Visualize Tableau Conference — Tracking Steps at #Data24
Welcome to the third annual Tableau Conference Step Tracker!
For the last two years, I’ve facilitated a data project during Tableau Conference — collecting number of steps taken by attendees. I then do some data prep, then share the data with the community for folks to visualize their conference experience.
This year the project is back with one big change- this time the form will be open during conference! Log your steps day by day, or log them all at once at the end.
After conference, I’ll leave the form open for a while so everyone has time to get their data in. Year 1 we had 50 participants, and last year we had 107 — this year I’m shooting for 150 participants with a stretch goal of 200.
What else is new?
- More fields for your social handles! Prior years only had twitter- this year I’ve added options to link your Bluesky profile, Tableau Public profile, or other blog / portfolio site.
- What company do you work for? Want to compare yourself to your colleagues? Use the data later for an internal data challenge? See once and for all which company has the highest user participation? This field is for you!
- What shoes did you wear? I’m a big fan of Brooks Glycerins…but I’ll be curious to see what’s on my shopping list after this year.
- Feedback — a spot to leave any notes you’d like for me! Each year I try to make this a better experience. I value your feedback — any comments you leave here will not be published, but I’ll use them to make the project better for next year.
Enough small talk, here’s the form:
Link: https://forms.gle/diLto2yWH2WLcK95A
It is ready to accept data, tracking steps from Saturday, April 27 through Thursday, May 2. Survey closes Friday, May 17th. Please share with your friends and colleagues!
NOTE: if you are tracking steps as you go —the first time you fill out the form you’ll receive an email with your responses. The easiest way to update your steps is to click the “Edit Response” button from the email, as shown below.
FAQ:
Can I participate if I’m not attending in person?
Absolutely! No matter if you’re in San Diego or tuning in from around the world, I’d love your participation. A bigger data set is more fun to visualize!
Do I have to fill out all the non-step data questions?
Nope! Demographic questions are all optional — you may share as much or as little about yourself as you like.
Do I need to use a dedicated fitness tracker?
Nope! Many folks use the built in step tracking in their phone. However you track your steps, your steps count.
Can I leave my name out?
Absolutely — check the box at the bottom of the form to keep your data anonymous. When I prep the dataset for publication, your name will be replaced with a generic user ID, and if you filled out any information about your social handles, that information will not be shared either.
What happens to the data?
During the survey period, responses are logged in a google sheet that only I have access to. The number of users and running total of steps feed into a Tableau Public dashboard (not downloadable) to track towards the participation goal.
After the survey period, data is prepped and uploaded to data.world, where users may download the csv to use in their own data projects.
While email addresses are collected to avoid spam in the form, those are not shared and are deleted in the data prep process.
What does last year’s data look like?
Great question — you can learn more about last year’s data at the below post:
Inspiration
What can you do with this data? Here are a few vizzes from previous years:
Holy Steps Chapman by Michelle Frayman:
#Data23 Step Tracker by Christian Felix:
Acknowledgements
A big thank you to all who have supported this project for the last two years-and a shoutout to the Women in Dataviz slack for input on this year’s form
A special thank you this year to Christina Gorga, who helped me with valuable feedback on every piece of this project, everything from the new logo to this year’s tracker dashboard.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading and sharing, and I look forward to seeing you in San Diego!
