30
August
2023
TechEX23 Speaker Spotlight: Introducing Google’s Christian Michael
By Apryl Motley - Technical Writer & Communications Lead, Internet2 Trust and Identity/NET+ Service
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Christian Michael, public sector training lead for Google, will be a first-time presenter at the 2023 Internet2 Technology Exchange, September 18–22, in Minneapolis, Minn. His session, Google Cloud Hero – Visualization, ML, & BigQuery, will be one of the tutorials offered on Monday. (Register and join us.)
“This isn’t your typical conference session!” Christian said. “This is a friendly hands-on competition in a gamified lab environment in Google Cloud.” Read on to learn more about him and his session.
Q&A with Christian
Q: What do you hope attendees will learn from your tutorial?
A: You’ll learn to build a BI dashboard with Data Studio as the front end powered by BigQuery on the back end, use BigQuery to find data, build a time series model to forecast demand of multiple products using BigQuery ML, and how to connect Google Data Studio to Google BigQuery. You’ll do this while earning points and moving yourself up the leaderboard to win prizes.
Q: Why are these important topics to cover?
A: BigQuery allows you to run complex analytical queries on large sets of data. As a data analyst, data engineer, data warehouse administrator, or data scientist, BigQuery maximizes flexibility by separating the compute engine that analyzes your data from your storage choices.
Q: What do you enjoy most about speaking on cloud topics?
A: I enjoy seeing people from all backgrounds, tech and non-tech, discover the power of the cloud through hands-on innovative learning environments.
Fun Fact about Christian
Best Advice He Ever Received About the Cloud (& from whom):
“You don’t have to understand all of the technical aspects of the cloud, but you need to understand what it can do and the flexibility it can give you. Without that insight it is very hard to steer yourself [and your organization] into an advantageous position in a cloud world.” (Vint Cerf, Google)
Q: What’s the #1 reason cloud professionals should come to TechEX 2023?
A: To learn from your peers and those on the cutting edge of cloud technology
Q: Anything else you would like to add?
A: Hope you can make it to our session! Let the games begin!
There’s still time to register!
Get on the cloud track at the 2023 Internet2 Technology Exchange (TechEX), September 18–22, in Minneapolis, Minn. (Register now.) Here are some of the strategic sessions a planning committee of your peers curated with you in mind:
- Automating AWS Org Management – Co-presenters Kelly Rivera and Hallah Hussein from the University of Wisconsin Madison will explore using Terraform to automate organization management on AWS and Azure.
- AzureAD Proxying for InCommon Federation – Jared Johnson and Harpreet Singh Gill from Children’s Mercy Research Institute will demonstrate the steps needed to securely proxy AzureAD with Shibboleth to support SAML 2.0 and join the InCommon federation.
- Creating and Managing Secure Research Engagement – Helen Mitchell and Allen Karns will discuss how they’re leveraging the cloud to provide researchers at Vanderbilt University with secure computing environments that are consistent, compliant, and manageable at scale.
- Cloud Security By Default – Matthew Stout and George Holbert will highlight how the University of California Office of the President leverages Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to make it as easy as possible to deploy in the cloud with security by default.
Led by community members and industry experts, these sessions and tutorials like Christian’s are just a sampling of what’s in store for you during the vibrant cloud track at TechEX. Join us for some of the most important discussions about the R&E cloud happening this year.
ICYMI
More Choices for Cloud, Community, and Collaboration at Internet2 Events
Internet2 Premier Technical Event for Research and Education Arrives in Minneapolis Sept. 18-22