Style guides typically cover fonts, tone, and color palettes, but what about how data gets visualized? Over the years, Freeman and Duarte have made a strong case for establishing clear brand guidelines for data storytelling. That’s because every chart, slide, and visual has the potential to tell a data-backed story.

For Duarte’s May 2025 webinar, Duarte CEO Nancy Duarte and Chief People Officer Becky Bausman joined Freeman’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mickey Wilson, and Senior Vice President of Strategy, Ken Holsinger, to discuss Duarte’s ongoing collaboration with Freeman to produce quarterly trends reports for the events industry.

When not making moments that matter at conferences and trade shows, Freeman studies what audiences are seeking from in-person events. Their regular reports tell compelling stories with data that aim to drive action in the events space. To help nudge the industry to explore new approaches to audience satisfaction, they needed a thought partner on the same wavelength.

Beyond amassing and analyzing the data, Freeman and Duarte collaborate to frame findings as concise data stories. Working together, the reports create invaluable thought leadership for a fast-moving industry. Plus, their partnership articulates why effective data storytelling should be an integral part of any brand presence.

Through careful planning, data storytelling best practices can become second nature. This creates a shared language company-wide for presenting data and maintaining effortless alignment. Along with guiding businesses on how to derive more value from their in-person interactions, data storytelling makes the stakes, risks, and opportunities clear.

In this clip, Ken explains why strong guidelines for data storytelling are crucial for brands looking to communicate data the right way every time.