Today, we're excited to announce that over 1000 customer accounts are using Tableau Online. One thousand. Less than a year after we announced our secure, hosted solution for data analytics, 1000 companies worldwide have chosen to do analytics in the cloud, led by data pioneers and thought-leaders who are as excited as we are about what's possible.

Shhh … it’s a secret! Next week, we’ll be announcing exciting news about Tableau Online. To celebrate, we’re inviting data lovers from all over the globe to mix, mingle and enjoy a few drinks on us. No speeches, no demos, just a chance to network and throw one back with people who are dreaming about what’s possible with data.

Customer stories are a highlight of the Tableau Conference, and the deadline to submit to speak is April 1 (no joke!). We're still seeking customer stories of all types, and we're especially looking for customer speakers who can present on some key IT topics. Customer speakers get a complimentary full conference pass and VIP perks at conference.

Dashboard authors want to help their audience make sense of data as quickly as possible. With categorical data--like sports teams, countries and brand names--one way to do this is with custom icon sets that map easily and visually to the categories they represent. Tableau users can do this using custom shape files. But what if Tableau could take one quick look at your categorical data and search the Internet to find the best icons for you, importing them automatically? That's one of the very cool ideas our R&D team imagined, and the research behind it has just been accepted at the ACM SIGCHI conference, the top academic conference on human-computer interaction. Read on to learn more about this exciting research.

At the end of last year, we announced our 3-minute win challenge, asking you to show us what you could build from scratch in Tableau in 3 minutes or less. We didn't know what to expect, but your submissions blew us away. In fact, the challenge has been so popular that we're going to keep it open for a few more rounds. Each month, we'll choose our favorites, announce them here on the blog, and send each of the "3-minute winners" an ever-coveted DATA hoodie. Read on to see who took the prizes this month!

Start from scratch. Build something useful. Do it quickly. These are the guiding principles behind the 3-Minute Win Challenge, which we're opening up to customers and partners this week. The goal is to start with an empty Tableau workbook (although you can have data already loaded in) and build a useful dashboard in three minutes or less. Email a link to your finished video to social@tableausoftware.com and we'll feature it on our 3-Minute Win blog. We'll highlight some of our favorites on our social media channels. What can you build in three minutes or less? Read on for additional details.

Apply to Speak at TCC14

We're excited to announce that the call for customer speakers for our US conference is now open! Head on over to the speaker submission form to apply to share your story with the thousands of Tableau users who will descend on Seattle from September 8-12, 2014. The customer speaker track is the highlight of the conference for many attendees. Tableau users love to learn from fellow data lovers, and they're eager to hear how others are solving problems and telling stories with data. The speaker submission and selection process will be different this year from in years past, so please read on for details, tips and more info.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Uproar in the nation's capital early this morning, as employees of Tableau Software ($DATA), their customers ($RKSTR) and Tableau Zen Masters ($OMMM) released a live fashion show that allowed users to visualize Tableau T-shirts, polos, hats and iPhone accessories in real-time, empowering an audience to make fast, informed decisions about which items they'd like to purchase.

Here at Tableau, we take great pride in building intuitive, easy-to-use software and providing outstanding online training materials. That said, we all appreciate the value of a good old-fashioned book. That's why we're thrilled to announce that George Peck's Tableau 8: The Official Guide is currently available for pre-order on Amazon. The book will make its official debut on September 13, but early copies will be available at the Tableau Customer Conference.