Tips for Successfully Using Visualization in Your Event
I'm lucky to get a lot of repeat business from the same clients, but sometimes I work for a new client who's never seen graphic facilitation or graphic recording before. There's only so much of the experience you can share in advance. I find it useful to set conditions for success by laying them out explicitly. Here's a list of tips that I include in proposals:
Tips for Successfully Using Visualization in Your Event
- Please allow one hour in advance of the meeting for our team to set up material and one hour after the meeting to tear down and pack up. Please provide a 10’ by 5’ space on the floor near the front of the room to set up a 6’ tall freestanding display board. Please inform the facility manager that completed charts will be hung around the walls using a nonstick, acid-free, archival artist’s tape that will not mar or damage paint or wallpaper. Understanding that events are always fluid, please be sensitive to our set up time requirements when it comes to room changes.
- If you are designing the agenda, please keep us informed as to changes in time and items, as this helps us plan paper space to allow for each presentation and minimizes disruptions by having to change paper midway through a specific segment.
- If your group has any logos, key visuals, or briefing decks, please provide them in advance so that we can come ready with prepared visuals.
- Graphic charts are not meeting minutes. Charts capture the major themes and discussion points but less than 1% of the spoken word. If you need to have more detail captured, please provide a note taker (or indicate that you would like us to provide a note taker.)
- We would like to use copies of the visuals generated from your event for marketing purposes, just as examples were provided to you to help frame your understanding of this practice. We will not share any information you deem sensitive or proprietary.
- Please allow one week for digital copies of charts to be rendered and emailed to you.
- During the event, if you feel we’ve missed an important point, please pass us a note, raise your hand, call it out, or share it in any other way you prefer.
- It is YOUR paper: if you feel like you have an idea or concept that’s easier to draw than to try to articulate verbally, please grab a marker and draw your idea. We consider participants drawing on the charts themselves as the highest level of successful engagement.
- Visualization has real return on investment: you can expect increased consensus, higher retention, and greater engagement, and you’ll be surprised by the amount we will be able to accomplish!
The more you can engage us as partners in planning and delivering your event, the more we can ensure its success. We look forward to your partnership in this effort!
