14 days ago it was finally decided that we were to contribute to the Climate Talks held in Barcelona – a 7 days negotiation process leading up to COP15. As a support team of WWF we traveled to Barcelona bringing a lot of ideas and concepts to try out: Ways in which we could apply visual language, visual thinking and visual practice to stimulate the negotiators. We figured that the complex issues of climate change could use a bit of visuals – in order for people to better see what each other means. We have engaged with our colleagues around the world to support these efforts. The above slideshow gives examples of all the ways in which we have “engaged with the Climate talks”. This document now serves as a catalogue which various parties the coming weeks will look at decide how much of it we will also contribute with at the final negotiations in Copenhagen December 8th to 18th.

We are now back home from Barcelona. More visuals and examples will come. The above is the second compilation. This has been made by:
* Avril Orloff, Canada
* Katrine Nygaard, Denmark
* Reinhard Kuchenmüller, Germany/Italy
* Harry van der Velde, the Netherlands
* Brandy Agerbeck, US
* Thomas Thorhauge, Denmark
* Erik Petri, Denmark

We have sent out a request to the visual thinking and practice community asking for everyone to contribute with visuals which can explain some of the key messages and concepts discussed during the Barcelona Climate Talks leading up to the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen.

Thank you – so far – to:
* Katrine Clante, Denmark
* Nancy Margulies, US
* Roy Blumenthal, South Africa
* Erik Petri, Denmark
* Harry van der Velde, The Netherlands
* Maja Rottbøll, Denmark

Check out their websites.

During the last 4 days we have tried experimented with making sketches for WWF’s suggestion for 10 steps for succes in Copenhagen.

We have also invited a global network of visual thinkers and practitioners to join the and come up with more version. These will be posted shortly.

We are on our second day in the Barcelona Climate Talks. We have taken small steps in applying visual techniques to various parts of the conference. On the above photos you can see Stine working on what will become a display of visuals conveing the essence of WWF’s 10 steps leading to a successful COP15 agreement.

You can see more photos from the first days in Barcelona in the sidebar of this blog.

We have come to experience 9 important steps (see further below) you as a visual practitioner can take to make to takeover a conference with visual tools and techniques:

We are now on 3rd day of the negotiations and things are getting more and more tense. It will become politics tomorrow and probably some will show new positions. We have made visuals and Stine is in the middle og making a stand, where people can have dialogues.

Update
Last Thursday 4pm we finally got lucky. We have been invited to join WWF international in their work in relation to the ongoing negotiations leading up to COP15 in Copenhagen December 8th to 18th.

Read this post – and get back to us – if you in some way would be able to be involved the coming 4 days:

COP 15 is going to substitute the Kyoto protocol which expires in 2012. The Barcelona Climate Talks are is final “working conference”.

We are on the team of “WWF observers” as “visualisers” basically running around the conference center in Barcelona. We have been here since Friday supporting WWF in their preparation for the 5 days (mon-fri). We participate in WWF morning and evening meetings where 50+ WWF’ers discuss how to influence the negotiations. We will each day walk around in this huge space and visualize the process of the negotiations, facilitate dialogues on the floor…etc. We are supporting WWF putting together powerful visuals which can explain what the talks are about (see from their view)– so that “even your grandmother will get it”. We are meeting and talking with many of the players here, spreading the word about how visual facilitation, graphic recording and other visual support can inspire the negotiations. We are having conversations with the organizers of COP15 of Copenhagen about how we of how we may involve a larger crew in Copenhagen.

During the next 7 days negotiations leading up to COP 15 in Copenhagen (the new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol) is taking place. We are supporting WWF during these days. For each day we will upload visuals of the main issues, ideas and messages which WWF find important to communicate. We invite anyone out there to join us. The above is from the premeetings this weekend. More to come here and on our Slideshare site.

Here is our “News Update” for 2009 (View the above in full screen).
Below you will find several actions you can take.

1) Get a picture of what we have been up to so far in 2009

2) Join the Survival Academy – a conference we are co-hosting parallel to the COP15

3) Upgrade your visual thinking and practice skills for only 175€

4) List your Top 10 words / concepts which you’d like a Visual Language for

5) Stay tuned to what we do and help expand the field