Last week (originally published November 12, 2018) I attended Viz-Fest, an on-line seminar put on by Keen as Mustard Marketing, a marketing agency, and E-tabs, a data software vendor. The seminar consisted of twelve 30-minute presentations on creating best-in-class data visualizations and insight presentations. I generally have low expectations when I sign up for on-line seminars but, in this case, the presentations far exceeded my expectations. With the exception of one blatant sales pitch, the vast majority of the presentations were quite high quality and very informative. Here are three of my many take-aways:

1. Using a “Hero” color to make presentations more impactful.  KaRane Smith of Shine Insight taught all of us data geeks some basic graphic design principles. One of her recommendations was to select one color to use on all your charts as your “hero” color. This color directs the eye to the key piece of information. All other lines, bars or pie slices should be varying shades of a single color. She also opened my eyes to how to effectively use the controls in the Microsoft color selection window. (An expanded version of the presentation can be found here: http://insightinnovation.org/iiex-presentations/NA18/KaRene.pdf)
2. “Be a storyteller not a summarizer.” Todd Ewing of System1 Group made me feel old by killing one of the business communication principles I was taught in business school. Bullet points are out and storytelling is in. Todd was one of several speakers who shared their experiences creating insight newsletters. I’ve never been comfortable at self-promotion but I’ve been learning a lot lately about the value of internal newsletters in promoting the value of the corporate Insights team. Now I’m full of ideas.
3. It’s OK to be manipulative.  David Paull of Engagious gave us all permission to manipulate our audience’s emotions. He even taught us how to use several known cognitive biases when telling a story. For example, the “Identifiable Victim Effect” gives a name to the individuals in a story. By naming the speakers in this posting, I increased the likelihood you would read through this post. (David’s presentation can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JubZodpr4k)

I’ll be back for Vis-Fest 2019. My congratulations to the team at Keen as Mustard and E-tabs who curated and hosted the program. If you want to know more about Viz-Fest, follow this link: https://viz-fest.com