{"id":15945,"date":"2023-02-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dvsnightingstg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=15945"},"modified":"2023-02-19T18:06:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T23:06:13","slug":"happy-birthday-data-visualization-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/happy-birthday-data-visualization-society\/","title":{"rendered":"The Data Visualization Society Turns Four Today. Here’s Our Birthday Wish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, February 20th, the Data Visualization Society (DVS) turns four years old. It\u2019s a day I always remember as a founding board member, and stays on my calendar as the Executive Director.\u00a0Our DVS birthday happens to align with that of my oldest son, who also turns four this month. Not unlike his growth from infancy to little kid, DVS has made big developmental leaps over the last four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in the midst of maternity leave when I said yes to hopping on leadership calls with the DVS co-founders Elijah Meeks, Amy Cesal, and Mollie Petit about how to support the explosive growth they saw in those early months. We hit 3,500 members in a single month, and 17,000 in our first year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 pandemic surfaced unexpected challenges for us as a new association. I remember we were about to launch our affiliated groups and start building out geographic chapters in March 2020\u2014right when in-person events around the world went on pause. We, too, had to pause that launch. And we wondered, how could a professional association with a mission to connect people and build community thrive in this new environment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the constraints and challenges of the pandemic, it turned out, both accelerated and shaped our growth as an organization. In 2020, data visualization was thrown into the spotlight as a primary way to communicate information about the spread of COVID-19. Online news outlets pinned maps and trackers to the top of their sites, and newspapers like the New York Times<\/em> dedicated entire front pages to visualizing grim milestones like the lives lost. (You can see those examples and many others in the Unimaginable Deaths<\/em> supplement that shipped with Nightingale<\/em> print issue #2<\/a>. It is available as a digital download<\/a> for our dues-paying members).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, DVS benefited from the world\u2019s virtual shift. Our first Outlier Conference<\/a> included nearly 1,000 attendees from 60 countries around the world, which wouldn\u2019t have been possible at an in-person event. You can still replay the mainstage talks, all archived on a YouTube playlist<\/a>!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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In its first year, the Data Visualization Society hit the ground running, bolstering membership at a record pace. The pandemic threatened growth in year two, but ended up accelerating the organization’s mission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

One of the hidden benefits of growing during the pandemic was the lighter financial burden of hosting events virtually rather than in venues, and the generosity shown by many tech firms. Companies extended free software licenses (like our Pro Slack that we had for over two years!) to nonprofit organizations, and we had a great response to our ask for sponsors for the first Outlier. These things kept our costs manageable despite our rapid growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps most critically, the isolated state of the world amplified our need for connection, and DVS became a landing spot for data visualization enthusiasts across professions and industries. Today, we have over 20,000 members from every corner of the planet. That number is ticking up daily. So it\u2019s a great time to make some birthday wishes (and commitments), and assess how DVS can bring members closer together and provide them with the best tools and support to fulfill our mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staying true to our values as we grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DVS is uniquely positioned to convene different groups of people and be an unbiased home for big community programs. This is why we have been able to back initiatives like the Information is Beautiful Awards<\/a>, and build Nightingale<\/a>, <\/em>a dedicated data visualization journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These investments, among others, have stemmed from DVS\u2019s three core values:<\/p>\n\n\n\n