Summarizing the DataViz Conference Make Your Data Speak 2024!
How Nice It Is to Be a Regular Event!
It’s hard to believe that a month has already passed since our Make Your Data Speak Conference 2024! Time flies as we continue to analyze and discuss the results. I wanted to share my thoughts, expectations, and the impressions from our audience and participants.
There’s often an unnecessary divide in the data visualization world — between Dashboards and Data Stories, and we aimed to bridge that gap by integrating the best practices and insights from both spheres.
Preparations for the conference spanned six months, filled with extensive industry networking, new connections, idea exchanges, and international calls. Of course, we didn’t start from scratch — we had a vast number of wonderful speakers, judges, and participants from last year. Many returned, and those who couldn’t join us previously dedicated their time this year. Hooray! We’re growing!
A highlight of the conference was the Data Visualization Award, recognizing and rewarding professionals while offering analysis and study sessions for students. We’re immensely grateful to the many data viz professionals from various industries and countries who served as judges. Their diverse perspectives enriched the evaluation process, ensuring fairness and thorough assessment of the projects.
Thanks to all our great juries!
The award ceremony, held in conjunction with a media competition, was a testament to the efforts of all participants, and it was truly a memorable event.
Here you can see the results!
But let’s delve into the Conference itself, held on May 10–11, 2024. The two-day event featured presentations from outstanding speakers, discussions, and the presentation of dataviz awards on the first day.
We have the blocks and discussions via topics:
- Creative approaches for business needs. Inspiration
- BI analytics for corporations, management
- Data journalism an the Age of AI
- UX/UI tips & tricks in data visualization
Let me tell you more about them!
1. Creative block!
After an incredible discussion on creativity, our creative speakers shared their projects and approaches:
The brilliant data artist Kirell Benzi, Ph.D showcased his remarkable projects and emphasized the importance of creativity in the data field.
Kat Greenbrook reminded us of the significance of storytelling, especially in business settings, and in all forms of communication. As the world becomes more complex, the value of the stories we share continues to grow.
Nicole Lachenmeier shared her experience with unique visualizations and even writing a book about them, illustrating the diverse ways data can be presented. It was truly fascinating! You can read more about her book here.
Sophie Sparkes demonstrated that the world of data visualization is vast and diverse, with various branches of dataviz having much to learn from each other. For instance, many principles of data journalism can be incredibly useful in a business environment.
2. BI analytics — where would we be without it?
Our wonderful speakers delved into the implementation of dashboards and discussed whether this field is still thriving in the panel discussion on “BI Analytics for Corporations and Management.”
Then, the lectures in this block began!
Alex Barakov and Frodo Baggins walked us through the entire journey of adapting data products in a company. What was the outcome? Where did they throw the ring? You can find out in the recorded videos: LINK.
Alex Kolokolov debunked the myths of self-service BI, emphasizing that it’s not so straightforward in a field where people are expected to do something that doesn’t directly benefit them.
Igor Garlowski, in his talk at the intersection of data engineering and design, shared useful tricks that can save a lot of time for dashboard and data application developers.
Marco Russo systematically highlighted the pros and cons of custom visualizations. Marco, who has contributed to many visuals for Power BI, shared all his expertise with us.
3. Journalism of the Future!
In the next section, dedicated to data journalism and the future development of this field, our wonderful speakers discussed fears surrounding AI, the new challenges and issues brought about by progress, and the aspects that might remain constant despite the challenges of the future.
The incredible Jonathan Schwabish passionately enlightened us on what not to repeat and do in data visualization, backed by wonderful and eloquent examples.
The remarkable Cédric Scherer, in his presentation, bridged the differences between various data visualization domains, particularly in print media, encompassing both data journalism and books.
The wonderful Emily Jill Murphy shared insights on leveraging design techniques in the business environment to engage users in using data products, demonstrating their universal applicability.
4. Tricks or Treats!
In this section, we discussed unconventional tricks and techniques that our speakers encountered in their professional lives. Is it worth relying on life hacks, or is basic knowledge sufficient?
The magnificent Prasann Prem enlightened us about the magic of Tableau, especially when it comes to layering maps! This relatively new tool is widely used in various fields, from creating complex charts and maps to data art!
Armand van Amersfoort’s presentation was the audience favorite, demonstrating how web design approaches and techniques can be applied to dashboard development! His examples were incredible! If you want to experience Armand’s unique insights, you can watch the recordings here: LINK.
Nick Desbarats, the creator of Chart Choosers and author of books, shared the intricacies of timeline charting — this narrow field of data visualization is not as simple as it seems and can harbor many pitfalls and nuances!
Gustaw Dudek shared his projects with us, detailing the difficulties he faced in their development and the interesting solutions he implemented! We haven’t had the opportunity to delve so deeply into the development of business dashboards for a long time!
The incredibly charming Jason Forrest honored us with his presence towards the end of the day, energizing all viewers with his charisma and interesting data visualization cases — from urban data installations to a bit of data vandalism!
And here are the highlights of the day! The award ceremony! Our wonderful partners, Pradeep Kumar G and Qingyue Li, with whom we are always happy to collaborate, announced the winners of our international MYDS DataViz Award!
You can watch and read more about it here!
Once again, thank you to all the brave participants and the fair judges! You are simply magnificent! Without you, this event would not have been possible!
5. A new day! New presentations!
The second day encompassed further discussions, presentations, and specialized workshops, covering pivotal aspects of the industry. In reality, the first day was so extensive that it significantly drained us, prompting us to consider making the days a bit shorter next year — ensuring both the team and participants have ample energy for both days! Nevertheless, the second day was filled with intriguing content!
We labeled the second day as: Bridging Visions: Transforming Data into Success! It commenced with an inspirational session where award recipients were asked to share their projects and the stories behind their creation.
Following that, we engaged in a compelling discussion on award-winning projects — is there a special winning formula, or is it all random? What factors should one consider when submitting a project for a competition? Is it preferable to tailor a project specifically for a contest, or is it better to seek out contests once the project is complete?
Special thanks to our esteemed jury for the engaging discussion: Vivek Patel, Adewale Yusuf, Qingyue Li, Nadya Andrianova, Alan Murray, and Igor Garlowski!
The highlight of the second day was the remarkable and legendary Alberto Cairo, who spoke on the importance of fundamentals in data visualization! Listening to his expertise is always a treat! A huge thank you to him for taking the time to speak at our event! And the cherry on top was the magnificent Valentina D’Efilippo — an author of beautiful and inspiring data art — sharing insights on the significance of sketching and how it aids creativity and innovation! We appreciate you for dedicating your time to us!
6. PRO section. Technical workshops
In this section, which now includes paid practical workshops, we’ve decided to add something unique, interesting, and extremely valuable for you!
The first workshop featured our digital assistant, Anna-AI (Ann Zykina), an amazing researcher in neural networks and their applications in the world of BI. Ann shared insights on how to use neural networks to create meaningful dashboards, and discussed the possibility of robots completely replacing humans.
The second workshop, led by yours truly, Alex Kolokolov, delved into the application, importance, and effectiveness of KPI cards. I believe that KPI cards have the potential to significantly enhance any dashboard when used correctly!
The excellent Gašper Kamenšek conducted a workshop on Advanced Budgeting Techniques in Power BI. While challenging, with the guidance of our wonderful speaker, such tasks can become manageable for you!
If you’re interested in accessing the workshop recordings, you can find them at the following link: LINK.
It was a busy two days, wasn’t it?!
The feedback!
The conference was a whirlwind of activity, featuring engaging discussions, insightful presentations, and practical workshops. But beyond my own perspective, let’s turn to the feedback from our audience and participants.
To get feedback on the event — we asked the audience during the conference — how much they liked each presentation and their impressions at the end of the whole event. And here are the results:
Total score at the end of the event among spectators and participants = 4,55 out of 5. And there are many more participants than last year!
Here you could see the digits by different aspects of the Conference:
If we delve deeper:
What our participants liked:
- professionalism of the speakers & the choice of topics
- practical explanation and eloquence
- different creative approaches
- email reminders before each section
- grouping of the topics into sections
What they didn’t like:
- too much information and a long day — it’s difficult to watch everything due to time zones
- not enough breaks and they’re too short
- participants would like more interaction between each other
- several discussions was boring
We also collected ratings for each speaker so they could know their results if they wish!
Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more exciting content and events from Data2Speak!
About the MYDS Conference 2023 you could read the article here.
