Introducing Outlier — A Conference Hosted by the Data Visualization Society
By: Mollie Pettit
Tags: Outlierconference, Conference, Dataviz, Community, Dvsintro

Hi everyone!

As the Events Director of DVS, I am tasked with organizing Data Visualization Society conferences and events. I’m happy to announce that we will be hosting our first conference! Outlier will be hosted virtually on February 4th and 5th. The events committee and I have been doing a lot of thinking around what our ideal virtual conference would look like and we’re super excited to bring this vision to fruition!

We are very excited about creating an amazing online conference. An online conference means that more of the Data Visualization Society’s membership, spread across the world, can attend. It requires less up-front financial investment, so tickets can be cheaper. And it enormously reduces the event’s environmental impact.

There are elements of a live conference that do not translate easily to the online format. Creating an online event that not only provides inspirational talks but also the ability to connect to others in a way that feels natural is difficult. The fact that this is a hard problem to tackle is why we find it so exciting. We see this as an opportunity to think outside of the box and make something both great and different. Something that reflects and celebrates the diverse, global data visualization community, rather than competing with the many other wonderful data viz conferences out there.

Here are some of the goals we’re focusing on:

Connections

One of the things I love most about conferences is the ability to meet new people and make new connections. At in-person conferences, these happen through chats with your neighbor between talks. Those break-time hallway conversations. Evening outings and activities. Transitioning to online conferences brings with it the challenge of enabling these kinds of connections without the benefit of being together in the same physical space. We are working to create an event that will provide regular opportunities for networking and connecting with others in a variety of forms. We see enabling these kinds of connections and conversations as one of the biggest measures of success for an online conference. We don’t want to create an online conference for which you could watch the videos later and still get the same experience. We want you to leave with new connections in the field, and really, new friends!

An (Un)conference for everyone

Although we will have a curated speaker lineup (apply to be a speaker here!), we want to create a space where everyone has the opportunity to have a voice. Therefore, there will be both a conference portion and an unconference portion of the event. The conference portion will look similar to what you’d expect — talks and Q&As — plus discussions and other opportunities for meeting others. The unconference portion will allow anyone in attendance to create a session.

These sessions can be about anything. They could include talks, discussions, panels, games, or an AMA (Ask me Anything). Most will probably be data-viz-related, but some might not! Nevertheless, they’ll all connect people from the dataviz space who have similar interests. The unconf will be shaped by participants, giving everyone a chance to have a voice, and creating a specially curated experience created by and for those in attendance. (Plus, I think it will be a LOT of fun!)

Ensuring Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity

One of the clear advantages of an online event is that it is automatically more inclusive and accessible than an in-person equivalent and is able to draw a more diverse group of speakers and attendees since it removes the barrier of people needing to travel to one location. We also hope to attract a diverse panel of speakers and attendees. Diversity could be thought about in terms of race, gender, geographic location, tooling, background/focus (what type of data viz we do), visibility (how “famous” or “unknown” someone is), and seniority (students to senior practitioners). The conference aims to reflect and celebrate the global visualization community by supporting speakers from around the globe, spanning across all time zones, and supporting talks given in multiple languages. We are working hard to create an environment where each person in attendance will feel included, represented, and heard.

Inspiration

It goes without saying that one of the main reasons for attending a conference is the ability to learn from others and be inspired. We feel that meeting the goals listed above will all contribute to a more inspirational experience. By giving everyone a chance to host an unconference session and have a voice, you may find inspiration from someone you’ve never heard of, or where you least expect it. By ensuring a diverse set of speakers, we’ll provide content that reaches across barriers.

Additionally, we believe this inspiration can come both from people who are well-known within the data visualization field, but also from people who are up-and-coming. This is an important opportunity for anyone interested in sharing their perspective and exploring new concepts.