Free Excel Dashboard Webinars from Mynda Treacy

January 30, 2018 - by Bill Jelen

Mynda Treacy is recognized as the leading expert on creating amazing interactive dashboards by using the tools already in Excel. She will be sharing her secrets in a free webinar.

Dashboard reports, are no longer a buzz word, they're a standard reporting tool for all kinds of industries and they're an in-demand skill for Excellers everywhere.

In fact, IBM projects that the number of jobs for all data professionals in the United States will increase by 15% by 2020.

Demand for Data Visualization skills alone is projected to grow by 44% and Pivot Table skills by 34%. That's great news for people who use Excel or Power BI.

Until recently Excel was the go-to tool (for most of us) for building interactive dashboard reports like the one below:

The benefit in having Excel Dashboard skills, aside from the kudos from your boss and colleagues, is that these skills are often transferable to your everyday Excel work.

Many people already have the skills required to build interactive Excel Dashboards, they just need to be shown how to put them together to build a dashboard report.

That said, now we have a dedicated dashboard reporting tool from Microsoft in the form of Power BI that can build amazing interactive dashboards like these:

In fact, Power BI Dashboards can do things we can only dream about in Excel. Things like:

• Interactive charts that allow readers to cross highlight and filter by clicking on the bars/lines in the charts etc.
• Allow people to drill down to lower levels and even underlying data (with your permission)
• Power BI takes the hassle out of sharing dashboards, enabling us to easily share reports on any device
• Clever algorithms scan your data and automatically highlight insights you may never discover on your own
• Building Power BI dashboards is super-fast with drag and drop navigation
• Updating Power BI dashboards is easy too. Simply schedule a refresh so your dashboards are always up to date

See for yourself in this replay of Mynda's Power BI webinar where she builds the two dashboards shown above in under one hour.

So, will Power BI be the death of Excel dashboards?

Not necessarily. Excel is already on almost every PC around the world and the learning curve for Excel dashboards is relatively shallow. Whereas Power BI has a steeper learning curve, plus there is an additional cost for certain features.

Excel versus Power BI Pros and Cons

The table below compares key points between Excel and Power BI to help your decision-making process:

Free Webinars

There's no denying that Dashboard skills, whether in Excel or Power BI, or both are a huge advantage to Excellers around the world and in a vast range of industries. Just look at any job website and you'll plenty of jobs that mention 'Dashboards' in the description.

To get you off to a running start Mynda is hosting a series of free webinars from January 30 2018 to February 8 2018 to teach and demonstrate Excel and Power BI for building dashboards.

Webinar 1 - Excel Dashboard for Excel 2007/2010/2013/2016

The first webinar will teach you how to use Excel to build this interactive dashboard below, no additional software or add-ins required, just plain old Excel and some data.

Click here to register for webinar 1 »

Many people who use Excel 20 hours a week will already have the skills to build this dashboard, and seeing Mynda put them together will be exciting and inspiring when you realise how quickly you can get up and running with Excel dashboards.

Webinar 2 - Excel Dashboard for Excel 2010/2013/2016 using Power Query and Power Pivot

Excel is evolving; in the last few years Microsoft have added new tools like Power Query and Power Pivot, to name a couple.

Embracing these new tools will not only enable you to get your work done more quickly, but you'll also have a huge competitive edge in the workplace because less than 1% of people using Excel know these tools.

It's easy to ignore these developments and continue doing things the way you always have, but that won't get you ahead in your career ...you know that, right?

If you have Excel 2010, 2013 or 2016* then this webinar will showcase how you can use Excel's Power Query tool to get data from multiple sources, mash it up with Power Pivot, analyse it in Pivot Tables to create this interactive Excel Dashboard.

Click here to register for webinar 2 »

Webinar 3 - Power BI Dashboard Reports (Replay)

See what all the hype is about first hand in this replay of Mynda's Power BI webinar where she builds these two interactive dashboards in under one hour:

Click here to see the Power BI webinar replay »

Who is Power BI for?

Power BI is for the Exceller who is ready for more. More features, because Power BI Dashboards can do things you simply can't do in Excel, and more skills to add to your résumé.

So, if you're wanting more interactivity from your Dashboard reports and you're prepared to learn some new skills then check out Power BI.

What people are saying about the webinars

Over 30,000 people have attended Mynda's webinars and this is what some of them had to say:

Thank you! This webinar has already saved tremendous time and effort. I tried some of the techniques you illustrated for a cumbersome report update that I can see will cut our preparation time by 2/3's or more. ....awesome! Many thanks!!!!

WOW, just WOW Can't type more now - am trying to create a dashboard. Thank you Mynda!

The webinar was fantastic! I really enjoyed every moment. As you said, it was fast paced, but I am so excited to go back and review the presentation. We have been trying to get a dashboard started for my department and this really motivated me to take the lead. Thank you so much!

Oh. My. God. I know nothing! My jaw dropped a couple of times as you casually mentioned a way to manipulate PivotTable data. That's the problem with being largely self-taught - there are huge gaps in my knowledge.

I presented my first dashboard to the CEO yesterday and he was ecstatic. Since we are downsizing I was very worried about my job, but after seeing his reaction...I understand that my job is secure (for now). Thanks!

Invite a Friend

Share this article with your friends and colleagues and invite them to attend Mynda's free Dashboard webinars. They'll thank you for it.

Webinar Prerequisites

All you need is an internet connection, a web browser and speakers or headphones.

You don't need Power BI or Excel to attend the webinars.

20% Off Excel Dashboard and Power BI Courses until February 8, 2018

If you're ready to take the next step and add these skills to your repertoire then don't miss out on the discounts on Mynda's Excel and Power BI Dashboard courses. You can even get multiple courses in discounted bundles.

Click here for the Excel Dashboard course and bundles »

Click here for the Power BI course and bundles »

Bonus

If you enroll in one of Mynda's course I will throw in your choice of any three e-books from the MrExcel Store. Simply enter MrExcel in the Coupon Code field in the Cart or Checkout, and then email me your receipt and which three e-books you would like(send to pub at mrexcel dot com) and I'll set up a dropbox link where you can download your e-books.

Both the free webinars and Mynda's Dashboard and Power BI courses are available for a limited time, so hurry.

Title Photo: Redd Angelo / Unsplash