Leading with Purpose: Using Ikigai to Shape Your Personal Brand and Influence in Tech

In a fast-moving industry where leadership is often mistaken for seniority, certifications, or job titles, it’s easy to overlook the deeper drivers that shape authentic influence. True leadership begins with clarity of purpose, understanding not just what you do, but why you do it.

In this 20-minute session, I’ll share how the Japanese concept of Ikigai, “life's worth”, transformed not only my career direction, but the way I lead, show up, and contribute to the data community. From navigating a career crisis to becoming an international speaker, STEM Ambassador, and advocate for accessible data design, I’ll walk through the pivotal moments that helped me build a purpose-driven personal brand rooted in service, visibility, and integrity.

We’ll explore how Ikigai can help you clarify your leadership identity, elevate your voice in the community, and build a personal brand that opens doors, not because you chase recognition, but because you stand for something bigger than a job description.

Accessibility Considerations in Power BI: Designing for Everyone

Ready to future-proof your dashboards? In this 20-minute session, we’ll explore how to make Power BI reports not only beautiful and insightful, but truly accessible.

We’ll look beyond compliance to inclusive design, uncovering the tools and settings already at your fingertips inside Power BI. From keyboard navigation and tab order to colour contrast and visual cues, you’ll walk away with practical, easy-to-apply tips that work for everyone.

Optimising Primavera P6 Reporting with Power BI

Unlock the full potential of Primavera P6 reporting with Power BI! This session is designed to help project professionals transform P6 data into actionable insights by leveraging Power BI’s powerful analytics and visualisation capabilities.

I will explore different ways to connect Power BI to Primavera P6, break down the structure of P6 exports, and demonstrate how to build meaningful reports, including S-Curves. Additionally, I’ll highlight the importance of data accessibility to ensure that reports are inclusive for all users.

Through a real-world case study, attendees will gain hands-on knowledge of how to clean, model, and visualise P6 data, empowering them to drive better decision-making and streamline project reporting.

WCAG Compliance in Power BI: Making Data Accessible to All

In today’s data-driven world, ensuring Power BI reports are accessible to all users is not just an ethical responsibility but a fundamental necessity. With over 1 billion people worldwide living with disabilities, inaccessible reports risk excluding key stakeholders, limiting decision-making, and reducing engagement.

By implementing Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) POUR principles (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust) in Power BI development, organisations can ensure data insights are available to everyone, fostering inclusivity and compliance.

This session will provide practical strategies for embedding accessibility in Power BI, including:
• Applying WCAG POUR principles to Power BI development for enhanced accessibility.
• Leveraging built-in Power BI accessibility features, such as keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and alt text for visuals.
• Structuring data reports effectively to optimise usability and meet compliance standards.

This session is ideal for both Power BI developers and business leaders seeking to ensure WCAG compliance in their reporting frameworks.

Accidental Data Lies: How Poor Visual Choices Can Mislead

Welcome to the world of accidental data lies, where innocent-looking charts quietly twist the truth. And in today’s world, where ethical data visualisation is a hot (and important) topic, it's something we all need to watch out for.

We’ll uncover the most common (and sneaky!) ways charts mislead, from pie chart pandemonium to axis trickery, colour chaos, and the dreaded “average of averages.” Expect real-world examples of chart crimes, a few laughs at visual disasters, and sharper instincts for spotting deception.

But it’s not just about dodgy design, this session also dives into the ethics of visual storytelling. We’ll explore how the ‘framing effect’ and ‘sampling bias’ can quietly distort meaning, and how to design with integrity so visuals inform rather than mislead.

From spreadsheet wizards to Power BI spellcasters, this session will help you create visuals that don’t just dazzle, they tell the truth and earn trust.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Spot the Sneaky Stuff:
Identify the most common ways charts mislead, including bad chart types, distorted axes, and overloaded visuals, and understand why they’re so effective at fooling us.
2. Choose the Right Chart for the Right Story:
Learn how to match chart types to data types, avoid common mismatches (like line charts for categories), and use Power BI visuals with purpose and clarity.
3. Design with Integrity:
Apply practical Power BI techniques to simplify dashboards, label data clearly, and communicate insights with transparency and trust.

Implementing Alternative Accessible Colours in Power BI Reports

Here’s a truth we don’t talk about enough: the way we design data can unintentionally exclude people.

Think about this, around 350 million people worldwide live with some form of colour-blindness. For them, that carefully crafted report with its reds, ambers, and greens might not be clear at all. What we see as obvious signals of performance and progress can become blurred, misunderstood, or even invisible.

Now, here’s the challenge: branding guidelines, corporate colours, and reporting traditions often leave little room for change. And yet, if our goal is to empower all users to make sense of data, then accessibility can’t be an afterthought, it must be built in.

In this session, we’ll look at how Power BI can help us meet this challenge. I’ll walk you through practical accessibility features, WCAG colour guidelines, and a real solution I’ve developed that allows users to toggle between standard and accessible colour views.

This isn’t just about design. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about trust. It’s about saying to colleagues and stakeholders: your perspective matters, and you deserve clarity too. When we build with accessibility at the core, we don’t just create better reports, we create better cultures of collaboration and innovation.

Uncovering the Secrets of Dashboard Design

Great dashboards don’t just show data, they guide users to insights effortlessly. In this fast-paced session, we’ll unlock the power of alignment, white space, and page scanning patterns to create visually stunning, easy-to-navigate and accessible Power BI dashboards. Learn how to hack human perception with smart design choices, so your audience finds what they need before they even realise they’re looking for it! Expect real-world examples, and plenty of “aha!” moments. Ready to level up your dashboard game? Let’s go!

Target audience: Dashboards developers, focusing on Power BI but principles are applied across different tools.
Session duration 45 min