I've been a fan of Edward Tufte since I first pulled his book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information down off the shelf at Powell's Books and peered inside. Tufte has been termed by The New York Times "the Leonardo da Vinci of data," and four beautiful and powerful books have won 40 awards. A professor emeritus at Yale, he taught statistical evidence, information design, and interface design.

Tufte presents a one-day course "Presenting Data and Information" in a number of cities throughout the world each year. Not only is his topic fascinating, and his content the very best, but his masterful presentation and delivery are spellbinding. I am fortunate to have taken his class twice: the second time I got even more out of it than the first. He is that good.

Tufte is presenting his class in Portland at the Portland Art Museum on Wednesday, July 16, 2008. Register early, his classes often fill up quickly

Other cities on his speaking schedule this year include Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, London, Amsterdam, and Berlin.

The day-long course includes all four of Tufte's books, and the class's overall structure guides you through some of the major topics in each book. That's makes the $380 fee a great value and worthwhile investment.

Expand your mind. Change how you think about, design, and present information.