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Outlier 2026: What to Expect at This Year’s Data Visualization Society Conference
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Episode #310! This week I sit down with Jennifer Roscoe and Shrishti Vaish, two of the key organizers behind Outlier 2026, the annual data visualization conference hosted by the Data Visualization Society. We talked about what it takes to pull off a fully virtual, global conference, and why going virtual this year was a strategic choice, not a compromise. Jennifer and Shrishti walked me through the conference dates (June 23–26), the brand-new pre-conference data challenge in partnership with the United Nations, and the exciting new feedback and career clinic designed to give attendees a safe space for honest critique and professional growth. We also get into the behind-the-scenes logistics: the 30-person volunteer committee, the technology stack (mostly Google Sheets, if you were wondering), and the delicate art of playing Tetris with 34 talks across a 12-hour global schedule. Whether you’re a first-time attendee or a longtime DVS community member, this episode is your guide to making the most of Outlier 2026.
Keywords: data visualization, data viz, Outlier conference, Data Visualization Society, DVS, data viz conference, Jennifer Roscoe, Shrishti Vaish, virtual conference, data storytelling, dataviz community, conference planning, career clinic, information is beautiful, data challenge, United Nations data, PolicyViz podcast
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Check out the 2026 Outlier Conference.
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Email: jon@policyviz.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Conference Overview
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome back to the Policy Biz Podcast. I'm your host, John Schwabisch. hope the end of spring, beginning of summer is treating you well. And now with the beginning of summer here, we can look forward to the Data Visualization Society's Outlier Conference, which is taking place all virtual, taking place June to the 26th. The first day is a workshop. The next few days are talks and sessions, networking opportunities, career clinics, all the good stuff that the Data Visualization Society can bring to you to help improve how you visualize your data and how you network with others. Now, there's a lot going on in the conference this year, and so I was interested in talking with some of the many collaborators and partners and coordinators of this year's conference. So I'm very pleased this episode of the show to be joined by Jennifer Roscoe and Srishti Vaish, who are both on the organizing committee, helping to pull together what is a big global
Engagement and Registration Details
00:01:09
Speaker
conversation.
00:01:09
Speaker
Fairly complex conference, even though it is online. So we talk all things about the conference, what it is, how you can navigate it, how you can register for the conference and what you can expect.
00:01:21
Speaker
And all the different elements of the conference. There's lots of things going on, lots of different ways that you'll be able to engage with speakers, with other creators and other conference participants. so That's what we're talking about this week. If you're interested in signing up for the conference and participating in the conference, I really encourage you to do so. You can go check out the Outlier website, which I've linked in the show notes. And if you have comments or questions, you can reach out to the conference organizers.
00:01:47
Speaker
All that good information and email addresses and everything else you need are over at the Outlier website. So let's get into this conversation with Srishti and Jennifer this week only on the PolicyViz podcast.
Organizational Challenges and Roles
00:02:02
Speaker
Well, hello. Hello, friends. Jennifer, Shresti, good to see you. Good to see you too, John. Excited to be here. How are things? alright Okay, so I do want to do introductions, but let me just like take a moment to breathe. ah How are things going with setting up Outlier?
00:02:19
Speaker
Like, are you both like super exhausted? Yeah. Do you want the truth or? Uh, think truth, I think truth, because I think the idea that people are working so hard, especially to volunteer, largely volunteer capacity to put this event on, I think will encourage people to go inspire people to go.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yes. I, i mean, speaking speaking from kind of looking at the whole picture and just coordinating so many different aspects of the program. Um,
00:02:53
Speaker
I can say that it is it is definitely overwhelming at times, but kind of seeing it all come together, um it's it's very exciting.
00:03:05
Speaker
Knowing we only have a month left is also very intimidating, but i still still also very exciting and looking forward to it all coming together, happening, and also when it's all over and done.
Pre-Conference Preparations and Team Dynamics
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:19
Speaker
yeah Awesome. It's kind of you know, um I know this is like we still have a month ah for the conference, but it's like the moment you hit that two weeks into the conference, then actually the real trouble starts and everybody is like in a panicking mode. And, ah you know, everything is like, you know, hustle bustle in on our Slack channels. Everybody's like, is this thing done or is it pending? So I think we are in a, you know, a little laid back mode right now because of the holidays, of course. But I think it's going to be a mess once we hit June. ah All right. So when people are listening to this, you guys will be in full force. But right now we've got a moment of...
00:04:01
Speaker
Calm Before the Storm. Okay, so ah let's start with introductions so people know who they're listening to. um Jennifer, you wanna go first? Sure. I am Jennifer Roscoe, the Events Director for Outlier, the data visualization conference hosted by the Data Visualization Society.
00:04:20
Speaker
My role is basically making sure that every year we create a space for the entire data visualization community from engineers, coders, scientists, artists, to business analysts, where we can really all come together, learn from each other, and walk away inspired and hopefully um empowered.
00:04:44
Speaker
It's really a labor of love and honestly, one of the most rewarding things that I get to do. There's nothing quite like watching a global community show up, connect, and really push each other to think forward and um really see all the work that's going on across the craft and across the industry.
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah. Srishti? Yeah. So hi, everybody. I'm Srishti Vesh, and I joined the Data Visualization Society this year as a volunteer a lead for the speakers team. And I've been leading the back end operations of everything that goes into business handling anything ah speaker related. And I think this was the first time for me to deal with it. ah And I'm thankful that I already have a colleague with me who is like really experienced, I'd say. And he's been helping out a lot with a lot of different things. But it's it's been a very, you know, fun and a learning ride as well, trying to understand what what goes into organizing and, ah you know, coordinating events. And I think
00:05:56
Speaker
My main reason for joining communities this has always been related to empowering people. I've been with other communities as well. And when I saw that Data Visualization Society is something that I relate to, you know my principles, you can say, my interests. So I think this was something really, something I was looking forward to join. And i think I'm really you know excited to be leading something in the first go as a volunteer as well. So yeah, looking forward to everything that goes into working for Outlier Conference.
Virtual Conference Features and Accessibility
00:06:30
Speaker
That's awesome. Okay. So um why don't we start with kind of the headline piece here for those listeners who are going to go switch to another podcast, they can get the headline. So so when exactly is Outlier and and what can folks expect?
00:06:50
Speaker
And maybe there's ah an added piece here is how should they... set up their attendance, right? This is always a thing, especially people who are going to a conference for the first time, like how should they manage where to go, what to see, what sort how to time, how to time their participation in the conference.
00:07:11
Speaker
And I don't know who wants to start, so I'll i'll leave it to you, too. I can kind of cover a high level of this. um so the Outlier Conference is fully virtual this year. It's going to run actually from June 23rd through the 26th, depending on what you decide you want to participate in, because we have a new feature this year, which is optional, which is a pre-conference challenge.
00:07:39
Speaker
This is actually a really, really exciting data partnership with the United Nations. And Attendees can participate in this if they would like, or they can do the full main conference, which is your normal traditional keynotes, track shut track sessions, tooling demos, everything around networking, our unconferences. If you've been to Outlier before, we've got also very exciting speaker networking that we're going to plug in We've really thought about the fact that it's fully virtual and making sure that we are creating a sense of community. So we are also including a feedback and career care clinic for those people who want to get an honest critiques on their work.
00:08:32
Speaker
The unconferencing is also going to be available with that open community dialogue where you can really create an agenda topic of your own, community-shaped discussions. We also are going to feature that data viz challenge where you'll get to see work. You'll also get to be able to present your work. So we're still figuring out what that will look like, but you'll get to just see what's going on across the community and have an opportunity just to really
00:09:03
Speaker
have that global connection, which is really challenging and we find to be one of the most difficult parts of a hybrid conference or an a totally in-person conference. So this is kind of just when we do a virtual conference, we've found that it really breaks the barriers down for everyone where anyone can join from anywhere. And we want to make sure that that allows everyone to be a part of it, which One of the things you'll notice is once we get the agenda up, the conference will run from, a and I'm speaking in Eastern standard time, about 5 30 AM to about 5 30 PM.
00:09:46
Speaker
That is hopefully going to allow for any time zone to be able to get to content that they wouldn't normally be able to access when we do a traditional in-person conference. So it truly is going to be a global experience yeah so that you can connect not only with your peers, but people that you might not normally get to connect with due to those timing restrictions of ah of a typical conference.
Attendee Preparation and Participation Tips
00:10:12
Speaker
Right. And it's working out well for me, I should say, because I'm involved as a speaker in that in that UN n thing. But I will be ah on our vacation so I can get up really early in the morning before the teenagers get up and like do my talk. But it all works out because it has this like global time. So that's working out really well for me.
00:10:34
Speaker
So Trishy, so like when you think about attendees planning their time, like what would your recommendation be or or how are you thinking about, I mean, you obviously gonna be working. So like you're gonna be busy, but like if you were not busy and you were just attending, like what, how would you think about scheduling your time from this? You know, it's a 12 hour span. So people are gonna be watching. oh Yeah, no, definitely. I mean,
00:11:00
Speaker
Oh, definitely. I think a my first instinct as an attendee would be definitely just go through the entire agenda list and see what really resonates with me. You know, sometimes I clock into sessions when I just want experience something new. So I think that could be one of the reasons that people can, you know, ah watch our sessions. But I think other other reasons could be, you know, I am into this domain. I want to learn something from people who are actually in the same space, working space, so they can attend the same sessions. And Outlier is a very different kind of conference, I'd say, because there are So many people, so so the working people come from all sorts of different walks of life.
00:11:45
Speaker
ah And it's not just data analytics in using tech stacks as Python R or, you know, just like the very... um ah highlighted tools that we say today, but there are so many other tech stacks that people use to just use visualization as a medium to you know showcase their story or data or information. So I think everybody can come in. Anybody who just likes, you know has an interest in showing up, um you know using data visualization as a storytelling, they can join in, use the agenda section on our website.
00:12:25
Speaker
before you read after you register, just you know register for all these events and just see whatever you know chimes with you, just walk clock in those sessions, watch those sessions, learn from those sessions. Especially, I would recommend going into ah discussions and networking sessions. I think I've been into a few different conferences and I've met with so many different people and I know sometimes you know you don't have anything really common in terms of work, but still you get to learn from them a lot of different things and the time just passes by. So we should always take ah you know all of these things as an opportunity to learn. you know You never know what you
Registration Requirements and Discounts
00:13:08
Speaker
land into. Always be like hopeful and you know optimistic about these opportunities.
00:13:15
Speaker
For sure. So two quick questions for people who are wondering. So my understanding is you do not need to be a DVS member to attend, but you do need to register for the conference. Okay, so folks who are listening who are not DVS members,
00:13:28
Speaker
and probably should be, but you don't need to be a member. You can just register for the conference. And then are, um I would add, if you are a member, you get exclusive discounts depending on your membership. And we also have discounts for folks who are students, maybe early career, who are part of nonprofit organizations. There's lots of different ways that we try to make the program accessible. So definitely check that out Right. And it's all on the, all on the outlier website. So if you want to get one of those nonprofit student, whatever discounts, good looking person, good discount, you can go. get it Are the talks going to be posted later? I know they've done that in the past and I know some of the talks are going to be prerecorded, but ah is there going to be like a post playlist that people will be able to watch?
00:14:18
Speaker
Yes. So if you are attending the program, the talks will be maybe not immediately available after, but they will be available within the application that we use. So you can catch anything you miss because we know you don't you probably won't be able to sit around for 12 hours a day watching the program. And the content will be available for at least 30 days within the application.
00:14:43
Speaker
And then our DVS team does take those talks. and we'll make specific content available after the program on our DBS YouTube channel.
00:14:54
Speaker
I'll have to check the specifics on if it's available to everyone. i but I'm not sure if our YouTube channel is available to everyone. I think it is. I recall last year, the last couple of years were like, yeah, it
Benefits of Online Format and Networking Strategies
00:15:06
Speaker
was great. Cause you had like the first month you could just go watch them. You missed it. And then I think like a couple months later, you know, they would, they would come out again, but, um, The excitement is obviously in those first few weeks. So, yeah. um I wanted to ask about the, the online, the reason why it's online. And obviously there's, I mean, I, there's obviously costs associated with putting something on an additional cost of putting something on in person, but were there other reasons why to go fully online?
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, um I think one of the major reasons was reducing the barriers to entry, meaning like anybody from anywhere doing anything. you know, wherever you are, even if you're busy doing something, and you can just log in, put in your headphones and, you know, just listen to it, you know, you'll definitely learn something. So you don't really have to come to a particular place, spend all those dollars and, you know, attend an event, but you can be at your home and still attend the event. I mean, it's ahs it's a great way for any virtual conference these days, especially we love live in a ah remote, you know,
00:16:17
Speaker
working environment. I think this was ah one of the biggest reasons to put it as a virtual conference this year. Yeah. I think the the big complaint against online conferences is, Tristy, what you mentioned earlier, which is the conversation and the discussion and the networking. And so like what has the team tried to put together to try to facilitate that?
00:16:42
Speaker
Because I totally get the, you know, money is tight, gas prices are high. so let's not have people try to spend, you know, thousands of dollars through to a conference. But there's clearly ah an obvious trade-off. And I'm just wondering, like, what you have all tried to do to, like, mitigate that, which I think is probably the biggest concern people have about virtual conferences.
00:17:03
Speaker
Right. We are actively developing specific networking that will be organic as well as structured.
00:17:14
Speaker
So we've always had our unconferencing, which is you kind of set the agenda yourself, but we have a ton of tools at our disposal through our conferencing application that allows us to really push people to talk to folks they've never talked to before. We also are creating special situations where you can directly connect with our speakers. Also, we can create that we have our feedback and career clinic, which is allowing the opportunity to directly have that communication around what we've been receiving in terms of our community, as well as our feedback and career clinic is also directly in response to the feedback that we've received, not only from our state of the industry ah survey that goes out, but also our DVS survey that goes out. and that this is what people want. So we're creating a space to make it happen. A lot of the feedback that we receive is, it's hard to just answer it all.
00:18:21
Speaker
People want the connections, people want in person, people want overseas, people want in their hometowns. yeah You're never going to please everybody. don't way yeah yeah They also want it to be inexpensive. And yeah it's it's hard to respond to everything. And we absolutely aren't going to do virtual every single time. This is more of just our approach to we can give more at a lower price point if if we do mix it up.
00:18:54
Speaker
And we can also address especially a lot of the programming opportunities if we do make it virtual, just because it does lower not only the cost to entry, the accessibility of things that we can put on, but it also allows us to build more and really think about what we're providing in terms of programming. It's it is a little bit challenging when we have a virtual audience and we have an in-person audience to mesh them together. so when yeah we kind of flatten that out in the whole experience everybody is starting from the same vantage point. It allows us to really create something special that there are no restrictions for us except for really thinking through, okay, what language do you speak? What time zone are you in And we can work with that more easily people
00:19:52
Speaker
okay, these people are here, these people are here, and you can't come because it's nighttime. Yeah, yeah. yeah I would also say, i mean, I, I, I'm sort of like almost neutral about it because I mean, of all the considerations you just mentioned, but I think for me, the one thing that the virtual conference helps with is people who are, you know, they may be earlier in their career or they're just kind of shy, like going to talk to people who are like,
00:20:26
Speaker
I mean, I have this at lots of conferences I go to where it's like, whoa, that's the person who's the person in the field. And you're like a little, know, there's a little hesitation to go talk to that person. I was just about to mention that. I was just about to mention that. It's kind of best of both worlds for people who are introverts, you know, kind of just students or maybe just fresh out of their colleges.
Career Clinic and Community Support
00:20:47
Speaker
They don't, you know, they don't know all of these communication styles or maybe just, you know, stand up to someone who's really experienced in the field. You want to talk to them or even even you want to learn anything from them. So I think it it's just a great start for anybody who's new as well. Yeah.
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree. I wanted to ask. ah I'm Jennifer. I'm glad you mentioned it. I wanted to go back to the career clinic because I know in an earlier conversation you and I had ah that that had come up.
00:21:19
Speaker
um, in the survey and I'm curious, I guess maybe you could tell folks a little bit more about the feedback that, that DVS received through the survey. And then also like who that career clinic is for and and what the goals are and how it's going to work.
00:21:34
Speaker
Sure. is it So I will say ah to both your points earlier, most of the design of the program, especially the non main agenda program, like our secondary agenda, is all from the feedback we've received, not just from Outlier, but also community feedback about what they want, what they want from an organization that is all about data visualization and what they need in terms of just growth in their careers or growth in their practice. So with the feedback and career clinic, we hope to just provide a comfortable, safe space for people to bring their work.
00:22:16
Speaker
we find Just to your point earlier, a lot of people are not necessarily comfortable, as a lot of us are introverts in this space, with just approaching anyone and saying, hey, give me feedback. Especially if it's a if it's a new area that they're working with or they're very early in their production of their product, they might want a safe space to talk about it and to get feedback versus...
00:22:42
Speaker
showing it off to an entire community and getting just random feedback from anyone because it can be harsh sometimes. And you want to have that psychological safety in which we want to be able to provide and make sure that we're giving that and monitoring that when it comes to not only our mentoring program that DVS does have, but this is a little bit more of a group sharing. You can show as much as you like or as little as you like.
00:23:11
Speaker
And it also gives you the opportunity to either talk about maybe expanding your career in different places. Maybe you're going from an individual contributor role to a potential managerial role. Maybe you're switching from different areas of your data visual design work and you want some support and you want some expertise.
00:23:32
Speaker
help and how to, how do you make that transition? or you want to talk about your resume? Maybe you want to talk about how do you interview well, or how do you, how do you make sure your portfolio is prepped um and ready for interviewing? And so we just want to provide that, that safe space for getting, getting information from professionals who can help you with that.
00:23:56
Speaker
And yeah, you know, that's what people asked for. Yeah. I mean, that's what they need
Speaker and Volunteer Coordination
00:24:01
Speaker
right now. I mean, yeah you know, everybody needs to pay the bills. Yeah. Okay. So I want to kind of switch gears a little bit, but, um, uh, Shresti, I wanted to ask about the, you're the speaker analytics lead. So I wanted to ask like,
00:24:15
Speaker
What is that role? And I guess I'll fast forward, like, are speakers being nice to you? And are they like, they they are they doing the things that they're supposed to do? I know, like, I was bad about filling out one of the bio forms. But like, are people being nice to you? Because I know dealing with speakers is not always the best.
00:24:33
Speaker
No, no, no, they have been really nice. I think last I checked, We were like on track with everything oh yeah based on our backend you know backend programs and our yeah backend operations, I'd say. Everything was ah on track. So we I think we really had to reach out to people to gather a lot of you know anything that they might have done. incorrect or maybe they've not filled out anything i think everybody everything was pretty on track so i'd say uh we were in good shape at this time um i don't think so people were really lacking any of the things or did not fill out anything on the farm or we were like losing time because of anything they've not done i think everybody was everything was like clean and squeaky clean so
00:25:18
Speaker
Yeah. And so how many speakers will be, or how many talks I should say, will be prerecorded versus how many will be live? And I'm not, you know, exact doesn't matter, but like, I know like my colleague, Alice and I are prerecording our lightning talk.
00:25:35
Speaker
So put how many of those can be prerecorded versus live? And then of course I should note pre-recording the talk, but then there's a live Q and a that follows right after. So just want people to be aware that there is a live part, even to the prerecording thing, but what is the balance between those? And um is that making your life easier or harder?
00:25:54
Speaker
it's It's not hard at all because, as I said, speakers have been really you know coordinating with us as well. Our team, our speakers team has been really on top of everything. So everything is, as I said, on track. I will not call anyone you know losing time or not doing things on time, but ah I'll say everything is in good shape. OK, great. um I can speak to the balance. It's about one for a one recorded talk to every four live talks.
00:26:31
Speaker
so with our global agenda, we have a lot of talks on yeah on our schedule. And we are doing pre-recorded just to help with the flow of our run of show, just because the prerecorded are really short talks and it just makes it a little bit easier. But we we do have quite a full agenda of live talks and um at least for the balance there, it's about one one to every four or prerecorded. And how many talks do you have a count of like the total number of talks?
00:27:12
Speaker
It's if we don't include our kind of workshop day, it's about 34, I believe, something in that range. So yeah it's it's a lot. So yeah you're getting a lot for your for your money this year, more than you normally would, because we just can't have an agenda like this in a in a normal. um Yeah. in-person setting. So it's very exciting for yeah for folks. you You're getting so much.
Networking Opportunities and Conference Logistics
00:27:41
Speaker
And you're also, like Shresti mentioned, you're getting so much in terms of networking too. We've got all kinds of activities scheduled throughout the day. We encourage you not to overwhelm yourself because we those are also aligned with lunches and sort of typical breaks for folks.
00:28:03
Speaker
depending on where you're tuning in from, but there's, there's a lot. And you know that, that you probably won't be able to do everything, but we encourage you to at least take part in some of the optional networking opportunities, because that's really what you really, what you get to experience that nobody else gets to experience and where you make those connections and right where you can really build, build your personal,
00:28:32
Speaker
Kind of. although Although I'll say, i don't know. My son will sometimes watch like a six hour car race or like he'll tune in for the 24 hour race and watch like big swaths of it. So I don't know. He he might be the one who could hang in there for for the full 12. But i I certainly would be tuning in and out. um ah The other question I wanted to ask on this kind of behind the scenes piece is um I'm just talking to to the two of you today, but there's a bigger team behind you. So can can you give folks a sense of like how big the team is, how many different, I guess, like categories of roles there are? Sure.
00:29:11
Speaker
So we have an what we call in DVS speak are committees. So Outlier has its own volunteer committee, which is made up of around 30 volunteers. And we have it subdivided into subcommittees. So Shresti is on our speaker subcommittee and they have one of the larger groups because our agenda is sort of the main
00:29:42
Speaker
main programming function of the conference. And there is a lot that goes into that. People think it's just, oh, you invite a speaker, but no. like Okay, to anyone who says that has either never been involved in any way in a conference. Anyone he says you just invite speakers has never been involved in any part of a conference. Either attending or planning. Okay. Exactly. And there's a lot of analytics involved. just So we have this full-fledged tracking mechanism that has been developed. um I'll give a shout out to Kushal, who was mentioned earlier. He was with us last year and worked on the other side of the agenda, which is sort of the networking and experience side. And now he's getting to taste the the speaker side, which is almost even- He's phenomenal.
00:30:32
Speaker
yeah It's just- Yeah, I'm going to just take an opportunity to apologize to Kushal right now because i got my invite. I was out of town for a few days and then Alice was out of town for two days and I want to make sure we're both in town to accept and I kept having to apologize, but we finally got it done. He was very nice about like giving me some extra time because it was a little bit of a scheduling mess on our side, but okay.
00:30:54
Speaker
so ka all of it's yeah It's a lot of just people management. We also have contract management. We've got presentation management. We've got the whole AV side of the house that we also coordinate with and then have coordinate with you all. And then we've got the run of show. That's just a whole nother animal that we'll worry about when we get there. So that is a huge thing.
00:31:18
Speaker
like Just kudos to you all for managing the the people, the information that we've got to organize with all of that. And we will have an agenda up soon. We just also have some you know, play Tetris with all of everybody's timings when it comes to program like this. There's just so much to coordinate. And it's it's a lot. ah The other kind of pieces that go into our committee are We have a wonderful communications and marketing team. a lot of those folks that are on the team are also part of our DVS community, including our communications manager, as well as our communications director, so Jane and Kim. And we also have our secondary agenda team, which is our experience team. We have a few folks that are
00:32:12
Speaker
also helping out with our challenge as well as our feedback clinic. So we've got, that's all kind of a giant programming team that we've got going on there. And then we have our platform team. So every year we use a conferencing platform to host all of our content because things do need to live online for people to access, especially if they're tuning in virtually And this also gets streamed through for our AV and also so you can register, see what's going on, get all the information you need. So that's a whole, a whole thing that goes into it. It's, it's complicated every year for different reasons, but they're an amazing team as well. And we'll, we'll link everybody's names out, but yeah that pretty much sums up everything as well as sort of our sort of overseers who manage all the chaos. which is myself and then our conference director, Deshaun Spellman. We're sort of hurting harding everything around and making sure it gets done on time. Yeah. um
00:33:19
Speaker
Can I, one more question on this, because there are people listening to this who I'm sure are are curious, but like, what is the, um and on the organization side, what is like the technology stack that you're all using? Like, is it just a simple Google sheet? Is it like an air table? Like, I'm, you know, this is a data, data is crowd. So they're going to be interested, I think.
00:33:41
Speaker
Well, it really depends which subcommittee that you are talking to. um We do use Google google Drive and Google Space as really kind of our main just yeah general tools that we use to kind of keep track of everything. Once you start hitting some of our applications that we use, It can go in a million different directions depending on what year it is, what day it is. And it just kind of expands from there. We we don't do, this is going to be sad to say, we don't do a ton of visualization. in terms of the actual building of outlier, a lot of it is more just tracking and right well right project management, people just really- But that's but that's mostly a google that's mostly a Google, like a Google sheet. Like, Trishti, are you like tracking, like you invite a speaker and then they have to sign, there's like a waiver form and then there's a bio form and then they eventually i have to send in their recording. Like, is that all just like check boxes and a Google sheet? Yeah, mostly like data validation checks on the Google Sheet itself and just kind of tracking, managing data that comes under everything like data management, mostly that maintaining data hygiene, everything, I think mostly around that.
00:35:04
Speaker
Right. Well, also, I mean, ah it's also like lots of people touching the same files, which is always
Awards and Future Developments
00:35:10
Speaker
nerve wracking. Yes. So yeah, that's what I can understand. Okay. um ah The other thing i want to ask about was the information is beautiful words. I noticed that they're not attached to Outlier this year. They have been in the past. and um And I'm sure others are wondering too, like what's happening with the IAB awards and also related question. Do you think that the longest running data viz podcast should be up for some sort of, you know, special podcasting data award? Just, you know, just throwing that out there.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Do you have some recommendations you'd like to throw on? guess I could nominate a couple. Yeah. I have some ideas. ideas Yeah. So we absolutely are going to continue with the Information is Beautiful awards. The um the program itself, we've we've had, a if if anyone was paying attention, we had our full whole board nomination process actually not too long ago, just a couple of months ago. So um we are in the process of
00:36:14
Speaker
Really figuring out what that program is going to look like for the next year. So it will it will not, unfortunately, be aligned to our 2026 outlier program this year, just to due to the nature of the outlier program itself. But yeah um more to come there on what it's going to look like. for likely 2027, just because there is kind of a longer runway to get all the applications in and all of the that you're judging in But we have moved everything. um
00:36:49
Speaker
i I need to get a date on this. But our DVS website is going, going through a whole revamp. So that will also impact the information is beautiful awards content. So we have been working on that um sort of in the, in the background, but we absolutely wanna maintain, that's just an incredible sort of archive of data visualization. So that's one of the big things that we've been working on now and a lot going on with our information director here in DVS and some of the behind the scenes work of DVS going on. So more to come there. We're definitely open to what kind of new categories
00:37:33
Speaker
could be included in the information is beautiful awards. So, um, that's always up for, up for discussion. And, um, cause we, we do, we have, we have kind of a little bit more control over that being, um, partnered with, uh, David McCandless and the information is beautiful team. yeah So, um, yeah, more to come for 2027 and we're always excited to see how we can grow and expand what that looks
Final Thoughts and Conference Promotion
00:38:00
Speaker
like for sure. Awesome.
00:38:01
Speaker
Awesome. Okay. So let's, um let's wrap up here. um Okay. So I guess the sort of general best way to wrap up here is kind of maybe just restate like time, date, time, registration information, where people can go to register. And if they have questions also, like that's the other thing and like anything else they need to do to sign up or prepare for the conference, like,
00:38:27
Speaker
You know, some conferences use discord, some conferences, like, you know, anything else people need to do to sort of like be ready to go. so i don't know who wants to give us sort of like the advertising spiel, but.
00:38:39
Speaker
I think you can just, you know, well maybe we can have our website later attached to our podcast description. But you can just simply go to the website, register for the conference, which is on June 23 to 26, like technically. Otherwise, if you're, because we have a like, uh,
00:39:01
Speaker
pre-conference challenge on the June 23rd. But if you're not attending that, so the main conference would be just for two days from 24 to 26. And just, you know, register for the conference and and just look for the session RSVP for the sessions and probably that's pretty much it. There's no like ah any other, you know, technicalities required. Love it.
00:39:25
Speaker
Keep people's lives simple to get in. Okay. Terrific. Yes. I will put all the information for the Outlier Conference coming up this June in the show notes. Jennifer, Tristie, thanks so much for coming on the show.
00:39:38
Speaker
Great to chat with you. Good luck in the last few weeks of the sprint and very much looking forward to this year's conference. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for having us. We're excited.
00:39:49
Speaker
Thank you, John. It was fun talking to you. Thanks for tuning in, everyone. Hope you enjoyed that. I hope I will see you at the Outlier Conference. I will be doing a couple of talks there, one for that pre-conference workshop and a lightning talk with my colleague and co-author, Alice Fang, where we'll talking about our new book, Thoughtful Data.
00:40:07
Speaker
So until next time, this has been the Policy His Podcast. Thanks so much for listening.