🏆 Announcing the results of round 1 of the Power BI Dataviz World Champs!

[slindsay]

What an incredible couple of weeks it has been. More than 120 creators jumped into the week 1 challenge with courage, creativity, and a willingness to learn in public - which is one of the bravest, most generous things you can do in a community like ours. 💛

Every single entry reflected effort, curiosity, and growth. You tried new techniques, pushed outside your comfort zones, experimented with animations, accessibility, design systems, insights, and storytelling - and it showed. Whether this was your first-ever Power BI report or your tenth contest with us, you should feel proud of the work you put into the world. Thank you for sharing your talent with us, and with each other.

You made this one of our strongest contest rounds ever.

🏆 Announcing the round 1 winner

After a rare moment of unanimous agreement among all judges (yes - this has never happened before!), we are thrilled to announce the very first finalist of the 2026 Power BI Dataviz World Champs prelim rounds.

✨  Briarport's Urban Performance Through an Executive Sustainability Lens by Gus Bavia (LinkedIn)

@Gusbavia's  report stood out for its polish, thoughtful use of interactivity, clever application of bookmarks, beautiful color and layout consistency, and an experience that feels both educational and incredibly usable. It’s a masterclass in balancing detail, storytelling, and functional design. Huge congratulations, Gus! 

 ⭐ Judges’ Favorites

In addition to the winner, the judges selected a set of standout entries for their exceptional craft, insight, and unique ideas. These entries were all nearly flawless, and all scored high in accessibility. Please take a look at these seven reports and leave the creators some love in the comments!

Here are the Judges’ Favorites, in no particular order:

• Santhana Lakshmi Ponnurasan (LinkedIn)
  @Santhanalakshmi built us a clean, interactive, and incredibly usable report. Her thoughtful “what-if” analysis and polished policy recommendations really made her report stand out!

• Aanor Le Gouic (LinkedIn)
  @Leanore's report is a masterclass in insight-rich storytelling, beautiful layouts, unique visuals, and the kind of attention to detail that makes every page feel purposeful.

• Jon Manweiller (LinkedIn)
  @JonManweillerQC  built a clean, sharp report with strong interactivity - including a metric relationship explorer that impressed all three judges.

• Marius Helle (send us your LinkedIn!)
  @MariusHelle created a beautifully structured scrollytelling one‑pager with perfect accessibility and elegant sectioning. 

• Injae Park (LinkedIn)
  @PowerBIPark created a signature “packed with ideas” interactive experience that brings a surprising amount of insight out of a small dataset.

• Pankaj Bhalke (LinkedIn)
  @pb_amk created a report with some fresh UX ideas, thoughtful KPI explanations, and creative donut‑as‑gauge visuals that stood out to the judges.

• Richard Ampie (LinkedIn)
  @rampie built a report with intuitive interactions, a smart card-driven navigation experience, and clean data exploration patterns.

Every one of these entries brought something special! Please be sure to check them out!

🗳️ Coming Next: People’s Favorites

We also want you - the community - to have a voice.

Voting has been underway behind the scenes, and next week we’ll be unveiling the People’s Favorites, based entirely on community votes. These don’t affect the official winners, but they’ll receive a spotlight and special recognition for capturing the community’s attention.

Stay tuned - we can’t wait to share which reports resonated most with all of you!


On with the rest of the competition!

Now we're headed to finish up week 2 judging, and you all are already deep into week 3! We're so excited to choose the next finalist!

[Gusbavia]

It’s an absolute honour to be part of this competition and to compete alongside such incredible professionals and truly inspiring dashboards. Grateful for the opportunity and the community. Atlanta, here we go!