Now Accepting Applications for Tapestry Conference

When we grow up, concepts gradually get easier and we leave the images to the poets.

Stephen King, The Shining

…Unless, of course, you grow up and become a data storyteller. Meet all kinds of other visual poets at the fourth annual Tapestry Conference, an event for people interested in storytelling with data. It’s happening March 9th, 2016 at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Opened in 1909, the Stanley Hotel is famous for being the inspiration for Stephen King’s novel, The Shining (hence the quote).

Tapestry is a day-long program with a mix of presentations, discussions, and a science-fair style demo showcase. Journalists, designers, academics, and people trying communicate data in government or non-profits are encouraged to apply for spot to attend and to present at this exclusive event. And if you are planning on going to the 2016 NICAR conference in Denver, Tapestry takes place the day before and provides free transportation between The Stanley Hotel and the Denver Marriott, where NICAR is taking place.

Keynote Speakers

Scott Klein

Our first speaker at the 2016 conference will be Scott Klein, Assistant Managing Editor at ProPublica. Scott has a lot of experience in building incredible news applications, and has won many awards for his work. He is also a history buff, interested in the way data has was used for finding and reporting stories long before computers.

Jessica Hullman

Jessica Hullman is a professor at University of Washington’s iSchool. She has done some groundbreaking work exploring the use of data visualization for narrative, in particular on visual rhetoric and sequence in data stories. Her work on the potential usefulness of visual difficulties has also generated a lot of interest and discussion.

Nick Sousanis

Nick Sousanis is a post-doc at the University of Calgary, and the author of the amazing book/comic/Ph.D. thesis Unflattening. His thinking about images and words, how they relate to each other, and how we can go beyond our entrenched ways of seeing the world is unique and inspiring. There are some parallels with Scott McCloud’s ideas (besides the obvious one of both dealing with comics), which will provide food for thought and conversations at the end of the conference.

Apply to Attend and Demo or Present

In addition to our keynote speakers, we’d love to find a couple speakers to do “Short Stories” which are quick, 15 minute presentations about storytelling with data. We will also have a science fair style demo room where you can present your dataviz projects. You can apply for one of these spots, or just to attend at the Tapestry website. We hope to see you there!