Inspiring, Impact Visualizations: How to Use Data (and AI) to Get Attention & Convince Others - May 27, 2026 - 5 - 6:30pm

Inspiring, Impact Visualizations: How to Use Data (and AI) to Get Attention & Convince Others Wednesday, May 27, 2026 5 - 6:30pm $25 Most of us have sat through a presentation full of numbers and walked away remembering almost none of it. That's usually not the audience's fault. It's the format. This evening talk is about what happens when you stop treating data as a list of facts and start treating it as raw materials for art or marketing. Eugene will walk through why specific visualizations and techniques are effective, what AI tools have made newly accessible, and what this all looks like in practice across award winning projects. You'll leave thinking differently about how you present information. No technical background needed. This is a talk with time for questions, not a workshop. Come curious, leave inspired. What We'll Cover Why tables and bullet points so often fail to stick, and what works better What makes a data visualization memorable or impactful What AI tools can do now that used to take a whole design and software team Inspiring project examples: from award-winning global dashboards, neighbourhood maps, government data made readable A look at the tools worth knowing about today, free and otherwise Who Should Come Anyone who has to explain numbers to other people. Nonprofit staff, grant writers, bankers, real estate professionals, educators, community leaders, board members, artists writing proposals, newsletter writers, government staff. If part of your job involves turning data into something an audience needs to understand, this is for you. About the Presenter Eugene Chen (ideaowl.com) builds data visualizations and interactive tools. His work includes dashboards for the World Bank, primary development on the Harvard Opportunity Atlas (covered by the New York Times and NPR), and visualizations for Natural Resources Canada. He has given talks and workshops at multiple Canadian Open Data Summits, Tech Yukon’s AI & Data Series programs, OpenVisConf in Paris, and elsewhere. This session is a standalone one, but it also pairs well with Workshop 2: Your Data Has a Story. Tell It. on Wednesday, May 28th. If you’re interested in attending that hands-on afternoon where you work with your own data and leave with something finished, we suggest attending this one too.