Drawing on walls update!

Our graphic recording from #Etug keynote by @cogdog in Nelson, B.C. June 2, 2011

It’s been an exciting month for me as a novice visual practitioner.  I owe a lot of this to taking the advice of Nancy White who told the students of our graphic facilitation workshop last year to simply ‘step forward’ and start drawing when opportunities arise.  It’s a bit scary however after the first line is drawn on the paper it seems to come together.

Above is a graphic recording created by myself (@Mklaurie) along with two colleagues Sylvia Currie (@currie) and Rachael Roussin (@beetgreens) during the keynote of Alan Levine on the topic of Amazing Stories and Openess at #ETUG 2011.  This was the first recording any of us had ever done for a keynote in public 🙂

As lead up to this fun event, Sylvia Currie and I gave a talk at Northern Voice in Vancouver on the topic of Visual Thinking.  Approximately 60 people put their pens to paper to illustrate themselves in visuals with minimal text.  The room was buzzing and energy levels were high.   The best part was having people practice in Moose Camp (open space) and seeing them get out of their seats to co-draw in the room.  Thanks to everyone who partook – it was a lot of fun and very inspiring.  Below are a few pics from the experience.

Drawing on Walls session at Northern Voice 2011

Drawing on Walls together at Moose Camp at Northern Voice 2011

Participatory graphic from Moose Camp sessions, Northern Voice 2011

I continue to be inspired by the power of visuals to make more meaning from the work we do and the world we live in.  Furthermore, it helps for retaining information, creating shared understandings and having fun!