Fi (00:07)
Hey, data lovers, it's Fi and Sarah here, and we're here to welcome you to a special episode of unDUBBED. We have just come off the end of Tableau Conference 2025, where we have been virtual, not live from San Diego, but from opposite sides of the Tasman, Auckland and Sydney-style. We even held a few virtual watch parties, got into the group chat chaos, and now we're here with you to break it all down.
Sarah (00:33)
It's been a big week, Fi. I don't know about you, but I've been up at 4.30 for the last three mornings.
Fi (00:39)
boo hoo, I was up at 2.30.
Sarah (00:43)
think in the old days you would have still been awake, wouldn't you?
Fi (00:46)
and you would have been right there with me.
Sarah (00:49)
This is true. This is true. How times have changed.
Fi (00:52)
Absolutely, I much prefer my bed.
Sarah (00:54)
So we hosted a few watch parties, kicking off with a keynote, moving into one of my favorites devs on stage, and then the ultimate, Iron Viz. So let's start by talking a little bit about keynote.
Fi (01:08)
Look, I think it started off slowly this year coming into Keynote and maybe that's a little bit of how things have changed over the years with the movement from Tableau into the more Salesforce-esque set up where they've got the stage in the middle and the crowds surrounding it. It really felt as though things were
more subdued. we had Ryan, Southard and Rekha who are the CEO, the CPO and the CMO take us through a number of different things for the first hour of conference. So Sarah, why don't you kick it off with the thing that stuck out to you the most in what they discussed.
Sarah (01:54)
Yeah, so totally agree, Fi. Some of the key things I feel that they talked about was around the agentic AI and a real focus on Tableau Next. So interesting to see where they're going with that and the energy around it. And just to your point as well, talking about the way the room is set up, I don't know if it's too personal and people are too scared to maybe holler or anything, but it feels really quiet, almost dead in the room.
which is really different to the keynotes that we've been to in the past when you've got like, the 18,000 people all in a big space and maybe it's a little bit darker and people feel like they can yell out a little bit more, but it did feel really quiet when some of those key things were announced.
Fi (02:40)
Yeah, that's a really interesting point about people being on camera and perhaps being unaware of when they're on camera as well, because I'm assuming there are a number of different cameras around that they can cut into at any available moment. it was fun to see some of the well-known community members in there, but they were definitely not as excited as what I've seen them in the past. And it could be that
being a little bit self-conscious or I don't know some of those people are all that self-conscious.
Sarah (03:15)
This is true, this is true. So what are your thoughts on Tableau Next being one of the key pieces of the keynote?
Fi (03:24)
Yeah, well, I'm actually really excited about Tableau Next because whilst it wasn't discussed necessarily on the keynote, from what I've heard in the background, they really are building it so that it will have the same sorts of functionality, equal functionality as what we would find in Tableau Desktop.
That's been quite different when we thought about things like web development, for instance, where there's not that same amount of control that you can have over creating a data visualization. given that it's a web first application, it makes it a lot easier to roll out the change as well and have that consistently moving forward. So it's something that I'm really excited about.
I really loved, there was a demonstration that they did of copying and pasting the data model. So the patternization that they're doing there, that kind of thing really excites me as much as design does as well. How about you?
Sarah (04:32)
Yeah,
well, I really liked when they spoke a little bit around the semantic layer. I think that's been a really big gap in the Tableau market. And I like the fact that they are starting to really focus on that and talk more about, having that zero copy between where you store your data and where you're reading your data from. So some of those things I'm really interested about and seeing how that unfolds.
Fi (04:37)
Mm-hmm.
I agree, I think that it will also create a much easier gateway into any migrations that may need to happen in the future.
Sarah (05:11)
Yeah, completely agree. So anything else from the keynote or shall we move on to the more exciting stuff?
Fi (05:18)
There were things in the keynote that I don't think we've mentioned yet. the fact that, and it was quite interesting, the CMO brought up that the platform. when we talk about the different Tableau platforms, we're talking about Tableau server, Tableau desktop, of course Tableau next, Cloud as well.
She talked about the interoperability of these platforms. And essentially what that means is you'll be able to plug in from, let's say Next onto Tableau server and utilize some of the data sources that are coming through as well, which will mean that, you know, it's, it's much less like they've band-aided different
products together. So that does excite me.
There's a few other things that I do want to mention, Sarah, that did come up during the keynote. We'll put them in the show notes as well. They've done a bit of a revamp of the Tableau Blueprint.
starting to introduce some of the AI concepts in there, so it might be good for our listeners to have another look at that. And interestingly enough, they announced that they have a new Tableau community on drum roll, please. Slack. So we will also put the in the show notes, the community there. It will be interesting to see how that community flourishes.
I know that the last time I looked, there's about 300 people that have registered for it already. So that's gone up pretty quickly since they only launched it at conference. But one of the things that I have found with communities, including our own, is when it's behind a firewall or behind a login, it just means that there's less accessibility for people to come in and know what is actually being talked about. And it's just one more login to remember or perhaps forget.
Sarah (07:14)
Yeah, too much friction sometimes isn't helpful. And I think it's a little bit confusing at the moment how many communities are there and where everyone is hanging out.
Fi (07:18)
Mm.
overall, what was your impression of Keynote?
Sarah (07:28)
I think like you alluded to, it did fall a little flat. Maybe it's the room set up itself. there's some exciting things happening with Tableau Next. It would be good to understand what this pricing structure is gonna look like for all this, because we're always trying to put our clients' on and understand how easily this is gonna be to roll out.
Fi (07:51)
One other thing that I forgot to mention was they briefly mentioned consumption based pricing and they're looking at a slightly different pricing model. I assume this is around Tableau Next rather than the existing platforms that are in there as well. So it will be interesting to understand more about that. What was mentioned was that it was cheap enough to build scale and then perhaps
move along if necessary. that would be ideal for freelancers or startups like ours as well. So flexibility without the commitment.
Sarah (08:25)
Yeah, sure. They do actually have consumption already on Tableau Cloud as an option, but it will be interesting to see that on Tableau Next as well.
Fi (08:34)
Mm-hmm and hopefully a little I got the impression that it was supposed to be cheaper So we'll see
Sarah (08:43)
We'll see time will tell.
Fi (08:45)
Well, I think that's enough of what went on at Keynote. Why don't we move on to the main event, Devs on Stage.
Sarah (08:53)
And I loved it. And I think it was the most exciting one that they've had for at least three years. How do you feel about that, Fi?
Fi (08:59)
I think the return to having the stage at the front really made a difference.
Sarah (09:03)
Yeah, and I loved how Matthew and the team really put the energy in.
Fi (09:08)
Yeah, totally.
I was really amazed by just the level of designs and showcase features that they gave us.
It wasn't limp.
Sarah (09:21)
No, and what can be more fun than a corgi race, right? Like that's how they demonstrated what they're showcasing with Tableau Prep now.
Fi (09:30)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, who doesn't love those little fat bum wiggles?
Sarah (09:36)
And talking about the outcome of that, allowing this in database Tableau prep flow now, which I think is great without needing extracts. That's a good one. If you're using Tableau prep.
Fi (09:47)
So Tableau prep has come a long way since it was first developed.
Sarah (09:51)
Yeah, and workspace integration with Google Sheets.
Fi (09:56)
that's an interesting one, isn't it? So trying to bring people onto Tableau the platform, whether that's your server, cloud, maybe even next, and have something that's interactive. Well, now you can get it to go out into your Google Sheets or Google Slides and have that automatically updated and included.
Sarah (10:18)
Yeah, and just staying with some of the backend stuff as well. DBT connector, I heard a few kind of murmurs in the crowd about that one. A few people excited, I think.
Fi (10:28)
it was a little bit like the old days and I missed having Paul Banoe sitting next to me, ready to bow down to the Tableau server gods when they announced things like the SCIM for Tableau server. Or a thing that any Tableau server person, including developers would really appreciate is the 30 day recycle bin.
Sarah (10:50)
Yes, for sure. And hey, what about the custom Python scripts?
Fi (10:55)
Yeah, not bad.
they're really getting more into the developer swing of things, which is, you know, giving the platform more extensibility for everyone. But that coming back to that 30 day recycle bin, just in case people didn't see the the session, what it means is anything that someone's accidentally deleted, whether it's a whole project or an individual workbook that will sit in a recycle bin for up to 30 days.
It might be a little bit problematic for some of the server admins that are running out of space along the way and trying to keep things tidy. know, disk space is a lot cheaper these days.
Sarah (11:32)
Yes, I've definitely been in that trap before where it's like, I've deleted something. I hope I've got it floating around on my desktop somewhere.
Fi (11:39)
Mm-hmm, for sure. there were some really interesting demos. Ginger really brought her demos to the fore. She really reminded me of someone that loves to have fun with color. And that was not only how she came to the fore with her beautiful makeup, but also what she demonstrated with creating your own color palettes within Tableau Desktop. really exciting as well.
Sarah (12:06)
your thoughts on that
one, Fi? Are you a fan or not a fan of that?
Fi (12:13)
Listen, for fun Fi bringing tableau public stuff to the fore, absolutely, it's a good thing, but for a corporate Fi, consistency Fi having a brand identity Fi, letting people cut loose with colors can be problematic as well.
Sarah (12:22)
Consistency, consistency Fi.
Yeah, sure. And then another new feature that Ginger introduced as well was the rounded corners.
Fi (12:38)
Yeah, spot on. I heard, the crowd and also on our watch party room, was delighted with that announcement. A lot of our friends in DataViz love those rounded corners and get fed up with having to take things into Figma and then bring them back. for me, I'm not so...
thrilled by it, but perhaps because I quite like a full white background as well. That's a little tricky for developers and understanding padding etc. So sometimes having the backgrounds can help.
Sarah (13:11)
Yeah, the demo was quick. I did see you could adjust the ratio of the roundedness and I did see in a presentation later on in the week where it wasn't consistent. So I think some tips and tricks are definitely gonna be needed for the people that are starting to use those.
Fi (13:17)
Mm.
Mm-hmm. agree. One other thing that we did see at Devs On Stage was a bit of a change to the way that Show Me is actually used. normally in Show Me, you can hover over and see what kind of measures or dimensions are actually required to bring a visualization to life. Now,
They will suggest for you what you could potentially visualize. So start out with the visualization in mind and then build it with measures that make sense or dimensions that make sense. How do you feel about that?
Sarah (14:03)
Yeah, I think it's a great start because a lot of people, when they look at the charts, it can be a little confusing of where the pills sit. And I think if they're going to show that in a demo, it'll allow you to build on them. And I love the fact that it's layering in some of the AI technology and really going straight for some good use cases.
Fi (14:23)
Mmm. Mmm.
Okay folks, so in addition to them showing what is coming on the future roadmap, we also headed into the labs, which was super exciting. But what we're about to talk about now may not ever see the light of day. So fingers crossed, because there are a few exciting things. first up, we have the authoring extensions. And I have to apologize if I get any of this wrong, it's because it
flew by in a heartbeat as they were doing it. And like we said, it was kind of the middle of the night for us. But Madeline took us through a walkthrough of what some data dev ambassadors or visionaries or hall of fame visionaries actually had done with the ability to use this API. Essentially it was giving them something like.
2,000 different actions that can be completed in Tableau Desktop, but access to it through the API. So they could just go nuts and see what they could actually do. First up, Timothy from Biz Story, and he was using the open API to do a natural language query.
Sarah (15:34)
Yeah, really exciting stuff. I loved it.
Fi (15:38)
Yeah, and then and then following on from that we had was it Tristan?
Sarah (15:41)
Yeah, Tristan from La Data Viz So he did what you call like a layout generator, which was awesome, leveraging Figma. And he built it in a way that if you handed the API a couple of essential things, like the workbook name, and the sheet names, it would actually go and reverse engineer and do all the tricky things that Tableau isn't always so good at. So the layout and creating those containers for you and allowing you to...
have different titles that leverage what Figma's good at while also being able to have what Tableau's good at as well. So I think a really great handy API there.
Fi (16:20)
Absolutely. Next up we had Dr. Klaus and his development with the authoring extensions API was localization. So what that means is if you have data from your global company and you have data from all around the world.
It can be problematic when things are, for instance, in English versus German. And what he did was he created through an easy switch of a button and he could take things from English into German in a heartbeat. And that was all done through the API.
Sarah (16:58)
Yeah, it was super impressive and I'd love to see how that grows as well. I think at the moment it had maybe three or five languages in there and one of them was Japanese, so not easy language to translate.
Fi (17:11)
Mmm, spot on
Sarah (17:12)
Last up was Craigs from Info Lab This was something that was really impressive and I can't wait to see it roll out and use it myself if it becomes available, was an automated walkthrough. So this allowed the user all the information in a self-guided way to understand that dashboard. we always talk about designing so it can stand on its own, but we never really understand the layer of what the people know. So this I can see
having some major benefits.
Fi (17:43)
Yeah, absolutely. And I loved actually in the demo how it built on the localization from Klaus as well. So what we saw demonstrated was if it was switched from English to German, then all of the instructions that Craig had provided were then translated into the correct language as well. Super cool.
Sarah (18:03)
Yeah,
So this is just four examples of what the API can do at the moment. I can't wait to see when it's really unleashed in the community and see what people can start to do.
Fi (18:15)
100 % you know and I know that those devs were had their mouths watering and there was so much excitement as well on on chat from the Tableau community and data fam about the art of the possible.
Okay, so up next, something that I was quite interested in, The Tableau Pulse Research Agent, which is essentially giving an analyst or even an end user of the dashboard a reason to find why. Tell me why. So during the demo, we saw that they
found that they got to a certain point with auto-generated insights in the regular pulse, but then they ran out. So they couldn't actually get to the next level, for instance, with why are my customer satisfaction scores actually changing? And in the demonstration, going through the analysis with the research agent, they actually found that there were correlations between training
So training the customer service people and the speed to resolution. I mean, that seems to be like a no brainer, but that would really help with the investment, right? Because it takes some time away from the desk for people to be actually training. the thing that I really love though, is that it can even make some recommendations as well. The only thing that I'm nervous about is where does this come in terms of the pricing?
Sarah (19:45)
And I think the other part of this was just how quickly it integrates with other tools like Slack, for example. So I liked how they showed that end to end. was like, we've got a potential issue here. Let's create a Slack group and resolve it.
Fi (20:01)
Mm-hmm, for sure.
Sarah (20:03)
Yeah. And then the last for Devs on stage was the sketch tool. What's your thoughts on that one, Fi?
Fi (20:10)
for me, I thought it looked really cool. So essentially, what the sketch does is as an analyst, I could use my mouse to draw a squiggly line. Think of the sine curve, perhaps. It's easy for people that are just listening in on audio. Think of the sine curve, drawing that out. Then Tableau takes that drawing and finds...
the individual lines. So for instance, if we were doing sales over time by individual over the past year, and it's showing the curve of sales on a line chart by, let's say a thousand different salespeople. So it's a messy squiggly line. If we looked for a sine curve, it would actually then highlight those salespeople and bring them to the fore in a highlighted color and push everything else out into the background.
So what do I think of it? Hmm, I think it ends up in confirmation bias land. So people will end up pulling out the stories that they want to tell, but is it actually what's happening?
Sarah (21:10)
Hmm, interesting.
Yeah, that's a really interesting way of looking at it because I was almost thinking a little bit different to you and going, how is the average person going to really lean in and use this?
Fi (21:31)
I know that the head of sales is going to want to be able to demonstrate his point to his boss and he's gonna say, I've got this theory that, know, X, Y and Z, or if we're not talking about sales people by month, perhaps it's product category by month. And so he wants to tell that specific story. So he's gonna pull that out through the sketch. So I just think that it could end up being a little bit dangerous if we haven't got the right guard rails or boundaries in place.
Sarah (22:01)
Yeah, it's a great, great thought. And I'd like to see it out in the wild again and see what the feedback is. Maybe next year we'll see more of that.
Fi (22:11)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Sarah (22:13)
So Fi, Devs on Stage, it was, I feel, a lot more exciting than previous years. How do you think it plays into what we do here at Dub Dub Data?
Fi (22:22)
Well, I think that we always like to our hands on the tech pretty fast. So for me, I can't wait to get my hands on that Pulse research agent because I really do feel like that will be something that will help analysts to support the groups along the way. But yeah, I think there's a lot there that keeps us moving forward with the platform.
Sarah (22:49)
Yeah, totally agree.
So next up, let's talk about one of my favorite events at TC 2025, and that is Iron Viz This year was no letdown. It was the theme of FAA Wildlife Strikes Reimagined Through Storytelling Tech and Heart. This is something that was very close to people's heart because it was something that was originally done by Kelly Martin.
Fi (22:53)
Okay.
That's right. Kelly was a Tableau Zen Master And I remember her being quite pivotal and being very much the heart of the Tableau community. Kelly used to have a brilliant eye for color and design, but she was also a very kind and generous community member who nurtured and mentored
many people through the Tableau community. So it was lovely to see this sort of throwback to Kelly as she actually passed away a few years ago.
Sarah (23:48)
Yeah, it was really great and I did see a few tears in the audience and on stage as well, think. Thank you, thank you.
Fi (23:53)
Speaking of
on stage though, Andy Cotgreave was there with a wonderful outfit. As always, but in Tableau colours, he had blue and orange, which I think was a wonderful tip of the hat.
Sarah (24:01)
As always...
very much so, loved it. So also there was the three judges. So we had Chris, Amanda and Mark. the winner gets $15,000 for themselves and $11,000 donation to a chosen charity, which I thought was really lovely.
Fi (24:27)
Yeah that's great, I mean like who doesn't want 15k in their pocket, especially in US dollars at a time like this?
we had three contestants, Ryan Soares, Kathryn McKindle and Bo McCready. And for Bo, it was actually his seventh time trying to come and compete on the finalist stage. Really interesting that it's great to see that resilience and really chasing something with a passion.
Sarah (24:54)
That shows a lot of dedication. And talking of dedication, do you know they get the data set one month in advance? I bet they are eating, sleeping, and breathing that data set by the time they get on stage.
Fi (25:07)
Yeah, absolutely. And the poor people, they all had to catch flights. And this was all about getting bird strikes and knocking those flights down. It was a little cheeky of Tableau maybe.
Sarah (25:17)
Yes, isn't it? So over 20 minutes, they have to build these visualizations and then demonstrate what they do in a great storytelling effort at the end. How do you think it went
Fi (25:31)
Well, normally I would say that I've definitely got a distinct winner coming through. And this time around, I think there were elements from each individual that I liked, and then there were certainly things that didn't impress me as much. And so it was much harder for me to actually choose one of the participants.
starting out with, Ryan, his screen was almost blank while he was just doing a lot of calculations and prep and there was nothing that was seen upfront. But as it came closer and closer to the end of that 20 minutes, all of a sudden he was adding his backgrounds, which had clearly been made in Figma. He was using a floating technique rather than tiled, which is...
I guess it's fine when you're doing things for fun, but I'm not a fan of it when it's in a business because of the way that things can shift. And then bringing it all together in the end.
Sarah (26:28)
Yeah, it was really interesting to see how each of them handled the build and you can see them all on on screen at the same time. So a lot of like back end stuff happening happening in Ryan's world. And then I noticed that Bo was very visual right from the start and Kathryn was kind of in the middle.
Fi (26:45)
So what did you think of Ryan's?
Sarah (26:47)
I really loved how Ryan took us through a story, a journey of one group of birds migration from the North to the South and how he showed it in a really beautiful way on the map and having that kind of path to show how the birds were gonna go migration. And then in a Gantt chart down the right-hand side, walking us through when they should possibly travel in order not to become part of the flight path.
Fi (27:17)
Yes, he had excellent storytelling skills, but I would say that in terms of the visualizations that he'd done, it didn't wow me and strike me as something that I would normally go, like I didn't know that Tableau could do that. I knew that Tableau could do a lot of it. And I felt like he had a lot of pizzazz through his use of Figma, which can make the design look
beautiful and well put together like an infographic, but that's not Tableau.
Sarah (27:48)
interesting take. I'm still looking forward to downloading it myself and reverse engineering it.
Fi (27:53)
I'm sure. Up next was Kathryn's visualization what did you think of hers?
Sarah (27:59)
I really liked Kathryn's. I thought it was clean, clear, and visually appealing. I really liked how she had the plane laid out there as a background layer. And when she told the story, it was super clear how historically a lot of the birds would get caught in the nose of the plane. And then as we've evolved, a lot more get caught in the jet engine. And that was really obvious.
when she played the animation through and built the bar chart as it grew along. And then you could kind of click and have a look at the plane and see.
Fi (28:37)
I agree. I really liked Kathryn's and in fact she was my standout. I'll reveal that now. and the reason why she was my standout was I felt like she used a number of different tableau techniques that were either A, really new, for instance she used the custom theming or B, she really taught me something different. So she did these amazing map layers where she was using these
these circular references to plot out how many issues there had been. And it kind of reminded me visually of what you might see on a Navy submarine and it's sort of one of those sonars and there's different circles, you know, at different diameters coming out and really spreading through. And I thought that was really cute and sort of a tie back into that space. So I really appreciated that. In addition, I think that she made her
presentation and storytelling really fun. She brought in an element of the old Top Gun glasses as well and sort of showed a little bit of geekiness and bit of quirkiness, which I always think is really brave and draws me into the story as well. So I think she demonstrated the most in Tableau about what Tableau could do. So that's why she ended up being my top choice.
Sarah (29:55)
Yeah, she was actually my top choice as well.
Fi (29:59)
Well, it must be something about it, right? I mean, the only thing that stood out for me that perhaps could have been a little bit better, and you know, this is really where you start to get nitpicky, is that I felt that one of the oranges that she had shining through with a grey background was probably not great from an accessibility perspective. But I'd have to test that as well. otherwise, I think she did an amazing job, especially.
I hear she's not used to presenting to groups or anything, let alone 8,000 people. I think she did really well.
Sarah (30:30)
Yeah, for sure. think it was one of her first big presentations. So kudos for that.
Fi (30:35)
Yeah, amazing.
So onto the winner, which was Bo McCready. What did you think of Bo's visualizations?
Sarah (30:42)
So really interesting. Bo used a technique in Tableau using the visual storyboarding. So he told his story by clicking through different story elements rather than using a dashboard as per se. So a different way of telling the story. I did like the way he showed a marginal histogram in there, but...
Not so convinced about the pie charts being in there. What did you think, Fi?
Fi (31:10)
Yeah, it was really different. So one of the vizzes and I think I've referred to this before, that I always love to pull up when training people is having the histograms on both sides or the different bar charts on both sides of a visualization and usually a heat map or something in the middle. And he used these strings with
pie charts on them and I'm still not quite sure what the pie charts actually were. That didn't come through for me. I also had taken screenshots and I couldn't see on the visualization either what it actually referred to.
It's not something that I would perhaps recommend. But the thing that, I guess a few things stood out for me in his storytelling. One, he had...
a really similar insight, is whilst the volume of hits has actually increased over time, the severity of them or the danger of them has actually reduced in terms of the problems that it's caused.
The other thing that Bo did was radial bar charts as well. Although I feel like it was not a consistent story in terms of, or there wasn't a true story for me as to why he had selected those particular radial bar charts as well. Interestingly, the thing that struck me amongst the three of them, they all seem to have quite a
sequential journey coming through. There wasn't a long form visualization that we saw. It was very much what you can see on your screen, click to the next. And they all did it in different ways as well and that navigation. But perhaps where Bo really shined as he had a really good storytelling arc, really pulled the heartstrings talking about Kelly as well and spoke from the heart. So I think that there were definitely some things in there that really
pushed things to the next level for him.
Sarah (33:16)
Yeah, agree. And I mean, well done to all contestants, right? I don't think I could do it, even with a month's practice.
Fi (33:22)
Me too. And one other thing just to add in there, Ryan actually won the crowd favourite, I believe. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So amazing. Well done to everyone.
Sarah (33:28)
Yes. He did, yeah.
Yeah, and can't wait for them to be up on Tableau Public so we can download them and have a good crack at reverse engineering them and see what elements we can use going forward.
Fi (33:44)
That's right.
Sarah (33:45)
Okay, Fi, so we've covered the three main events. Did you get a time to watch anything else?
Fi (33:49)
Yep.
You know I did, because I dialled in with you on some things. But I would say I found it really difficult having to wake up, like go to bed early, at a really unnatural time for me, and then get up early as well. It really knocked me for six So I wasn't really too interested in seeing much else. We did tune into the twinsies We also saw one of Kevin's presentations as well.
Sarah (33:55)
This is true.
Fi (34:18)
I hope they keep the sessions up for a while so when I have some time I can go and dig deep. Was there anything that stood out to you in the sessions that you headed a long to?
Sarah (34:27)
Yeah, so I did watch a couple of extras without you. I watched Beyond the Boundaries of Tableau, a really great one from Tristan from La Data Viz. Loved that, looking at all the things that they've built in both APIs and then other little areas as well. So loved seeing some of the stuff that he's got available that you can leverage now. Also tuned into the speed tipping.
Highly recommend seeing that and even back catalogs as well. You know, some really great advice there from Nhung and Tore but loved, there was one around a progress bar that I can't wait to go back, watch again a little bit slower and try and invent that one again.
Fi (34:59)
Mm.
Sarah (35:17)
Also tuned into Pablo and his color mastery one and loved his little tip there on using Adobe Creator in order to get some great color palettes. He did a great walk, I think, around London, looking at some beautiful photos and really playing into color and contrast there. So enjoyed that one. And then watching the Twinney Twins, Kevin and Ken do their art.
do cool stuff in Tableau, those guys always excel and it's always great to watch them and we'll be watching that one back again because they talk really quickly and go really fast and I'm just like going, wow, wow and I do not write it all down as it happens.
Fi (36:00)
Amazing, amazing. Before we wrap up, last thoughts on community and just the feel of Tableau and maybe social media and what's going on.
Sarah (36:14)
Yeah, so great that you've asked that. it's been a hard one. We wanted to be there, we really did, but we couldn't. So I felt like we were getting FOMO from the start anyway. But in the past, you you felt included because you could go to a social media channel and you could catch up on it all there. It didn't feel like it had that this year. It felt very broken up. You know, we're fortunate enough to be on one of the big WhatsApp groups.
That felt a little bit flat. Social seemed a little bit all over the show. Nothing like really big and going for it. How did you feel about it, Fi?
Fi (36:53)
I was on the hunt. I was really trying to hunt things down on social media and see what was going on.
In the heyday, there would be so many photos of people catching up together. There would be photos in front of screens. There would be photos of people presenting. There would be lots of live tweets on what's actually happening. I know that there's a lot of friction out there around people leaving X and going to Blue Sky, but Blue Sky hasn't kicked off. They may say that they're there, but they're not actually talking there. There were some posts on LinkedIn as
well. So I even asked the crew that was there to figure out, where is everyone first of all? And where am I missing out? Like I feel like I'm on the outer. And everyone said it's just not really happening or I'm trying to be more present and not focusing too much on social media. But I think Tableau is really missing a trick in the community space because one of the things that
even Gartner used to write about was the strength of the community behind Tableau. And it's like there's not really a place for that so much anymore. It's very fragmented. One observation that I do make is that Tableau used to invest really heavily into the socials at conference. So I even noticed that there wasn't a lot of content coming out from Tableau themselves at the rate that they used to have. And
I asked whether or not they had screens up with all of the social feeds coming through from attendees and no, this year they didn't. But apparently I'm a little bit behind the eight ball and they haven't had that for quite a number of years as well. maybe that's something that they could potentially look at how they reinvest in that space. I can't imagine that it's too expensive to do and just get the people back on board with.
being delighted at seeing their own tweets and photos that are up there, which means that there's a lot more content that's getting shared online.
Sarah (38:59)
Yeah, I agree. know, hashtag TC, whatever year it was, used to go off back in the day and you'd walk around and really feel connected with people that maybe you just bumped into and now up on the big screen doing something or, you know, you yourself would be up there. And I think it just, made you feel really included. And I recall as well, you know, other people that were not on the scene, felt included as well from all around the world. So yeah, I hope they bring that back for next year.
Fi (39:28)
Maybe we should ask Matthew Miller, get that on the wishlist.
Sarah (39:31)
Exactly.
And back in San Diego next year as well.
Fi (39:35)
That's right. Did you get the dates? I think it's around May 5th, was it?
Sarah (39:39)
Yeah,
so maybe a little bit more user friendly next year in terms of not coinciding with Easter and Anzac and school holidays.
Fi (39:47)
Alright, well it feels like this is the natural end of the podcast. Is there anything else you wanted to add on your reflections before we wrap up?
Sarah (39:56)
think it was better than I thought it was going to be. I think there's some really great stuff that's happening and I'm looking forward to how it's going to serve our clients.
Fi (40:04)
100%. You know, I was really excited to see even some of the advances that they're making with the agentic stuff, even in the two months from when I went to world tour and coming in here, there's a lot more focus on it. And I'm seeing that it's starting to look prettier, if that makes sense in the design, which is really exciting for me.
Sarah (40:28)
Yeah, and I think the whole API extensions is really gonna land well with the community and get people excited to be developing in that space.
Fi (40:37)
Spot on.
Sarah (40:39)
So that was unDUBBED, where we are unscripted, uncensored, and undeniably data.
Don't forget to like and subscribe and share with those that you love. We love hearing from you as well, so do leave us a review.
Fi (40:53)
Thanks very much everyone. We hope that you came away with some inspiration. We'll leave some links in the show notes for you to find out more about what happened at TC. And we look forward to tuning in again with you soon. Take care, bye.
