Breaking Ground: VizThink Austin

Exciting news! There is a VizThink community forming throughout the world and I, Marilyn Martin and Charlene McBride are the first ambassadors to Austin. We are putting Austin on the map to show that there IS a community of creative, intelligent thought leaders here and we will move the momentum of visual language toward critical mass. We're holding a ground-breaking first session on Wedneday, April 30th from 6-8 pm. The intention of the VizThink School is to employ visual language to build consensus, increase group learning and simplify complex problems. Each workshop will involve hands on activities and visual "play," and we plan to grow this community AND consequently, this movement, by bringing together current and future visual practitioners. All hail the visual word. Click on the link below to find information about VizThink and the Austin partnership.
http://www.vizthink.com/blog/2008/04/18/vizthink-london-austin/

Policy Studies, Inc. Leadership Forum 2008

I just flew home from Denver, CO, after having worked with one of my favorite clients, Policy Studies, Inc. I partner with PSI as a graphic recorder and at the end of their annual Leadership Forum, I summarize the content of the charts I generated. The photograph on the top is of me reinforcing the messages of the forum, and giving the audience some good laughs at the same time. I make frequent use of humor in my presentations, because I believe humor is serious. People engage, pay attention, and learn when comedy is woven through the content.

CenTex NCDD

CenTex Summit on Dialogue and Deliberation

This is one of five customized templates for the Central Texas Summit on Dialogue and Deliberation. The purpose of the Summit was to bring together practitioners who focus on constructive conversations and dialogues, mostly in the public sphere. The convening committee wanted to mine the group for information about their lessons, needs and challenges around the practices of constructive dialogue. So I customized five large-scale templates which allowed the group to work together to capture this content. I created the central images and they added details around it. It was amazing to see how readily people dig in when given a tool they can actually use. Click on this link to see the flickr stream of the day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/texasforums/sets/72157604620123306/.