Factory Fireside

How a Power BI Dashboard Reached the Global Championship Finals | Fireside VizTalk Ep. 01

In the very first episode of Fireside VisTalk, Oli and Gus — Frontend and Power BI Delivery Engineers at Insight Factory — break down the dashboard that earned Gus a spot as a finalist in the Power BI Global Dashboard Championship. Gus walks us through every layer of his submission: the data preparation approach, design thinking process, his enterprise-style colour palette strategy, and the custom HTML/CSS visuals he hand-crafted inside DAX measures — including animated KPI cards, hover-over context chips, a spider/radar chart, an embedded guided tutorial, and a dynamic notifications panel. Whether you're a Power BI developer looking to level up your design game or just curious about what it takes to compete on a global stage, this episode is packed with practical insights. 🔗 Follow Insight Factory: https://www.insightfactory.ai [https://www.insightfactory.ai] 🔗 Connect with Gus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gusbavia/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gusbavia/] 🔗 Connect with Oli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/odelemos/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/odelemos/] 📌 Topics covered: * Power BI Global Dashboard Championship overview * Data modelling best practices (calendar tables, column labelling frameworks) * Design thinking for dashboards — visual hierarchy & cognitive load * Using colour with purpose (not decoration) * HTML & CSS embedded in DAX measures for custom visuals * Building an embedded guided tutorial for accessibility * Pagination techniques for matrices * Custom spider/radar charts in Power BI * Dynamic notification panels * Conditional formatting & business rule logic pitfalls * Accessibility: alt text, tab order & inclusive design 🎙️ Fireside VisTalk is a data visualisation series by Insight Factory where we unpack the craft behind great dashboards. #PowerBI #DataVisualization #Dashboard #PowerBIChampionship #DAX #DataAnalytics #BusinessIntelligence #InsightFactory #FiresideVisTalk #PowerBIDeveloper #HTMLinPowerBI #DashboardDesign

2025 AI Year in Review: Is Claude Code AGI? DeepSeek, RL Breakthroughs & What's Next | Agent Talk #1

🔥 Welcome to Agent Talk — a brand new series from Factory Fireside where our young engineers in the trenches building enterprise-scale agentic solutions break down what's really happening in AI. In this debut episode, Kahn Nguyen, Neil Mazunder, and Harry Nguyen dive deep into the AI developments that actually mattered in 2025 — and what turned out to be just noise. What we cover: → Is Opus 4.5 + Claude Code basically AGI? (Hot take alert 🌶️) → How reinforcement learning became THE word of 2025 → DeepSeek's papers that shook Silicon Valley → The shift from scaling laws to post-training optimisation → Why Chinese labs are outpacing American research → "Code is solved, but software isn't" — what this means for builders → Our predictions for 2026 and the next age of AI research About Agent Talk: InsightFactory has been heavily invested in developing enterprise-grade agentic solutions. Agent Talk is hosted by three of our engineers who are right in the depths of building these solutions for clients — not just agentic solutions, but enterprise-scale agentic solutions. 🎙️ Hosts: * Kahn Nguyen — Research Scientist @ insightfactoryAI * Neil Mazunder — Forward Deployed Engineer @ insightfactoryAI Applied AI Team * Harry Nguyen — Forward Deployed Engineer @ insightfactoryAI Applied AI Team 📍 About insightfactory.AI [http://InsightFactory.AI]: We're an Australian AI company building enterprise-grade agentic solutions through our Forward Deployed Engineer model.

Dr Sanjay Mazumdar - The biggest threat to Australia isn't an aircraft or a missile, it's someone sitting with a laptop in a lounge room.

In this episode of Factory Fireside, I sit down with Dr. Sanjay Mazumdar — a pioneer who was building neural networks in the early 1990s before the internet even existed, and who has since shaped Australia's approach to AI, data, and national security. Sanjay's journey spans developing the world's first mobile wallet at Motorola (in 1999!), leading the Data to Decisions CRC that spawned companies like Fivecast, serving as Chief Data Officer at KPMG, and now running the Defence Trailblazer — a $240 million initiative connecting universities, startups, and defence. We go deep on: → Why most organisations get AI adoption completely backwards — and what to do instead → The real role of a Chief Data Officer (hint: it's not data governance) → Information warfare, deepfakes, and why guardrails alone won't protect us → Australia's quantum computing edge — and the encryption risks that come with it → What it actually takes to build a successful AI company (spoiler: it takes years) → Practical advice for business leaders preparing for the AI wave Whether you're a founder, executive, or just trying to make sense of where AI is heading, this conversation delivers hard-won insights from someone who's been at the frontier for over three decades. 🎯 Key takeaways: [00:00] — Introduction [02:15] — Doing a PhD in neural nets before the internet existed [08:30] — The world's first mobile wallet (1999) [15:45] — Why "AI envy" is derailing business strategy [24:10] — Where the CDO role should actually sit [32:00] — Information warfare and the limits of ethical AI [41:20] — Inside Australia's Defence Trailblazer [48:30] — Quantum computing: opportunity and threat [55:00] — How Fivecast went from research project to global success [62:15] — Three things every business leader should do now

Exploring the history and future of AI & Agents with Dr. Don Perugini (CEO - Socontra)

In this episode of Factory Fireside, Peter Inge sits down with Dr. Don Perugini, a pioneer in AI and agentic systems with over 20 years of real-world experience spanning defence, enterprise, healthcare, and startups. Together, they cut through the hype to explore what agents actually are, why most enterprise pilots stall, and what it really takes to move from experimentation to production impact. This is not a surface-level LLM conversation. Don draws on decades of work building cognitive agents, federated AI systems, and large-scale simulations from predicting bushfire behaviour and modelling entire populations, to improving IVF success rates and enabling privacy-preserving AI in healthcare. You’ll hear: * Why agents didn’t start with LLMs, and why that history matters * The real reasons 95% of AI pilots never reach P&L impact * Why “narrow problems” outperform grand AI ambitions * How agentic commerce and the agentic web will change SaaS and B2B * Why AGI is mostly a distraction and what progress actually looks like * What founders and technologists should focus on now to build durable AI businesses This episode is essential viewing for technology leaders, founders, product teams, and anyone trying to understand where AI agents are genuinely delivering value and where the hype still vastly outweighs reality. 🎧 If you care about building AI that works in the real world, this one’s for you.

Factory Fireside - Peter Worthington-Eyre, Stop the FOMO: How to Actually Succeed with Data & AI

South Australia’s first Chief Data Officer, Peter Worthington, joins us for an honest conversation about the state of Data & AI and why many organisations are getting it wrong. In this episode, we unpack: * Why AI pilots fail (and the real reason isn’t technology) * How to know if your organisation is actually ready for AI * The danger of chasing shiny tools and “AI FOMO” * Why we hold AI to a higher standard than humans * The truth about whether AI will “steal all the jobs” * Why you should hire for personality and train the skills * What leaders should really focus on in 2025 and beyond Peter draws on decades of experience leading data transformations, advising government, and helping organisations avoid the hype and deliver outcomes that matter. 🔥 If you work in data, digital, technology, or leadership this is essential listening.