About Andy Kirk
Andy is a freelance data visualisation specialist based in Yorkshire, UK. He is a data visualisation consultant, training provider, teacher, author, speaker, researcher and editor of the award-winning website visualisingdata.com.
After graduating from Lancaster University in 1999 with a BSc (hons) in Operational Research, Andy’s working life began with a variety of business analysis and information management roles at organisations including CIS Insurance, West Yorkshire Police and the University of Leeds.
He discovered data visualisation in early 2007, when it was lurking somewhat on the fringes of the web. Fortunately, the timing of this discovery coincided with Andy shaping his Master’s (MA) degree research proposal, a self-directed research programme that gave him the opportunity to unlock and secure his passion for the subject.
He launched visualisingdata.com to continue the process of discovery and to chart the course of the increasing popularity of the subject. Over time, this award-winning site has grown to become a popular reference for followers of the field, offering contemporary discourse, design techniques, and vast collections of visualisation examples and resources.
Andy became a freelance professional in 2011. Since then he has had the fortune of working with a diverse range of clients across the world, including organisations such as Google, CERN, Pfizer, the EU Council, Hershey, and McKinsey. He has have delivered over 345 public and private training events in 27 different countries, reaching more than 7000 delegates. Alongside his busy training schedule, Andy also provides design consultancy with his longest-term client having being collaborating with the Arsenal FC Performance Team, from 2015-2020.
In addition to commercial activities, Andy maintains ongoing academic engagements. Between 2014 and 2015 he was an external consultant on a research project called ‘Seeing Data’, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and hosted by the University of Sheffield. This study explored the issues of data visualisation literacy among the general public and, among many things, helped to shape an understanding of the human factors that affect visualisation literacy and the effectiveness of design.
He joined the highly respected Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) as a visiting lecturer in 2013 teaching a module on the Information Visualisation Masters programme through to 2017. From January 2016, he taught a data visualisation module as part of the MSc Business Analytics programme at the Imperial College Business School in London through to 2018. Since 2019/20 he has been teaching a data visaulisation module on a Masters programme at the UCL School of Management, an MSc in Business Analytics.
Visualising Data Ltd Services
The responsibility for handling, analysing and communicating data is increasingly a ubiquitous demand. The availability of data will never reduce and the appetite for getting more from it will only increase: this means the emphasis on good data visualisation practices are more important than ever. However, effective data visualisation is not something that can just be accomplished through astute instincts and taste alone.
A motivation to help clients and organisations get more from and do more with their data themselves is at the heart of the range of visualisation training and consultancy services offered by Andy Kirk on behalf of Visualising Data Ltd. The emphasis is always on offering best practice advice and assistance for developing client capabilities and solutions to their visualisation challenges. Rather than have data visualisation done to you, Andy's motivation is to help you do it for yourself.
You can read more about Andy's training offerings on the dedicated training page. His consultancy offerings include the following:
- Data Visualisation Evaluation - Reviewing existing visual products (reports, graphics, projects) and providing a report with detailed and explained recommendations on potential improvements and enhancements
- Concept Design Specification - Developing a concept design specification for a given data-driven challenge shaped by a given context (in-house skills, resources, access to software), providing detailed recommendations for a potential solution for the organisation to implement
- Facilitated Consultancy - Often an engagement that works as a companion to a training workshop, this service consultancy involves clients/organisations developing potential solution to a workplace challenge themselves but under facilitated guidance through the critical path of analytical and design thinking
If you have an enquiry about these services or are interested in a potential engagement then please use the information on the ‘Contact’ tab to get in touch.
Visualising Data Ltd is a Private Limited Company based in Leeds, UK, incorporated in 2010 with company number 7147133 and VAT registration number 140476625. Andy Kirk is the Managing Director.
Speaking Engagements
Andy has had the great pleasure of delivering many talks, particiating in webinars and podcasts. If you would like to invite Andy to speak at your event please just get in touch using the information on the ‘Contact’ tab.
TALKS (IN-PERSON)
25th January 2020: Speaking at the 'Data Viz Live' conference in London
29th November 2019: Gave a lunch time talk at ABN AMRO in Amsterdam
15th November 2019: Spoke at the BIG2019 conference in Olso
14th November 2019: Spoke at the INDVIL conference in Olso
10th October 2019: Gave a guest lecture at the Lloyds of London data lab
10th October 2019: Delivered a talk to colleagues at an analytics away-day for Expedia/Hotels.com staff in London
30th September 2019: Gave a talk at the North West TUG in Manchester
20th September 2019: Spoke at the
Encode conference in London
29th July 2019: Presented at the NUX Leeds meetup
20th June 2019: Gave a talk to members of the British Computer Society (BCS) in London
2nd May 2019: Took part in the live data viz debate event as part of the London TUG
14th February 2019: Gave a talk to researchers and students at the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds
11th December 2018: Gave a guest lecture at the Lloyds of London data lab
16th October 2018: Presented at the first Yorkshire Tableau User Group meetup
28th February 2018: Gave a talk to post-doc researchers at Imperial College
9th January 2018: Gave a talk at the MancDB meetup in Manchester
23rd November 2017: Gave a talk at the Hacks/Hackers meetup in Brisbane
19th July 2017: Gave a talk to staff at Jet2.com's Leeds HQ
15th May 2017: Gave a talk at Sage's annual staff meeting in their London HQ
23rd March 2017: Gave a talk to staff and students at the University of Edinburgh Business School
23rd March 2017: Spoke at the
DataFest 2017 Summit in Edinburgh
8th February 2017: Gave a talk for staff and students at The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL) in London
7th February 2017: Spoke at the London Business Analytics Group
7th September 2017: Gave a talk at Lloyds of London
16th June 2016: Gave a talk at the
Information+ Conference in Vancouver
14th June 2016: Presented at the
Vancouver Data Visualisation Meetup
9th June 2016: Gave a talk to colleagues at
Oxford Policy Management (OPML)
7th June 2016: Spoke at the Market Insight Forum in London
23rd May 2016: Spoke at the London Tableau User Group meeting
20th April 2016: Gave a talk at the
ICNARC Case Mix Programme conference in London
22nd March 2016: Gave a talk at the '
Making Informed Decisions with Big Data' event being held @3MBIC in Huddersfield
10th February 2016: Gave a talk at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Warrington as part of the 'Techtalk' series of lectures
24th November 2015: Gave a
talk at UK Parliament
10th November 2015: Spoke at the
'What Can Data Visualisation Do' event at the University of Sheffield
30th July 2015: Spoke at the
Melbourne Data Visualisation Meetup
5th June 2015: Gave a talk at
Saggezza HQ, Chicago
20th March 2015: Gave a talk at the National Audit Office, London
3rd February 2015: Spoke at the
PyData London Meetup
22nd January 2015: Gave a talk at the AztraZeneca Advance Analytics Centre (AAC) symposium in Alderley Park, Chester
15th January 2015: Did a recorded
video interview with Alicia Sutton of ReachMD, during the ACEhp Annual Conference
15th January 2015: Spoke at the
ACEhp Annual Conference in Dallas, TX.
Here are the slides
22nd November 2014: Giving a talk at
Visualized.io in London
23rd October 2014: Speaking at the
Data Visualization Group in the Bay Area Meetup at the University of San Francisco
18th/19th September 2014: Spoke at
ScienceComm in Switzerland
4th September 2014: Spoke at the '
Visualize It!' event in Utrecht
6th August 2014: Spoke at the
London Business Analytics Group
24th April 2014: Gave a talk at
OpenVis Conference in Boston
27th March 2014: Gave a talk at the
School of Computing, University of Dundee
19th March 2014: Speaker at the launch of the
Dublinked Data Visualisation competition
6th February 2014: Speaker at the
Higher Education Strategic Planners' Association annual conference in Warwick
24th January 2014: Speaker at the
Design of Understanding annual conference in London
5th December 2013: Speaker at the
Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Issue Brief event in London
29th August 2013: Speaker at the
INMA Conference in Oslo
16th May 2013: Speaker at the
NYC Data Visualisation Meetup
8th May 2013: Speaker at an
Information Design Association (IDA) event in London
25th April 2013: Speaker at the
Big Data Week London event
15th/16th April 2013: Speaker at
II-SDV 2013 Conference in Nice, France
21st March 2013: Keynote speaker at the
Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operational Research annual seminar
26th/27th February 2013: Talk and workshop at the
Dashboarding for Peak University Performance conference at the University of Nottingham
11th February 2013: Talk given at Tableau UK HQ in Richmond
17th January 2013: Talk and panel discussion at the Bank of England's '
The future of regulatory data and analytics' event
10th January 2013: Talk given to folks at Facebook HQ in San Francisco (
slide deck)
8th January 2013: Talk at
Seattle Datavis (SeaVis) Meetup (
similar slide deck)
8th January 2013: Talk given to folks at Tableau HQ in Seattle
19th October 2012: Guest talk at the
Big Dive EU event in Turin, Italy.
19th/20th September 2012:
Speaker at the
Big Data World, Europe conference, London
16th July 2012: Presentation at a
Nuffield Foundation event, exploring visual navigation for STEM subjects.
14th June 2012: Speaker at the
Chicago Data Visualisation Meetup
14th June 2012: IDEAS Talk for
Orbitz at their Worldwide HQ in Chicago - watch a
video of the talk
24th April 2012:
Panel member for the
Big Data Week, London community meetup
17th April 2012: Speaker at
Big Data Con, Mainz, Germany
18th to 23rd March 2012:
Judge and
speaker at the
Malofiej 20, Infographics World Summit and Awards
23rd February 2012: Visualisation seminar at the School of Computing, University of Leeds
12th November 2011:
Speaking at the Visualizing.org data
visualisation marathon event, London
WEBINARS
** Several outstanding items in this list will be added soon... **
23rd January 2020: Presented a Q&A webinar for the ICAEW
17th December 2019: Presented a webinar for Tableau,
'The State of the Union'
24th October 2019: Presented a webinar for the ICAEW about 'The 7 Hats of Visualisation Design'
4th April 2019: Presented a webinar for Tableau,
'The Design of Time'
15th August 2018: Presented a webinar for Tableau, 'The Little of Visualisation Design'
1st June 2018: Presented a webinar for Sage,
'Data Visualisation: A Game of Decisions'
22nd March 2018: Presented a webinar for Tableau, '50 Charts in 50 minutes'
9th November 2017: Took part in the 2017 '
Data Debate' webinar hosted by Tableau
10th August 2017: Presented a webinar for Tableau,
'The Design of Nothing: A 2017 Reboot'
4th April 2017: Presented a webinar for Tableau,
'The Seven Hats of Visualisation Design: A 2017 Reboot'
8th December 2016: Participated in another special
'Ask Andy Anything' webinar hosted by Tableau
25th November 2016: Took part in the 2016 '
Data Debate' webinar hosted by Tableau
11th August 2016: Presented a webinar for
Bright Talk,
'Separating Myths from Truth in Data Visualisation'
20th July 2016: Presented a webinar for Tableau,
'Bringing Method to the Madness'
13th April 2016: Presented a webinar for
Tableau, 'Separating Myths from Truth in Data Visualisation'
30th November 2015: Conducted a special
'Ask Andy Anything' webinar hosted by Tableau
24th September 2015: Presented a webinar for
Tableau
25th March 2015: Gave a webinar for
Tableau
24th September 2014: Gave a
webinar for Tableau Software
PODCAST/VIDEO APPEARANCES
7th October 2021: Very happy to have been the first English guest on
episode #16 of 'Data Voorstellingen' to chat with two of my dutch pals, Ben de Jong and Michel Dekker
24th March 2021: Invited to
episode #66 of the 'BI or Die' podcast, to talk about the Data Viz process with hosts Kai-Uwe Stahl and Viktoria Hell.
29th June 2020: I had the pleasure of being invited to record a
episode #32 of the 'Storytelling With Data' podcast with Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic.
15th January 2020: Recorded a live 'Data Viz Debate' video for Tableau
19th December 2019:
Data Stories Episode #152: As part of the annual review for 2019, contributed a section regarding latest developments about data visualisation tools
7th November 2019: Had a video interview with Bill Shander for 'LinkedIn Learning' discussing 'The Little of Visualisation Design'
25th July 2019:
After the flood podcast Episode #1: Discussing the the current trends of data visualisation in sports: within the sport, about the sport
29th November 2018:
Data Stories Episode #132: Discussing the latest generation of data visualisation tools
21st October 2018:
Policy Viz Podcast Episode #137: Discussing our experiences in Potsdam of the Information+ Conference 2018
13th February 2018:
Policy Viz Podcast Episode #114: Discussing our experiences at Facebook HQ of the Social Science Foo Camp
29th December 2017:
Policy Viz Podcast Episode #108: Discussing new projects and trends in the field
27th February 2017:
Data Stories Episode #92: Contributed to the tribute show dedicated to Hans Rosling
6th December 2016:
Being Freelance Podcast: Discussing my experiences as a freelance professional
13th September 2016:
Policy Viz Podcast Episode #56: Discussing the challenges of book writing
9th March 2016:
Data Stories Episode #69: Reviewing the findings and implications of the Seeing Data visualisation literacy research
7th January 2016:
Rad Presenters Podcast Episode #29: Discussing a range of topics relating to our roles as presenters/trainers
16th December 2015:
Data Stories Episode #65: Reviewing the major trends and developments during 2015 and preview the main hopes and expectations for 2016
20th August 2015:
Tableau Wanna Be Podcast Episode #31: Discussing some of the nevers and shouldn'ts of data visualisation
10th March 2015:
Policy Viz Podcast: Discussing data visualisation literacy
22nd January 2015:
Data Stories Episode #46: Reviewing the major trends and developments during 2014 and preview the main hopes and expectations for 2015
27th June 2014:
Data Stories Episode #37: Discussing the teaching of data visualisation
6th May 2014:
Nature Jobs Podcast: Discussing the teaching of data visualisation
25th January 2014:
Data Stories Episode #31: Reviewing the major trends and developments during 2013 and preview the main hopes and expectations for 2014
7th January 2013:
Data Stories Episode #16: Discussing our feelings on what was big in 2012 and our hopes and expectations for 2013
25th June 2012:
Interview on DataRemixed.com: Interviewed by Ben Jones about the state of data visualisation
24th April 2012:
Data Stories Episode #5: Covering the subject of data visualisation training
30th March 2012:
Data Stories Episode #4: Reflecting on Malofiej20, discussing the judging process, detailing the conference talks and the week in general
