You’re planning an important meeting/event/training session/retreat/world cafe/strategic planning, etc. and you need this meeting to be extremely effective. Moreover, you need this meeting to fully engage your group, deliver on outcomes, create a positive experience and generate some kind of useful record of the event that people will actually look at after the meeting.

You need a seasoned professional Graphic Recorder.

Graphic Recording:
Beyond visual scribing, visual or graphic recording is an advanced method of visualization –to adapt what is being said into images and spacial relationships/ compositions that further enhance or make visible the meaning or energy of what is being said and heard.

Watch this video to see how one visual record of a day-long meeting was drawn: http://vimeo.com/65842612 (note: turn the sound off to avoid loud jazzy music!)

So, what is the process to hire Stina as a Graphic Recorder?
We begin with an introduction/scoping meeting, a proposed outline of your meeting/event/process, and a conversation about how Stina’s services can maximize your meeting’s effectiveness. This could include co-design of the process or add-on graphic recording to your existing agenda.

Pre-Meeting:
Design Stage: Stina will work with her client to inform the design of the meeting process to deliver maximum visual learning, increase creative thinking and participation, and capture the knowledge and commitment generated. This will occur during 2-3 phone meetings leading up to the event. During these calls she will also receive any info on the logistics of the room and supplies needed.

Meeting Prep: If it is determined that graphic templates are required, Stina will create custom graphic templates to support the meeting.

Meeting Day:
Live Graphic Recording
Stina will arrive 1 hour early to set up the room, check in with the client, greet participants, answer any questions about why there is large blank paper on the walls. She will create live large scale graphics (2’x3′ up to 3.5’x12′) of the meeting dialogue/outcomes.

Types of Graphic Recording:
This could include sitting to draw a 2’x3′ graphic of a keynote (so as not to distract the group with the drawing “show”) and then post it above the coffee area for participants to revisit throughout the day. Larger graphic records (on the wall) include panels, history maps, context maps, story sharing, vision journeys, world cafe’s, strategic plans etc. All materials Stina produces at the meetings belong to the client and are rolled up, labeled and given to the client on-site.

Stina takes high resolution photographs of her work as it unfolds during meeting day, and can also take photos of the participants and facilitators as they work, if requested.

Post-Meeting:
Documentation
Stina will clean up and email these photos to the client within 1-2 weeks of the meeting for the clients’ use. Sometimes she will request the use of the images for future client education or self promotion.

You come away with: Teams infused with fresh energy, highly engaging visuals that both serve to anchor the memory of the group and are ready to be used to articulate complex messages to staff and constituents. This is not marketing… this is visual communication. It turns out most of us learn *best* with visuals incorporated into our learning.

What her Graphic Recording clients are saying:
“Stina is a genius at capturing the most salient and powerful aspects of very complex and fast moving dialogue. That combined with the visual manifestation is powerful. She has also been instrumental in designing the space AND the engagement process. I also have a huge appreciation for ‘how’ she does her work real time – and at the same time have no idea how she does it! She works seemingly effortlessly, is never stressed, and is herself visibly invisible – if that makes sense!”

“Stina seems to be able to use some senses the rest of us aren’t blessed with, including BEING and DOING at the same time. I mean that it is clear that she is listening intently, tracking, understanding what is being said, not said, what the key inflection moments are, AND, is drawing, pulling out metaphors, visual images and graphics, key phrases, and creating a lasting work of art that captures not only the conversation but the entire experience. I appreciate her blend of humility and expertise, grace and grit.”

“Making the invisible visible is, first of all and most important, pure magic. From there it opens all sorts of different channels for exchange, understanding, dialogue and collective design. With magic comes beauty and the beauty I have seen emerged from the “invisible” touched me at the deepest level and allowing a connection between mind, body, spirit and, powerfully, with the collective.”

Stina’s Graphic Recording Experience:
Stina trained in Graphic Recording/Facilitation with Christina Merkley, (who worked with Dave Sibbett at the Grove for 15 years) shift-it-coach.com in 2008, and began offering her services in Vancouver building live-recording skills in all kinds of groups. Today, she provides this professional service to a wide variety of clients. Stina’s Graphic Recording/Facilitation integrates deep listening, objectively drawing concepts and capturing the energy of the meeting in a visual form, to provide her clients with a high quality product and a better meeting. Stina has 13+ years as a graphic designer and illustrator, communications and marketing consultant and business owner. She offers graphic tools to open new energy, organization and creativity for her clients and community, for individuals, groups or large events.

See below or on Stina’s blog for examples. Contact Stina today to chat about your meeting/project/event, 604-612-8563 or email stina at stinabrown.com

There are many names for this dynamic meeting tool, and it has a long history, starting in the 1970’s with a small group of practitioners. Very quickly, in summary: In 1977, Dave Sibbet started a consulting firm with his trademarked graphical system as a primary focus (now called grove.com.) At about the same time, an architect named Joe Brunon developed a similar graphic approach for working with groups, called Generative Graphics. “Geoff Ball, in the early 1980s, gave a number of workshops on graphic facilitation, including several at the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution.” (Mediate.com) And the industry was born…

Geoff Ball defines Graphic Facilitation as “a type of “explicit group memory” – a way of capturing the thoughts of group members in real time and making those thoughts available to the whole group. (Mediate.com)

Contact Stina today to learn more about having her make your next meeting or event exceptional with Graphic Recording: