add XT26 Simone Steel Data Cartography blog post

src/pages/blog/xt26-simone-steel-data-cartography.md

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+---
+author: 'jdt'
+title: 'XT26 Talks: Data Cartography: From Static Blueprints to Navigable Maps for Data-Driven Organisations'
+description: 'How Data Cartography provides the shared visual grammar needed for meaningful conversations in a complex world'
+category: 'conference'
+layout: '../../layouts/BlogPost.astro'
+publishedDate: '2026-07-03'
+heroImage: 'xt26-simone-steel.jpg'
+tags:
+  - 'XT26'
+  - 'Data'
+  - 'conference'
+  - 'tech talks'
+---
+
+<iframe class='aspect-video w-full' src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HsyTW33qCjY?si=8iR-TebBtbjuRyuI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+Download Simone's slides <a href="/xt26/simone-steel.pdf" target="_blank">here.</a>
+
+Want to be the first to know when the XT26 talks drop? [Register here](/xt26/#attend) and we'll send the link straight to your inbox.
+
+Maps are powerful tools for communication that deserve broader appreciation and adoption. In her XT26 talk, Simone distilled her decades of experience in IT and Change Management within financial services into a review of the most common illusions that she observes, and some specific guidance on how the industry can break through these illusions, using maps, to have more meaningful conversations in the age of AI.
+
+The topic of mapping has been a passion of mine for quite some time (I was even fortunate enough to attend Simon Wardley’s inaugural [Map Camp 2017](https://www.map-camp.com/_pages/2017-10-05_London/)), so I was nodding in vigorous agreement for much of the talk. Even so, Simone introduced me to plenty of fresh perspectives, like the ‘[Reification Fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(fallacy))’ that rather implies most organisations are far too reliant on systems that deal with lagging “snapshots of intent”, which are really just projections of what we think of as reality, and leave us all unable to explain what’s going on as things evolve in the real world.
+
+Similarly, the bias in management-level discussions to prefer communicating in abstractions that obscure or prevent proper grounding in concrete information. These are situations where visual representations that include scale, landmarks and spatial awareness (all commonplace ideas in mapping) can improve our communication regardless of whether we’re discussing IT integrations, regulatory changes, or budget decisions.
+
+Thank you Simone for the inspiring talk! Also, great cameo question from Kris Jenkins (of [Developer Voices](https://www.developervoices.com/) podcast) at the end - “do you think it’s worth trying to map human connections in organisations?”