Tufte

Nov. 17th, 2008 05:47 pm
dancerjodi: (Default)
[personal profile] dancerjodi
I went to a seminar with http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index today at the Radisson (Seaport) in Boston. What a great experience! I've been meaning to attend one of these since I heard of him back when a bunch of my R&A coworkers at THP attended (they couldn't send all 25 or so of us, so a handful went and then came back to present on the material). It was $380 and included about $200 worth of books. My company allows each employee to take 1-2 days off to attend some kind of professional development seminar with Manager approval, and they will reimburse up to $400 of expenses, which is right in line with what I've spent (with the parking and lunch fees).

Mr. Tufte is a HUGE fan of apple products, and included a section in the seminar on the iPhone (and why the tool is a good one for displaying data). I sat through the entire seminar excited about the work I do and energized about going back to work tomorrow.

The next couple of weeks will be busy ones - I have to refresh the MD report cards for the next mailing (the goal being before Thanksgiving). This seminar both validated some of my thinking with report presentation and gave me some good tips for improving things. If anything, just having access to his books (and resources of his web forums) will be a step in the right direction.

My six year anniversary at Hallmark is this week, and my annual review should be next Wednesday when I see Kevin for my next bi-weekly meeting. Its been a very good experience for me, and has definitely helped me to move along in my professional development.

Date: 2008-11-18 02:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sajuka.livejournal.com
My brother went to one of Tufte's seminars so many years ago I don't even remember when it was (must have been college for me, so over 5 years). At the time my brother brought it to my attention because of Tufte's presentation on the Challenger accident (which I assume he's still using), but now that I work at an institution where we seem to live and die by presentations (really PowerPoint to be more specific) it's probably good I was exposed to the concepts so long ago. I'm a big proponent of communication skills and being able to convey technical details, but unfortunately all my skill really comes from experience (so it feels more like an art) rather than documented best practices...

That's a rambling response, but in any case... Good luck with improving your data presentations!

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