(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.

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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.

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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.

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Panels:

1) Visual Practice and Design Thinking

2) Visual Practice and Business

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Open Space:

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

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Book Presentations:

Conference particpants will have the opportunity to hear lightning presentations from authors who are part of the conference.
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Offsite at the Warhol Museum:

We’ll take a walk across the Allegheny River for Dinner and a private tour of the Warhol Museum.
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And more awesome stuff that we can’t quite announce yet.
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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:)
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IFVP2012 on Twitter
IFVP2012 Facebook Page
Conference info and registration

I am thrilled that the International Forum of Visual Practitioners 2012 conference will be happening in my current hometown, Pittsburgh, the City of Bridges. Pittsburgh holds the world record for number of bridges, edging out Venice by four bridges. I think this is very appropriate to the IFVP conference, as we help our clients connect to their best vision and to visual plans to execute their goals to achieve their vision. The conference themes are art, techology, and business. We want to help visual practitioners build bridges to new skills, ideas, and relationships to help them increase their impact and success. And we want to help people from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors learn more about how visual practice can help them.

I created the video above to help spread the word about IFVP 2012. Pittsburgh is an amazing city to hold this conference. It is within a days drive or a short flight from 50% of the population of North America. It is gorgeous—surrounded by wooded hills and renewed by three major rivers. Pittsburgh successfully bridged an industrial past to a knowledge industry present. Pittsburgh pivoted from steel to education, technology, healthcare, banking, and robotics, capitalizing on its 7 universities, including Carnegie Mellon University which has the top ranked computer science program in the USA, and the University of Pittsburgh, with its spin-off UPMC medical system, which has grown to an international health care provider (need an organ transplant in Sicily? UPMC manages that.)

Plus Pittsburgh has a core of dedicated visual practitioners who are excited about hosting what is going to be an amazing event. Look forward to seeing you in late July 2012 in Pittsburgh. Stay tuned for final dates in the next couple of weeks. And when you come, be sure to have a few of these Pierogies, a Pittsburgh specialty.

Envizualize is going intercontinental next week. I will give the wrap up presentation at the Technia PLM forum in Stockholm after capturing the conversations with large scale visual notes.

Here is the welcome statement from Technia CEO, Jonas Gejer:

Technia Innovation Forum is about how PLM software solutions can help your company, regardless of industry, to become much more efficient in your product development. Topics of discussion will include but aren’t limited to the following:

How can PLM solutions help your company better manage product structures and components? How can “better management” help you cut costs and shorten time to market? Can PLM ensure and enforce that you are in compliance with regulatory demands? Could it possibly help you manage your certifications? How can PLM help you shorten the process for component reuse, make a few design updates, locate a supplier, and meet your target product launch date with the desired margin? All these questions and many more will be addressed on September 21st, 2011 in Stockholm. Industry experts and PLM gurus will share with you their hands-on experience how PLM can revolutionize the way you bring products to market.

I’m looking forward to meeting the participants and learning from the great folks at the Technia PLM Forum!

Had a blast being part of Pecha Kucha Night Pittsburgh, Vol 8. I enjoyed everybody’s talks, and was honored to test out a new slideshow talk of my own on the packed-in audience.

Unfortunately I did not hand my camera off to someone to get a pic of myself rocking the mic. Anybody got a pic for me? If so, please send it to jonny(at)envizualize.com and I’ll add it to the set of images from that night.

Thanks to Assemble for hosting us and AIA and AIGA Pittsburgh for producing the event.

If you missed this one, come check me out this coming week, July 7, at 7:30 where I will be doing live illustration of peoples rants and raves about their neighborhoods, also at Assemble, 5125 Penn Ave in Pittsburgh.

These events actually have quite a bit in common. They are all geared toward inspiring innovation, be it in business, social, or artistic fields.

1.

The Collaborative Innovation Forum looks at how our hyper social environment impacts collaboration and innovation. The event is being catalyzed by Enovia, a collaborative product lifecycle management company, and brings together many of its partners —spanning a power generation company to a recreational equipment retailer to an electric car company and many more, to talk about our socially networked present and its implications for the future of product lifecycle management.

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is (from Wikipedia):

The process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. PLM integrates people, data, processes and business systems and provides a product information backbone for companies and their extended enterprise.

OK, does that sound cool or what? People, data, processes, business systems to create the information backbone to design and make and recycle/reuse/dispose of STUFF! The STUFF that makes civilization possible. The kind of stuff you are using to read this blog post.

2. TEDxPhilly is about what’s happening in our nation’s 5th biggest megalopolis, Philly. You know how I love Philly, so I’m so excited to be part of this. My dear friend Roz Duffy is applying her curatorial touch to make this the event of the year in Philly. From the site:

Our goal is to showcase practitioners, makers, dreamers and thinkers who are contemporary and thought provoking; who are pushing the boundaries of their own disciplines; and who are working towards a more purposeful, socially responsible future. The event is multi-disciplinary by nature and the speakers echo the diverse perspectives present in our city.

TEDxPhilly happens November 18. If you want to tap into the intellectual, creative, social, can-do soul of Philly, be there. It’s going to be Philly’s event of the year.

3. MID. The MID program at University of the Arts prepares masters degree candidates to use design approaches to help improve social enterprises as well as industrial ones:

Because today, industrial design is no longer just about new products. It’s about a new way of thinking. One that allows us to step back and question everything, including what a “product” is. By expanding our definition beyond the traditional – to encompass policies, social initiatives and entire systems – we’re setting the stage for design to play a crucial role in society. It’s already become an integral part of the business world’s approach to innovation. At UArts, we help prepare students for this dynamic, demanding new landscape.

I will be teaching MID students to use hands on visual thinking to help their clients in government, nonprofit, and business organizations innovate better ways to serve their stakeholders.

Whew! I need to take a breath. I will need plenty of oxygen and caffeine to embrace the possibilities in front of me this month. Happy November!

I run my own business, Envizualize, where I am “keynote listener” at conferences and meetings. I listen intently and create large scale visual notes of the ideas bouncing around the room. I love what I do and have had some impressive achievements. But loving what I do is not enough.

Aside from my actual product, I need to manage sales, marketing, finance, and customer service. I need to scope out the competition and build useful relationships. This is a lot to orchestrate.

I wish I had read Melinda Emerson’s book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Month
in that year before I quit my day job.

But better late than never. I met Melinda at an event in Philadelphia and she had the publisher send me a review copy.

Melinda is brutally honest about all the work that goes into starting your own business. Luckily, she is equally thorough about what you can do to maximize your chance of starting a successful business.

There are many books out there to give a small business owner advice.Two things differentiate Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months from the other books. First, Emerson focuses entirely on preparing well *before* you actually formally open for business. Second, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months explains everything you need to do month by month. Mapping actions to time like this is very helpful. Otherwise it is too easy to put off painful but necessary actions. Mapping actions to time also shows what areas support other areas.

Since this book was not available when I began my business, I will have to play catchup. There is a lot in this book, but I’m just going to move through it 1 month at a time and see how that impacts my business. Tune back in 12 months.

As General Eisenhower said “Plans are nothing; planning is essential.” No matter how much you plan, things are going to go differently than you imagined. But the kind of research you do in creating a plan will serve you well if and when you decide to start your own business. Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months will let you construct a solid plan that you can then improvise off of as reality dictates.

Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months
Melinda Emerson’s Site, SucceedAsYourOwnBoss.com
Melinda Emerson on Twitter @smallbizlady
Large size Visual summary of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months

Got some pleasant news a few days ago when I learned my large scale visual notes were being used as a magazine cover illustration.

The backstory:

My friends at ImageThink asked me to represent them by providing Graphic Recording at the March 2010 Pharmaceutical Meeting Management Forum in Philadelphia.

People at this event shared ideas for finding innovative ways to make their meetings successful in the current challenging economic circumstances while I represented those ideas in pictures and key words as they spoke in a kind of real time mural.

People at the conference gave me great feedback on the visual notes. I sent them photos of the graphics and filed it in my memory as another rewarding and interesting session.

Months later, I was delighted that the editors of Medical Meetings Magazine decided to use a closeup of my large scale visual notes from the event as the cover for their June issue.

This is a great example of the way graphic recording can extend the impact of your event long after it is over. Even if the visual notes don’t end up on the cover of a magazine, you can share them in email newsletters, brochures, slideshows, websites, and so on. If you want conversations to really count, graphic recording is a powerful way to create a vivid record of the ideas bouncing around the room at forums, meetings, and conferences.