Rain Bennett is a two-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer, podcaster, speaker and all-round ‘competitive storyteller’ who helps people tell better stories, so they can do better work and make a better world.

“In 2012”, he writes, “I set out with a camera and a backpack to travel the world and tell the story of an underground fitness movement…No one had heard of me…I had no crew, cheap equipment, and no budget. But I traveled to over 15 countries, building relationships and focusing on finding the true heart of the story.

Now, I take what I learned the hard way through 15 years of making documentaries and use it to help business creatives and marketers leverage the power of storytelling to maximize the impact on their audiences and inspire them to take action, without spending a lot of time or money.”

Rain’s podcast The Storytelling Lab teaches listeners how to tell a story in the most authentic, effective way from a multitude of perspectives, from the world expert on slideshow stories Nancy Duarte, to screenwriters, ‘brain coaches’ and entrepreneurs building their personal brand. His book Six Second Stories tells us how to communicate a strong message in short-form video storytelling, which is pretty useful stuff to know if you’re wanting to go viral on TikTok.

Rain is even more obsessed with the power of stories than I am, which is why I was so excited to host him on my  show. 

We get into whether data and technology help or take away from our ability to tell authentic stories, the period of rapid cultural change we are seeing in 2023, and the need for humans to embrace humility and collaboration as our chance to differentiate ourselves from AI capabilities like Chat GPT.

rainbennett.com

linkedin.com/in/rainbennett

tiktok.com/@rainbennett_storycoach

Rain’s book: Six Second Stories: Maximize Your Impact in Minimal Time with Video Storytelling

Rain’s podcast: The Storytelling Lab

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Chris Onowu, Global Head of Data Product at Kubrick Group, is a highly skilled hybrid Product Development leader with over 15 years of industry experience. He has a bachelor's degree in Statistics and Economics, expertise in product development, product leadership, business analysis and change management, and is a doctoral candidate in Business Administration, with research interests in Balanced Scorecards. 

Before joining Kubrick in 2019 to build the Data Product strategic business unit, he managed complex technology and business transformation projects in large financial institutions, including J. P. Morgan and Barclays. He’s since shaped the emergent practice of the Data Product discipline at Kubrick for hundreds of graduates joining the data industry in the UK and now the US.

The definition of a ‘data product’, let alone the work involved to design, build and market one, is constantly changing as the tech industry creates more and more ways to serve and delight customers. So to teach the skills to work in this field requires a premium resilience and embrace of change, something that Chris Onowu possesses in bucket loads.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, we are currently in a golden era of data products, as businesses and individuals are increasingly realising the value that lies in treating data as a product, just like any other product we buy and enjoy, and how that changes how we move through the world.

Working in this field myself, it was truly amazing to hear the vision that Chris has for where data products are going and how they will change the foundational structures of modern society. If you ever wonder why you can’t stop scrolling on Instagram, or what’s coming after the Metaverse, listen to what Chris has got to say, someone with a finger on the pulse of this evolution.

Talking points:

• What is a data product? 
• The potential of data products as limitless
• The cultural and mindset shifts needed to embrace change
• Tangible impacts of data products in our everyday lives today
• How to prioritise what data products to build in an organisation
• Why stories are inherent to data products

linkedin.com/in/chris-onowu-1b62816b/

kubrickgroup.com/uk/what-we-do/our-practices#data-product

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Rahul Bhargava, Assistant Professor at Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media & Design in Boston, Massachusetts, is an educator, researcher, designer, and facilitator who builds collaborative projects to interrogate our datafied society with a focus on rethinking participation and power in data processes. He has created big data research tools to investigate media attention, built hands-on interactive museum exhibits that delight learners of all ages, and run over 100 workshops to build data culture in newsrooms, non-profits, and libraries. Rahul has collaborated with a wide range of groups, from the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil to the St. Paul library system and the World Food Program. His academic work on data literacy, technology, and civic media has been published in journals such as the International Journal of Communication, the Journal of Community Informatics, and been presented at conferences such as IEEE Vis and ICWSM. His museum installations have appeared at the Boston Museum of Science, Eyebeam in New York City, and the Tech Interactive in San Jose.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being entranced by a performance of music or drama, so enraptured by the story you’re physically witnessing that it imprints in your memory. Learning through shared creative experiences comes naturally to humans, who have always gathered across time periods and cultures to act, dance and make art and music together. 

Data is a tool of power, and the skills to work with it are mostly taught through using a certain set of tools, like graphs and charts. But for those of us who learn through story, context, relationships, language, and emotional intimacy - this toolbox needs expanding.

Data theatre, data sculpture and data murals are just some of the mediums that Rahul researches to demonstrate how knowledge about data should be shared in multiple ways, to meet the diversity of learning styles amongst all people in society.

By making data education physically experiential - getting people in a room to actually make stuff, with real people and structures in 3D, interactive settings, and have fun doing it - many more people can learn to find their voice in discussions on data.

dataculture.northeastern.edu

dataculture.northeastern.edu/2021/05/27/2020-year-of-data-sculptures.html 

databasic.io

camd.northeastern.edu/faculty/rahul-bhargava/

twitter.com/rahulbot 

vis.social/@rahulbot

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Sarah Schlobohm is shaping the careers of graduates entering the data industry - and making Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics top of the agenda.

As Head of AI at Kubrick Group, a London-based data consultancy rapidly growing in the UK and US, Sarah couples teaching how to programme artificial intelligence with an emphasis on thinking critically about the ethical and regulatory challenges that this same technology brings.

Struggling to choose between specialising in Linguistics or Physics after her undergraduate degree, her passion for science lead her to choose the latter, gaining a PhD in particle physics at the University of Washington before ‘accidentally’ becoming a chartered accountant and forging a career in data science.

But Linguistics might have lead Sarah down the same path, she shares, because it’s a love of language - human or computer programming - that makes the potential of data so alluring.

We cover how words in any language encode powerful meaning, the need for public awareness about how data is being used to influence us, and how to move datasets towards representing the diversity of society they should be serving. Plus…are we trying to predict too much with AI?

linkedin.com/in/sarahschlobohm

kubrickgroup.com

womenindata.co.uk

carolinecriadoperez.com/book/invisible-women

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At first glance, you might think of literary analysis and data analysis to be worlds apart. The former looks at how narratological devices like character, plot and language create meaningful messages to audiences, and exists in the realm of fiction. The latter is about drawing knowledge from what has happened in the ‘real’ world, and therefore what is ‘fact’.

But what is the difference between fact and fiction, if not just two foundations for storytelling?

Rob Burgess is a Data Visualisation Designer at the John Lewis Partnership with a specialism in producing data-driven visuals and infographics. Starting out writing fiction, Rob now brings customer insight to life by playing on the strengths of both visual and verbal mediums to communicate data stories.

We unravel how truth is something we construct from interpreting stories, whether those stories are factual or fictional, and why both literary texts and datasets offer a multitude of readings. Rob proposes a triangular relationship in which data, pictures and words rotate in competition, one always beating the next for the prize in how to tell the best story. And we explain why curiosity into the unknown and an expansive imagination is what makes the fun of analysing both literature and data pretty similar after all.

johnlewispartnership.co.uk

linkedin.com/in/robert-j-burgess

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Andy Cotgreave is an author, content host and Technical Evangelist at Tableau, a data visualisation software company. Embarking on a career as an illustrator before switching to a Geography degree last minute, Andy then discovered Computer Science and has since worked in the multi-faceted field of data insights.

Now a renowned expert in ‘helping people to see and understand data’, representing Tableau at global conferences and in the press, Andy teaches people across the world how to present data in a consumable, effective way.

Can data ever really contain a ‘story’? What’s the difference between a data ‘story’ and a narrative? Breaking down the popularised term ‘data storytelling’, Andy prefers ‘data communication’, arguing that data on the dashboard is one thing, but the story actually comes from the person presenting the data.

Plus, we discuss how the design world uses principles of cognitive science to craft influential messages, explore whether data visualisations can be used as weapons of misinformation, and look to the future of Tableau.

@acotgreave

linkedin.com/in/acotgreave

gravyanecdote.com 

bigbookofdashboards.com

amazon.com/Big-Book-Dashboards-Visualizing-Real-World

tableau.com/community/if-data-could-talk 

gravyanecdote.com/sweet-spot-newsletter 

Chart Chat: youtu.be/Kz_EFINGXXY 

dataiq.global/dataiq100-2021/profile/andy-cotgreave-technical-evangelist-tableau

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Retailers have got to manage a lot of data exploding out of every area of the business - products, suppliers, online traffic, customers - which can be both a blessing and a curse. How do you manage such huge volumes of data in a safe and secure way, and, what’s more, get something out of it?

Snowflake’s Data Cloud helps retailers like John Lewis do clever things with their data. We discuss why ‘data collaboration’ will be the next big thing for companies wanting to distinguish themselves, question whether technology is helping to ease our collective craving for connection, and explore why automation is actually helping humans to do more.

The Data Cloud has big potential, but what does this technology really need to have the most value in any organisation?

Data literacy, says Paul. The ability for everyone to read, understand and debate with data. Tune in to hear why.

Follow Paul: @PaulWinsor1969

https://www.snowflake.com/

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Introducing Data Stories with Isabel Becker, the podcast that explores the relationship between data and narrative storytelling, to understand how data can spark the imaginations in us all, and how we can all learn the language of data stories.

Experimenting with ideas from across business, the creative arts and education, Data Stories is the place for you to expand your boundaries and think differently about how we can bring data to life, for everyone.

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