Best of the Tableau Web: A look back at TC, the Community, and a fond farewell

In this look back at the last two months of blogs, Andy Cotgreave shares his round-up of the Best of the Tableau Web, including posts that review Tableau Conference 2019, blogs from two Iron Viz contestants about the experience, reflections on the what the Tableau Community means to dozens of members, and more. He also says farewell to Kelly Martin, beloved community member and member of the Tableau Zen Masters Hall of Fame.

Hello and welcome to the final Best of the Tableau Web of 2019. What a year, and what a bumper post I have for you this time—two months for the price of one! You might have noticed I missed last month’s post: Tableau Conference swallowed me whole. I loved connecting with everyone and I did get to host Iron Viz though, so the time spent preparing, and losing my voice, was worthwhile. All three contestants did incredible jobs, creating impressive visualizations that told unique stories. I recommend you read Josh’s and Lindsay’s follow-up blogs, where they share their thoughts on the event, diving deeper into how they built their vizzes and the reasoning behind their design choices.

At TC19, Adam Selipsky kicked off the opening keynote by talking about the Tableau Community—and rightly so. Every month, as I read your blogs, I realize how lucky we at Tableau are to have so many thoughtful, passionate people helping others learn. At this time of year, there are many reflective posts as people look at the impact of conference and review their year. I especially appreciated Adam Mico’s two exceptional blogs. In the first one, he reflects on his TC19 experience and in the second, he’s found 71 people to explain the impact Tableau has had on them! Thank you, Adam.

As always, if this inspires you, you can get involved too. If you’re thinking of diving in, perhaps contribute to tableaudatafam.com, a new community-driven blog set up by Chris McClellan. Or start your own blog; all you need is an account on Wordpress or Blogspot, as Jim Dehner has shown. Welcome to all the new bloggers! We look forward to hearing from you.

Finally, October also saw the passing of Kelly Martin. Kelly was one of the original Tableau bloggers and changed the way many of us thought about dashboard design. Before her, things were stodgy and dull. After Kelly, we all learned that design thinking could and should be a prime consideration. Her influence can be seen—and felt—everywhere. To say that she will be missed is an understatement. Check out her final blog post and the eulogy written by her friend, Tableau Zen Master Bridget Cogley. It was our pleasure to posthumously add Kelly to the Tableau Zen Masters Hall of Fame.

Enjoy the list this month. I'll be back with another round-up next year. If you are blogging regularly, make sure your blog is in this list. I try to keep up with Twitter, but sometimes miss them. You can add your blog to my list here.

Tableau Conference

Jim Van Sistine Better Late Than Never
Eva Murray You don’t have to do it all
Mark Bradbourne #Data19 ~ Conference Recap
Sarah Bartlett #data19 – Reflections from a Community Perspective
Adam Mico Data Viz Thoughts .|: #Datafam & Analytics Community Thanks You and Tableau
Lindsey Poulter 10 Reasons Why an Introvert Should Do Iron Viz
Spencer Baucke Tableau Conference 2019 Takeaways
Anya A'Hearn Tableau TC19 DataBlick sessions available for viewing!
Jeff Plattner My 2019 Tableau Conference Highlights
Ella Worsdale #data19 – Tableau Conference (Las Vegas – Nov 2019)
Merlijn Buit TC19 – Zen Master: The What, Why and How’s of Extensions for Tableau
David Murphy Tableau Conference 2019 ft. Ken Flerlage, Sarah Bartlett & Joshua Smith - DSR Podcast EP#17
Carl Allchin Data 19 - PREParing for my next Steps

Tips and tricks

Collin Smith Why’s it look like that? The formatting pane
Ryan Sleeper How to Change Sort Order with Buttons in Tableau
Andy Kriebel #TableauTipTuesday: Using Distribution Lines to Provide Space for Labels
Culinovic Domagoj Preparing Spatial Data for use in Tableau
Ravi Mistry Embedding Tableau into Salesforce: A guide
Joe Beaven Layout Containers – how to get your Item Hierarchy under control
Alexander Mou Creating Bar Chart Multiples à la Tableau Prep 1/2
Anna Prosvetova Dynamic tooltips in Tableau: tips and tricks
Lindsay Betzendahl Creating a Trellis Chart with Custom Headers
Lorna Eden #TableauTipTuesday Week 47 – Using the sign function to determin Positive, Negative of Zero
Gwilym Lockwood How to create a printable table with multiple pages in Tableau
Eric Parker Tableau Prep File Types