My Experience at Data Creator Con 2023
Data Creator Con 2023 was a virtual event hosted by Visual Capitalist that connects data storytellers all over the globe. The theme was Mobilizing the Future Of Data Storytelling and was held on Wednesday 14th of June 2023.
Although it was a paid event, I was able to attend based on the generosity of the visual capitalist team that offered me a free student pass.
After introductions and a welcome note from Omri Wallach, Jeff Desjardins- Founder of Visual Capitalist led the first session.
He described the evolution of data storytelling from cave art, and oral history to what we have at present. He presented some modern data storytelling tips to consider. Here are some of the points he talked about:
- Context is king
- Connect the dot for people
- Make it topical — Timing & Relevance
- Do the unexpected — (This is my favourite when he mentioned that it’s okay to break some data visualization rules in order to achieve something extraordinary)
- Keep it simple
- Answer the unanswered question
- Be Impartial to buy credibility
- Colours tell the story
- Have clear takeaways
- Paint a picture by being literal
- Be memorable
He rounded up his session by unveiling the data creator platform Voronoi focused on discovering visuals on any topic as well as monetization for data creators.
The next session was a panel session featuring top data creators: Adam Symington, Gilbert Fontana and Julie R. Peasley.
Here are some of the topics discussed and my takeaways:
Designing for mobile: With mobile viewership at an all-time high, it makes proactive sense to design considering a wider audience will be reached via mobile devices.
Visual or Data first? I am more of a data-first person. I go through the data first before thinking of the visuals.
Conceptualization: Sketch ideas first before implementing them on screen.
Tools for beginners: Adam mentioned that we should learn tools that help us explore large datasets R/Python since the industry is moving towards big data.
There were other sessions led by James Eagle and other members of the visual capitalist team.
At the concluding session, the finalist visuals of the Creator Program Challenge were showcased and Sebastian Gräff was announced as the winner. Link to his work: https://twitter.com/AfricanNumbers/status/1663928011228344323
Overall, it was an insightful event and I’m glad to have learned much from it as well as connected with data creators. Looking forward to the next edition.
