Data tells the story: AI, Bigfoot and trail mix

The 9th annual ASU Data Conference focused on telling the story beyond the numbers.

Joycelyn Muñoz

November 4, 2025

The 9th annual ASU Data Conference saw over 400 data leaders, experts and enthusiasts gather on the Tempe campus this week to learn about the newest data tools and the best tips and tricks of data storytelling.

The two-day event opened with a keynote from bestselling author Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, followed by over 40 breakout sessions led by ASU data experts and industry partners Tableau and Alteryx.

Knaflic delivered the opening address one day one, and demonstrated how to overcome common graph and slide issues through an unconventional method – macadamia nuts.

Data tells the story: Trail mix

According to Knaflic, giving a good presentation includes transforming the teleprompter slide, putting on a good show and diving into the story – even if that story is about macadamia nuts.

In this demonstration, the prices of macadamia nuts have increased, resulting in a company needing to make a decision on their trail mix: remake it with an alternative to the macadamia nuts, or raise product prices to breakeven. Through in-depth research on resources, taste and customer reception, Knaflic used the data collected to tell the story of the magic of the macadamia.

Along with visuals, language and more, Knaflic emphasized the most important aspect of creating a good presentation: the presenter.

“You play [a] critical role in terms of how your data is received, whether it's understood and acted upon, “ Knaflic said. “So, spend a bit of time on what you say and how you say it.”

Sliced!: Finding Bigfoot

Cole Knaflic’s tips and tricks for a good presentation were on full display at the highly anticipated Sliced! competition.

The competition encourages ASU data community members to put together their data visualization skills to answer the problem statement. Hosted by Mike Sharkey, executive director of data and analysis and executive sponsor of the event, and introduced by Alexis Pumel, business intelligence analyst director for ASU data and analytics, this year’s contest asked participants to gather data to answer the question: When is the best time to catch a sighting of Bigfoot?

The winning team, Team The Gang Wins Sliced, included John VanHenkelum, Andrew Parker, and Ethan Parks from ASU EdPlus.

“It's easy to throw up a pivot table,” the team said. “It's easy to just say, give me some raw data. That's just giving you data without a story, and that's just boring evidence. Really, when it comes down to it, when it comes down to Bigfoot, the truth isn't out there, it's right here, and we have it.”

AI’s role in data

The Data Tool Bar presented a unique intrigue for participants at this year’s Data Conference, offering industry experts available for training and activities for interested members of ASU’s data community. TELUS Digital is a customer solutions company which provides Salesforce consulting and implementation services across the platform’s suite.

“It's a really powerful way to get into AI without having to understand it 100%,” said Shane Sugino, senior sales director at TELUS digital AI solutions. “You don’t have to have a bunch of data scientists and AI scientists on your staff.”

Other experts from AWS, the ASU AI Acceleration Team, Alteryx, and more were all also available at the Data Tool Bar. TELUS also partners with Tableau who ran one of the many breakout sessions discussing data tool innovations with AI. Throughout the session, Coleman Wagoner, principal solutions engineer for Tableau, demonstrated Tableau Agent, a conversational AI assistant designed to help build analytics proficiency, especially for newer Tableau users.

“I've been working with Tableau for 14 years,” Wagoner said. “I know what it's going to do before I even do it, but for a lot of our users, they might have 50 or 100 fields, and nobody really knows what to do with them. And so, the vision behind Tableau Agent is: how do we help lower the barriers to analytics really enable more people to ask and answer questions with data, as well as maybe help them learn a little bit of analytics proficiency about how Tableau approaches different things?”

Other breakout sessions discussing innovative data tools include: Fabric Architecture from Start to Finish; Enhancing the Accelerated Master’s Experience: Automation, Tracking, and Support; Amazon Sagemaker; and The Golden Thread in Action: Transforming Analytics with dbt, Airflow, and the Medallion Architecture; and much more.