Our data visualization community continues to grow and evolve as more and more people are becoming aware of how important it is to their organizations.

The community is constantly evolving, and one of the best ways to stay on top of the latest tech, trends, and tools is to attend industry conferences. The best ones feature a mix of cutting edge technology, thought leadership from industry experts, and incredibly collaborative, creative, and sharp attendees.

Here is a list of seven key data visualization conferences occuring this year.

1. Visualized

• Dates: February 6-7
• Location: The Times Center, New York, NY
• Notable speakers:
  • Mitchell Joachim, Co-Founder of Terreform ONE
  • Alexander Chen, Creative Director at Google Creative Lab
  • Giorgia Lupi, Co-Founder and Design Director at Accurat
  • Cost: $799

In the heart of New York City, Visualized exists at the intersection of data, design and storytelling. From research and analysis to 3D and interactive, to social and educational storytelling, Visualized aims to inspire attendees and provide new ideas about how to visually communicate stories with data.

2. Visualization and Data Analysis (VDA)

• Dates: February 3-5
• Location: Hilton San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco, CA
• Notable Speakers:
  • Pak Chung Wong, Chief Scientist and Project Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Eser Kandogan, Research Staff Member at IBM Almaden Research Center
  • Cost: from $275 to $840 depending on IS&T or SPIE member status and attendee, author, or chair/committee participation level

As a part of the annual IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging conference that takes place February 2-6, VDA takes a research-oriented approach to data visualization. Since the first VDA conference in 1994, the event has steadily grown into one of the industry’s premier conferences.

3. Tapestry

• Date: February 26
• Location: Historic Inns of Annapolis, Annapolis, MD
• Notable Speakers:
  • Alberto Cairo, Professor of the Professional Practice at The University of Miami 
  • Aron Pilhofer, Data Journalist at The New York Times
  • Cost: $100 (with invitation)

While Tapestry is an invitation-only conference capped at 100 attendees, the invitation request process ensures a high-quality, enthusiastic audience. The conference packs three keynotes and five “short stories” sessions into a single day. Tapestry also offers transportation to The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) conference, which begins February 27.

4. Bloomberg Businessweek Design

• Date: March 10
• Location: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
• Notable Speakers:
  • Gadi Amit, President of NewDealDesign
  • Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot
  • Andrew Hessel, Distinguished Scholar at Autodesk
  • Cost: $750

After a wildly successful inaugural conference in 2013, the Bloomberg Businessweek Design Conference returns with another group of world-renowned designers across a variety of disciplines. The magazine devotes a special issue to covering the conference, published a few weeks after the event.

5. Eyeo Festival

• Dates: June 10-13
• Location: TBA, Minneapolis, MN
• Notable Speakers: TBA
• Cost: TBA

While the details about Eyeo Festival 2014 have not yet been released, it is too great of a conference to leave out of our 2014 must-attend list. During the beautiful early Minneapolis summer, 2013 attendees converged at the Walker Art Center to hear from experts at the intersection of art, interaction, and information. 2013 speakers included Jer Thorp, Co-Founder of The Office for Creative Research and Kim Rees, Co-Founder of Periscopic.

6. IEEE Vis

• Dates: November 9-14
• Location: TBA, Paris, France
• Notable Speakers: TBA
• Cost: TBA

Like Eyeo, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Visualization Conference has not yet released details, but this premier academic conference is too notable to leave off this list. IEEE Vis contains three main components – Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), Information Visualization, and Scientific Visualization and is currently accepting paper submissions. 2013 speakers included Jarke J. van Wijk, Professor of visualization at Eindhoven University of Technology and Erez Lieberman Aiden, a fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.

7. OpenVis

• Dates: April 24-25
• Location: TBA, Boston, Massachusetts
• Notable Speakers: Mike Bostock, Graphics Editor at The New York Times
• Cost: $399

The second annual Open Web Data Visualization Conference tackles data visualization as it applies to the world of the open web. Mike Bostock of the New York Times is penciled in as the Keynote speaker, and a call for speakers is currently open. Early bird tickets are currently available at a discounted price of $399, but act quickly, as they expire January 6.

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Source: Jon Salm is an associate client analyst at Millward Brown Digital in New York City and a freelance data journalist in the Visual.ly marketplace. He has a bachelor’s degree in English from Washington and Lee University. You can find him online at about.me/salm.jon and follow him on twitter @S4LM3R.