graphic recording & facilitation
infographics & process maps
custom templates & illustration
Dallas 2009 Mastermind – Sheri McConnell, Inc.
Friday, June 19th, 2009
CLIENT: Sheri McConnell, Inc.
NEED: To capture the shared content during a Mastermind on woman entrepreneurs, so each participant could use it as a large-scale (and digitized) visual archive of the event. This was the 2nd Mastermind with this group, so the information is a visual thread, tracking each woman’s progress over the course of months.
OUTCOME: 5 graphic records from each participant in the Mastermind – Christine Kane was the only participant who did not swear me to confidentiality, hence her display above.
Hawai’i Public Radio – Bytemarks Cafe
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
While in Waikiki, I was invited by Burt Lum – the gracious host of a radio show called Bytemarks Café – to be on Hawai’i Public Radio to discuss the intersection between new technology and visualization. (Not that I’ve even scratched the surface of all the possibilities there, but it’s worth a conversation.) We were joined by instructor and web designer Chris Gargiulo from KCC. Chris and I discussed the process of designing for the audience’s experience and our personal insight into good design principles (and what I unfortunately referred to on-air as “fugly” design principles). We had callers ask about PowerPoint – one teacher said her school’s design specs require the use of blue text on a yellow background (what?!) – and others discussed some of the challenges of thinking through good design. To catch the audio file, Listen here. If you only want to hear my contribution, start at 19:56. Thank you for listening. Good night, and Good Luck.
Life is Hard Enough Without Visual Thinking
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Photo Above: Documented proof of how painful it is to go without the use of visual thinking in your life.
Photo Below: Incontrovertible evidence that when I conduct an Intro to Visual Thinking Workshop, it brings people significant amounts of joy.
Okay, so I jest. I forced my students to express happiness after an 8-hour day of learning visual thinking techniques. But if you ask them, I don’t think they were truly coerced. Click on the photo to see pictures of them in action and my assertion that they were enjoying themselves will be more credible. I even had one gentlemen – originally late to class and hiding in the back – have a breakthrough in his willingness to draw at all, much less in front of others. It was one of those moments that, as a facilitator, you live for. Well worth drafting a customized 30-page curriculum. The topics covered in the workshop ranged from shapes, figures, faces and listening techniques to a closing discussion on fairly sophisticated information design (this group moved fast). I would have liked to have someone draw me a diagram on the intricacies of the Hula dance, but we ran out of time. 
