I created this envizualization (large scale visual notes) From a talk by Elia Lata of Zappos at the E Source Utility Customer Experience 2012 Conference in Las Vegas. For a larger size version, click here..

When you think of utility companies, you probably don’t think of nimble, customer focused organizations. Utilities tend to be fairly large, and focused more on keeping the electricity (or gas, or water, etc) flowing then getting into the mind of their customers and providing a great experience. They also tend to be unchallenged in the market place, without competitors. But utility customer expectations are set by all kinds of companies, from FedEx to Zappos, who have to stand out in competitive markets, and thus work to create ever improving customer experiences. So that is creating pressure on utilities to consider customer experience more seriously.

As far as the bottom line goes, utilities need to impress regulatory boards and local governments as well in order to get approval of rate changes and to get other activities approved. And customer attitudes can make a big impression on regulators for good or for ill.

Improved focus on customers also can yield bigger profits—for example if a utility makes it easy to pay a bill via the web or mobile device, they are going to lower their costs. Payment by mail or phone is expensive and time consuming.

So hearing from a customer experience leader like Zappos was eye opening. Customers are rarely going to get as excited about something they take for granted—like electricity, as they would be about anticipating a fabulous pair of shoes from Zappos, but Utilities realize that thinking beyond the electricity meter to the actual customer makes a great deal of sense.

On May 4, 2012, folks from CatapultPGH coworking community and nearby organizations came together for our first monthly Shown-n-Tell event. We heard about the new Pittsburgh Tool Lending Library, the history and current activities of the Sprout Fund, the multiple services provided by the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, the new neighborhood centric app, Scenable, and the gluten detection kit distributor, Glutentox. Thanks for coming out, and stay tuned for the next Show-n-Tell Friday, noon, June 1, 2012!

(Leah Silverman, Emily Marko, Jonny Goldstein at our first planning meeting for the IFVP 2012 Conference)

(Jonny Goldstein with brainspill on the topic of the upcoming visual thinking for groups conference in Pittsburgh, AKA the 17th Annual IFVP Conference)

The rapid approach of the 2012 International Forum of Visual Practitioners Conference (IFVP) conference in Pittsburgh is sending tingles down my neurons. The power-triangle of Leah Silverman Leah Silverman, Emily Marko, and myself are the Pittsburgh core of the planning team, with help from far flung members of the tribe of graphic facilitators, graphic scribes that comprises the IFVP. I will be sharing emcee duties with the fabulous Heather Willemsof Imagethink.

(Promotional video for the IFVP 2012 Conference. Video by Envizualize.

At it’s heart, the conference is for people who use visual thinking to enhance understanding and support action. There is a growing realization that words and numbers are inadequate for understanding and analyzing complex challenges. We are hard wired to process pictorial information, and harnessing that wiring gives teams tremendous advantages.

Some conference highlights:

Speakers:

(Sketchnotes sample by Mike Rohde)
Mike Rohde, will give a talk about how he catalyzed a global community of sketchnoters and his upcoming book on sketchnoting.

MK Haley, from the Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center will discuss collaboration and how different generations approach it.

Christian Schunn, a University of Pittsburgh Cognitive Psychologist, will share current research on how using shared visual displays helps, and occasionally hinders, design and engineering teams.

Babs Carryer, a node in Pittsburgh’s biotech and pharma startup ecosystem will convene a panel on the intersection of visual practice and business.

Nahum Gershon, Principal Scientist at MITRE and expert on data visualization, storytelling, and technology mediated interaction will lead a closing dialog.

—————

Pre-conference workshops:

(Photo from IFVP 2011 graphic recording workshop)

Graphic Recording 101 with Rachel Smith and Lisa Arora and 201 with Alphachimp. These workshops will be a full day immersion in the art and craft of visual listening—-turning conversation into large scale visual notes. The 101 course is geared to beginners, and the 201 course is geared to experienced visual listeners.

—————

In-Conference Mini-Workshops (these might change a little in title and topic, but this is more or less what we have so far. We will have another couple of mini-workshops in addition to these).

-Sketchnoting and hand drawn type with Mike Rohde

(Interior of the Toonseum)

(Graphic scribing detail by Lloyd Dangle)

-Cartooning with Lloyd Dangle (at the Toonseum)

(Detail of Jim Nuttle work)

-Advanced Cartooning with Jim Nuttle (at the Toonseum)

-Sketch Video Creation

(Digital visual notes by Rachel Smith)

-Graphic Recording on the iPad with Rachel Smith

(Detail from a Bigger Picture hands on visual activity)

-Graphic facilitation approaches and practices knowledge swap Ole Qvist-Sørensen.

-”Doctor’s Hours” with a variety of successful visual practitioners to personally address your business questions

-Distilling your visual practice’s unique value proposition, facilitated by MAYA Design

(Visual by Eileen Clegg)

-Timeline murals using Prezi, with Eileen Clegg

-”Getting Pens into Peoples’ Hands”, a session on how to get word and number crunchers over the hump of picking up a pen and drawing, with John Ward.

—————

Panels:

1) Visual Practice and Design Thinking

2) Visual Practice and Business

—————–

Open Space:

We are creating a time slot for self organized sessions where people can create impromptu discussions about topics of mutual interest.

—————

Book Presentations:

Conference particpants will have the opportunity to hear lightning presentations from authors who are part of the conference.
—————–

Offsite at the Warhol Museum:

We’ll take a walk across the Allegheny River for Dinner and a private tour of the Warhol Museum.
———————-
And more awesome stuff that we can’t quite announce yet.
———————-
Sponsorship:
We have some amazing sponsors stepping up already. We’re thrilled to have Prezi as a top level Platinum sponsor. Look forward to sharing experiences, tips, and tricks in one-on-one time with Prezi evangelist, Zane Groshelle. We’re also thrilled to introduce you to Wizard Wall, a cling film that creates a portable whiteboard. Special thanks as well to The Grove for Silver sponsorship and Crowley & Co. for Bronze sponsorship.If you want to get involved in the conference on a sponsorship level, we would love to talk with you. And did you know that Sponsorship starts at the $100 level and gets you recognition online and at the conference while giving you the satisfaction of supporting the community? Sounds worth it to me, but that’s just my biased take on it:)
——————————————————–
IFVP2012 on Twitter
IFVP2012 Facebook Page
Conference info and registration

We hope you are very excited about the Connect! IFVP 2012 Conference in Pittsburgh. We are!

In order to promote the conference we would love to get a few
illustrations that convey what the event will be about.

Are you up for it? We will give you a credit on the illustrations, of course.

We will put up thumbnails on our conference site that will link to
large size images of the illustrations.

Here is our current conference page, which we want to enrich with illustrations.

If you are intrigued, keep reading:

Here are some words and phrases you can look to to be inspired by or
to incorporate into the illustrations.

–Connect!

–The City of Bridges

–The art, business, and technology, and of visual practice

–Visual listening

–Systems thinking

–July 24-27

–Pittsburgh

–The future of visual practice

–Graphic facilitation

–Mentoring

–Sketchnotes

–Workshops

–Field trips!

–Andy Warhol museum (warhol.org)

–Vision

–Visual thinking

–Digital graphic facilitation

–Team graphics

–Hands-on

–the visual revolution

This is a great opportunity to show your stuff, to pre-visualize the
conference (you know how powerful visuals are at influencing events!),
and help promote the upcoming IFVP 2012 Conference.

Feel free to do something quick. No need to pour a lot of time into
this (unless of course you are inspired to do so)

Guidelines:

1) Be sure to sign your work! We will credit you on the site, but sign
it as well. We want you to get exposure.

2) Send us either a high quality JPG or PNG image

3) Send to leah@designbyleah.com

4) Get it to us by the end of Weds, Feb 15. Sooner is even better.

5) Don’t spend too much time thinking about it, just let it flow.

Thanks for helping us pre-visualize and promote the upcoming festival
of awesomeness that will be Connect! IFVP 2012 in the City of Bridges,
Pittsburgh. See you in July!

—-Jonny

P.S. If you have not yet signed up, I encourage you to do so to take
advantage of our earlybird rate. Expires Feb 25!

Register here.

Heather Willems of Imagethink, one of the most talented visual scribes I know, has signed on to co-emcee the Connect! 2012 IFVP Conference.

Heather is not only an accomplished graphic recorder, she also has great energy. Can’t wait to work with Heather to weave what is going to be a powerful conference.

What is the conference about? We are calling it Connect! IFVP 2012, because it’s about the power of visual thinking to help groups connect to understanding and action. It’s about the power of visual thinking to create better meetings, better understanding within groups, and better problem solving between people.

Visual thinking has been getting a lot of buzz lately due to bestselling books like Back of the Napkin, viral videos like RSA Animate, and the emergence of design thinking in business.

IFVP (The International Forum of Visual Practitioners) is a global organization of people who use visual processes to facilitate team learning. The conference will be composed of hands-on mini-workshops, thought provoking keynotes, and an “unconference” section where participants can create self organizing discussions around topics of interest.

The three organizing themes will be business (the business of visual practice, and applying visual practice to help businesses), technology (the effect of and possibilities of technology on visual practice), and art (the craft and soul of visual practice).

If you are interested in learning, sharing, and networking with other visual thinkers register here. Earlybird rates apply until February 25. Spaces are limited, so register now.

The event showcased 6 innovative Pittsburgh based companies ranging from medical device makers, Body Media, to experience design firm, MAYA, to roboticists (who make stuff for parents and babies) 4moms.

There is something brewing in Pittsburgh. With it’s myriad universities, and its burgeoning medical, robotics, design, media, and technology sectors, new companies are coalescing and creating better products and services. The recipe for creativity in Pittsburgh combines “Hyper-intelligence with a blue collar work ethic,” according to Tim Fletcher of Daedalus.

Below are notes by Leah Silverman, Emily Marko, and myself, capturing different facets of the event.

Visual notes by Leah Silverman

Illustrated notes by Jonny Goldstein

Illustrated notes by Emily Marko

I had an indirect experience with Steve Jobs’ micromanager side when I was part of a recurring event at the Apple store in 2005 in SOHO. At this event people gave presentations about the (then) emerging phenomenon of video podcasting. The first time we did the event, one of the presenters showed a video that included some political commentary. The next time we came in, the manager nervously approached the presenters to make sure we weren’t showing anything overtly political. Apparently, some customer had complained to Apple and Steve personally called up the manager and reamed him out about it. I think it would have driven me nuts to work for a guy like that, but do respect his deep involvement in his company. He definitely sweated the details.

—-J