This week, there were two of me busy running training courses in Power BI. Well, actually just one of me, but doubling up on my day.
One of my clients is a large training company, who uses me to train some very prestigious international organisations. I have a long-standing relationship with them, and some of their customers give us a good deal of repeat business. Because these are based all over the world, I often deliver my training in half-days that suit us both – mornings (my time) for Asia, or afternoons for the USA, so a standard 2-day Power BI course is delivered over four sessions.
After a relatively quiet start to the year, bookings really picked up in April and soon my diary began to fill up well into the future. Then the training company took on a new client, who just had to have their training immediately. By then I had no availability until the end of August – except some half days. As it happened, some of my bookings were for afternoon sessions and the new client was in Asia, so I reluctantly agreed to double up.
On a purely physical level, I don’t recommend it. Each day, my first session ran from 7am to noon (the client had asked for three 5-hour sessions rather than four 4-hour ones), then I delivered to the second customer from 1.30 to 5.30pm. I had to set up and log on well before each course and, as this was the same course (Introductory Power BI) for both sets, I had to take copious notes at the end of each session, noting down what had been covered and any issues they were having. I was online for nine hours each day, juggling Zoom, PowerPoint, Excel, Power Query and Power BI, recording the meeting, sharing my screen (or occasionally my students’ screens) and, as the presenter, I was also speaking for most of the time. Fortunately, I had invested in an electric desk at the start of the year (thank you, Diamond Office Furniture), so I was able to alter my position and stand for part of the time but even so, it was physically exhausting. On the fourth day, I got a lie-in but still struggled to find the energy to deliver the final session to the afternoon group.
Like the proverbial swan, though, the people on the course were blissfully unaware of what was going on under the surface. Both groups really enjoyed the training and commented that they found it useful and interesting, and that I was patient and helpful and gave them some real insights into using Power BI.