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.

HMSA (Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Hawai’i) has risen to the top of my client list due to the nature of the projects we’re involved with and my deep respect for the efforts of the leadership and the Innovation Team. They are transforming the organization in service to their customers and I’ve been lucky enough to become a part of their team, partnering with them on visual thinking training, graphic recording for leadership meetings, design consultations on presentations and workshops and a large history mapping project in the making. My projects with them are always rewarding and I appreciate the partnership. I also appreciate that I get to go to Hawaii to work with them. Nothing wrong with doing the hula while you work.

BrightSpot had its first international invitation this year, to attend the CLIC Conference at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. The conference was hosted by the Centre for Leadership, Innovation and Change and it gave a forum to CEOs and other high-level execs to discuss business and spirituality – yes Americans, I did use them in the same sentence. Each presenter in his or her own way described the possibilities for overlaps in those two fields. It was very inspirational content and I did my best to graphically capture it given that I’m not a cultural native and the acoustics were, ahem, insane. But I was so happy to be invited to work for the Indian School of Business that I could have gotten a parasite and still felt it was worthwhile. Click here to see the murals I created as well the conference itself. And Namaste to you and yours.

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.

The Centre for Leadership, Innovation and Change holds an annual conference in India called Igniting the Genius Within. So, due to a string of seemingly random events, I was invited to participate as a graphic recorder in this year’s conference in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. The participants in this conference are representative of a sort of new breed of business person – one who combines wisdom and spirituality with management skills and entrepreneurship. Since (a) I had never been to India and (b) the combination of business and spirituality was intriguing, I decided to go. It was at the Indian School of Business – a school that is so prestigious that when U.S. presidents go to India, they visit it. All told, it was a wonderful professional and cultural experience that marked my first international partnership. And now that I am stocked on up Azithromycin and malaria pills, I hope it won’t be the last.

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.

As the world largely knows by now, there are many great things about Zappos. But what most people don’t realize is the extent to which that quest for greatness permeates their DNA. Some C-level folks talk a good game about customer and employee happiness, but Tony Hsieh (CEO) can credibly say that he’s obsessed with it. When I partnered with Zappos to graphically record their Culture and Key Books class, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the quality of the conversations and the commitment to what I would almost refer to as ‘employee enlightment.’  And Tony is personally studying the science of happiness – a subject that emerges throughout the PowerPoint we’re working on – not only to pursue his own bliss but also to create joy and good experiences for his staff and customers. It’s a rare sight to behold an intelligent and driven CEO who also takes time to create warm fuzzies. Good for them.

Congregation Beth Israel is a synagogue that follows Reform Judaic traditions and it’s one of the oldest Jewish places to worship in Austin – founded in 1876. (In case you’re thinking this: “Texas doesn’t have a Jewish population”, just know that I’m thinking this: “Be gone with your stereotypes!”) CBI has a very active Board – actually the largest Board I’ve ever worked with – and they asked me to partner with them during their Summer Strategy Summit. Keri Pearlson, the Board member who invited me was so enthusiastic about the work I do that I decided to graphically record for them at a rate only Moses could appreciate. So we worked together on a significant part of the agenda – the vision and what they could do to achieve it. So what you’re seeing above is the result of a collaboration with 21 Board members that involved facilitation, marker-voting and breakout group discussions. A delightful group to work with and I wish them all the best. And I really loved the moment when someone said, “Texas has greater political diversity in its Jewish population than most of us are accustomed to, which gives us more opportunities to rise to challenges.” What a lovely way to phrase that. View the Flickr images here.

Client: Zappos.com
Need: To spruce up their training classes with more memorable content
Solution: Graphic Recording as experiment for future partnerships.
Outcome: Opportunity to design CEO Tony Hsieh’s PowerPoint presentation and to brainstorm visual thinking activities (0ther than graphic recording) to bring the class participants into the content. Other outcome: Sunni is thrilled.

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.