I always say, when you can SEE a challenge, you can solve a challenge. This graphic recording session was with Dell’s Higher Education Marketing team. They have a comprehensive and executable strategy for moving hi-ed institutions toward virtualization, but the team needed to see how the many moving parts fit together and determine how they should be labeled. This was a 1/2-day conversation wherein I facilitated and graphically recorded. The output you see above represents the large-scale visual archive created with the group. And FYI, I do not envy marketing people. I know how hard it is to articulate services and their value to clients. I suppose that’s why I prefer to draw pictures for explanations.

Producing TEDx Austin felt like birthing some kind of gigantic baby. I think I can speak for the entire team – Nancy Giordano, Jen Spencer, Kelley Burrus, Shannon Mehner, Chris Justice, Mary Baird-Wilcox and Stacy Weitzner – when I say that it would be impossible to capture the experience in one word. There were triumphs, frustrations, elation, teamwork, tough decisions, and absolute overjoy at what we were putting together. And through it all was the undeniable knowledge that Austin, TX needed and deserved a killer TEDx. That our little town is growing up, transforming into a big city with a big heart, a big brain and ideas that are big beyond belief. I have to give thanks to my graphics team, composed of Honoria Starbuck and Austin Kleon, but if I started thanking all of the other heads and hands that were involved, you would probably stop reading this blog post. (We all know that in this day and age, people want pictures.)

Some personal highlights for me:

• Seeing the program designed by the Butler Brothers and the video that showed its creation. One of those ‘wow’ moments.
• Establishing a relationship with Shiny Object – a film production company whose work I admire and enjoy.
• Connecting with Philip Berber and his wife Donna of the Glimmer of Hope Foundation.
• Hanging out with a freaky astronaut and a sexy firefighter.
• The fact that we had 10,000+ individuals who watched the livestream (29% of which were in New Zealand!)
• Working with a team of women who were indomitable.
• NOT working during the event itself. I so often graphically record or contribute to the group process in some live, visual way that I just wanted to be present and enjoy the birth of our big ole idea baby. (The graphic architectures above were created by me beforehand and the audience populated them with content over the course of the day.)
• Being thanked on stage for our efforts and feeling how much the crowd really did appreciate it.
• Going to the TEDx Rejects party at Conjunctured afterward. Word up, rejects.
• Slowly absorbing long after the event was over how truly incredible it was. Is it too dramatic to thank God for the TED people? I mean, it’s not just an event they’ve created. It’s a humanitarian movement. And I think that’s worth saying thank you for.

Onward to TEDx Austin 2011.

Nothing like seeing a prospective cover for your book makes you feel inclined to start churning chapters out! (I hope it’s having the same effect on my co-authors.) Ladies and gentleman, I’m thrilled to show you for the first time the cover for the magnum opus that Dave Gray, James Macanufo and I have been working on for what seems like the last eight years. Please click on the link to see the blog for the book. (O’Reilly may partner with us to create a more formal site, but in the meantime, all the action is happening at Knowledge Games.) The purpose of the book is to give people games to help them access solutions to business problems that–if they follow traditional problem-solving methods–they may not otherwise access. It’s going to be awesome if I do say so myself.

When Disney called, I had to hold on to my mouse ears. It was, of course, a privilege to be invited to partner with Imagineers, and it was made doubly fun because I got to work with Scott Trowbridge – who should probably be a comedian in his spare time. (Nothing like a comic facilitator to really make a session work.) Scott and I were charged with leading a group composed of internal Disney employees and external consultants to ideate on a huge prospective project. We co-designed an agenda that concluded with a hands-on module called ‘Make a World’ (yes, I love Ed Emberley, too) wherein the participants were asked to suspend disbelief (if they were harboring some) and visually “play” with the possibilities for the project outcome. It was a two-day session and I graphically recorded from the onset, so by the second day I think the group felt more comfortable with what probably seemed like a very non-traditional approach to ideation. But, as Walt Disney might say about skepticism, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Click here or on the picture above to see some of the images from the session.

The TED Conference in Long Beach happened a few months ago but I’m just now getting around to posting pictures from the event. (I never promised I would blog in any coherent chronological order.) For those of you familiar with the TED Conference, you can imagine how thrilled I was to be asked to form a graphic facilitation team to engage attendees inbetween talks. (And I have to admit that against my will I stalked Regina Spektor and told her how charming her stage fright was. In response she told me she loved Austin. Whoo hoo!) My role at TED was working on The Whiteboard Project for Duarte Design and GE to showcase the Eno smartboard, released to the public at the conference. My previous post provides details on the purpose of the project and links to the content my team produced (it went to the web in real time thanks to an application made by Syrup NYC). Since this event, TED announced that it’s created TEDx, which allows for cities around the world to host their own similar events. So I asked who was hosting TEDxAustin and met the marvelous Nancy Giordano. Nancy informed me that my friend and colleague Jen Spencer was also on the Austin team (sweet!) so of course I asked to be a part of it. Because seriously folks, life is short. Cavort with people you admire.

]]> http://sunnibrown.com/2009/08/21/ted-conference-2009/feed/ 2 http://sunnibrown.com/2009/06/18/hmsa-business-innovation-facilitation/ http://sunnibrown.com/2009/06/18/hmsa-business-innovation-facilitation/#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:47:38 +0000 Sunni http://sunnibrown.com/?p=748

CLIENT: HMSA / Hawaii Blue Cross Blue Shield

NEED: Graphically facilitated session around their approach to enterprise business innovation.

OUTCOME: Graphic recording of motivation for change and tactical plan. Thumbnail sketches of infographic descriping long-term approach to culture change and business innovation within the health insurance industry.

LINK: See the team’s output at www.ge.com/ted!

CLIENT: Duarte Design and GE

NEED: GE launched a major business intiative called Ecomagination and one small part of that initiative is to engage the global public on their ideas about innovation in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and the green economy. They asked Duarte Design (the firm that created Al Gore’s PowerPoint for An Inconvenient Truth) to partner with them to locate a team of graphic facilitators who could support an ecomagination dialogue with participants at TED 2009 in Long Beach, CA.

SOLUTION: BrightSpot was interviewed and vetted by the Duarte team and was selected as the graphic facilitators for the event. To create visual assets that GE can upload and stream live, our team will be using Polyvision’s never-before-released interactive whiteboard, called “the eno.” We will be engaging TED participants in a dialogue and drawing their ideas and comments while they share.

OUTCOME: A series of web-streaming visual assets, based on conversations with thought leaders, that will support GE in its targeted initiative to engage the public in a “green” dialogue.