Auckland Power BI & Fabric Meetup Recording April 2026 - Gilbert Quevauvilliers - Semantic Lab

🤖 Stop doing Fabric admin tasks manually. Semantic Link Labs lets you automate everything — and in this session, Gilbert Quevauvilliers shows you exactly how. In this Auckland Power BI & Microsoft Fabric User Group session, Gilbert walks through real, live demos of Semantic Link Labs — the open-source Python library that automates the most painful, repetitive tasks in Microsoft Fabric and Power BI. From copying reports to managing incremental refresh policies with just a few lines of code, this is a must-watch for anyone working with Microsoft Fabric. 🕐 TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Welcome & intro (Auckland Power BI & Fabric User Group) 1:18 – What is Semantic Link Labs? Overview of automation capabilities 4:00 – Python notebook vs. PySpark notebook — why it matters for cost (Capacity Units explained) 6:30 – Installing Semantic Link Labs & getting started 7:00 – Secure authentication with Service Principal & Azure Key Vault 9:30 – Querying Microsoft Graph API (list group members from Entra ID) 12:00 – Optimizing and maintaining Lakehouse Delta tables automatically 15:00 – Formatting DAX expressions across an entire semantic model 19:00 – Cloning / copying a Power BI report to a different workspace 22:30 – Downloading a semantic model (PBIP) from the Power BI service as a backup 27:00 – Listing all Lakehouse tables with metadata (including schema-enabled Lakehouses) 31:00 – Managing incremental refresh with a rolling window using the Tabular Object Model (TOM) 38:00 – Viewing User-Defined Functions (UDFs) in a semantic model via TOM 39:53 – Q&A: Can Semantic Link Labs connect to a Pro workspace? (XMLA endpoint discussion) 43:17 – Q&A: Using Copilot to generate Semantic Link Labs code 📌 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS SESSION ✅ What Semantic Link Labs is and why every Fabric admin should use it ✅ How to use a Python notebook instead of PySpark to save capacity units ✅ How to authenticate securely using Service Principal + Azure Key Vault (no hardcoded passwords) ✅ How to automate Lakehouse table optimization and maintenance on a schedule ✅ How to format all DAX measures in a semantic model with one script ✅ How to clone a Power BI report to another workspace in 6 seconds ✅ How to back up semantic models as PBIP files automatically ✅ How to manage incremental refresh rolling windows using the Tabular Object Model ✅ How to list and audit User-Defined Functions (UDFs) across your tenant ✅ Licensing considerations: Pro vs. PPU vs. Fabric capacity for XMLA endpoint access 🔗 RESOURCES MENTIONED 📦 Semantic Link Labs (PyPI): https://pypi.org/project/semantic-link-labs/ 📚 Semantic Link Labs Documentation & Wiki: https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-link-labs 📖 Manage Fabric Workspace in VS Code: https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/data-engineering/manage-workspace-with-vs-code 📖 Workspace Outbound Access Protection: https://learn.microsoft.com/fabric/security/workspace-outbound-access-protection-data-science 👤 ABOUT THE SPEAKER Gilbert Quevauvilliers is a Microsoft Fabric and Power BI consultant based in Brisbane, Australia. He helps organizations automate and scale their Fabric and Power BI environments through consulting. Connect with Gilbert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fourmoo/ 🎙️ ABOUT THIS USER GROUP The Auckland Power BI & Microsoft Fabric User Group runs free monthly meetups — both remote and in-person — open to everyone. Sessions are interactive: ask questions, join the conversation, and learn directly from experts in the Microsoft Fabric community. 👉 Join the user group to be notified of future sessions: https://www.meetup.com/new-zealand-business-intelligence-user-group 🔑 TAGS & KEYWORDS Microsoft Fabric, Semantic Link Labs, Power BI automation, Fabric automation, Python notebook Fabric, Tabular Object Model, TOM Fabric, incremental refresh Power BI, DAX formatting automation, Power BI report clone, backup Power BI semantic model, Lakehouse optimization, Azure Key Vault authentication, Service Principal Fabric, MLflow Fabric, Fabric user group, Auckland Power BI meetup, Gilbert Quevauvilliers, Reza Rad, RADACAD, FabricCommunity, Power BI admin automation, semantic model management, PBIP backup, Fabric capacity units, XMLA endpoint Power BI, schema-enabled Lakehouse, UDF semantic model, cross-workspace MLflow, Fabric Data Engineering