map visual for Power BI Desktop. This map has significantly more features than the original map visual, and provides much needed functionality to Power BI.