International Speaker: Andy Kirk

We have data visualisation expert from the UK, Andy Kirk coming to town! He's kindly agreed to talk at the meetup on the evening of Thursday 30 July while he's here running a few data visualisation workshops (http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/training/).

The format will be fairly similar to the last meetup. Andy will give his talk for 30-40 mins, followed by some Q&A.

If we have time, we will try to do show-and-tell again since that was quite popular at the last event, so bring your projects!

Here is some info about Andy:

Andy Kirk is a UK-based freelance data visualisation specialist: A design consultant, training provider, author, editor of http://visualisingdata.com , speaker and researcher.

After graduating from Lancaster University in 1999 with a B.Sc (hons) in Operational Research, he held a number of data analysis and information manager positions for organisations including West Yorkshire Police and the University of Leeds.

In December 2009 Andy completed a Masters by Research M.A (Distinction) programme at the University of Leeds, researching the subject of data visualisation. Upon graduating he launched visualisingdata.com in February 2010. This site has grown to become a popular source of information about the fast-growing data visualisation field, providing readers with information about contemporary examples, techniques, resources and key insights.

Andy became a freelance professional in 2011 offering (http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/services/) data visualisation consultancy and training workshops. He has delivered nearly 150 public and private training events across UK, Europe, North America, India, South Africa and Australia, working with some of the most significant organisations in the world including Disney, Intel, WHO, OECD and McKinsey.

His teaching activities extend to his role as a visiting lecturer at the highly-respected Maryland Institute College of Art (US) with whom he has been teaching a module on the Information Visualisation Masters programme since August 2013.

In December 2012, Andy released his first book (http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/book/) entitled “Data Visualization: a successful design process”, a practical guide for creating data visualisation solutions in the most effective and efficient way. He is now working on a second book, due to be published by Sage in May 2016.

Between January 2014 and July 2015 Andy is working as a co-investigator on a research project called ‘Seeing Data’ funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and hosted by the University of Leeds. This study is exploring the issue of visualisation literacy amongst the general public.