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:
Step 1: Visualise the main sessions on tablet, and project illustrations when and where possible
Step 2: Casually suggest presenters that you can put up a large piece of paper and start graphically recording what they are saying. Afterwards host conversations with anyone who come up to see the result.
Step 3: Ask everyone what Top 10 words / concepts they’d like to have a visual language for…and provide a space for them to write and seek visuals
Step 4: Collect powerful questions and organise them in a visual way, so that you start creating a visual dialogue tool (more and more people will want one for themselves
Step 5: “Attack” a stand and re-arrange the traditional type of stand into a living visual organisme, changing as people walk by and interact.
Step 6: Take the floor with a sandwich board (two boards put over you with big white paper). Walk around the conference premises and initiate spontaneous sessions where you facilitate a dialogue and create shared pictures.
Step 7: Start using social media to engage your community outside the conference. Invite them to contribute.
Step 8: Continue to create a hubbub around the visuals.
Step 9: Invent more and more ways in which the entire conference becomes visual and the participants can’t help get inspired to go deeper and deeper into the content and issues the conference is about.
Here is our “News Update” for 2009.
Below you will find several actions you can take.
1) Get a picture of what we have been up to so far in 2009 - View this Slideshare of our Visual 2009 Summary (just click on the above photo)
2) Join the Survival Academy – a conference we are co-hosting parallel to the COP15 Survival Academy is a place where people can come to learn about the things that they can do, and the changes that they need to make in themselves and their communities to influence and adapt to climate change. We are contributing with visual language, practices and training enabling meaningful dialogues around climate change.
3) Upgrade your visual thinking and practice skills for only 175€ - Grab a unique opportunity and join us on these dates where we will deliver 4 trainings (all in English):
• Tuesday Dec 8th 9-16, session 1 (Sign Up)
• Thursday Dec 10th 9-16, session 1 (Sign Up)
• Tuesday Dec 15th 9-16, session 1 (Sign Up)
• Thursday Dec 17th 9-16, sessions 2 (Sign Up)
Session 2 is for those who wish to go a bit further than session 1.
We will focus on building visual skills and tools you may need in dealing with climate change dialogues in your family, team, community and/or organisation. Our 3+1 workshops will help you build your own visual language and upgrade your visual facilitation skills. As with any of our trainings, you will re-learn how to draw and together with other participants build a visual language around climate change.
Take Away: For this special training we have developed a unique visual toolset which every participant will receive a personal copy of.
4) List your Top 10 words / concepts which you’d like a Visual Language for Imagine you have a visual language which can help you communicate exactly what you need to communicate.
And you would be able to visualise it with simple strokes on a whiteboard or a napkin or a flipchart.
- Go to our Top 10 listing and list your words and see other Top 10 lists.
5) Stay tuned to what we do and help expand the field - Sign up and subscribe to our future News Letters.
And keep your minds eye active,
Stine, Loa, Abdul, Lennart and Ole
Imagine you have a visual language which can help you communicate exactly what you need to communicate. And you would be able to visualise it with simple strokes on the whiteboard or a napkin or a flipchart.
The above post it’s show 12 words/ concepts which each have a following icon. The topic is Climate Change. The situation where they can be used is in a dialogue around how your organisation considers its rol in the current debate around climate change and COP15.
What visual langauge do you need?
Post a comment below with the Top 10 words you’d like a illustration and/ or an icon for.
Please include three things in your comment:
1) What industry / topic?
2) When – In what situation do you need it?
3) What 10 words / concepts would you like to have a Visual Langauage for?
This is a pilot project which we intend to run over the next ½ year. We will gather all the words we get and follow up on our blog with the progress we are making and get back to those of you who have submitted words.
In our various networks VizThink and IFVP we have come across his name. Heard of his work. Roy has his own style with a tablet and sketches. Situated in South Africa he works all over the world. We are looking forward to potential collaboration. Please go to his website and watch more of the great work Roy does – and get inspiration to your own. Roy also gets how to get the message across of what “we” do.
Just stumbled over this site. In some ways it seems pretty old fashioned – and then again. It really is a matter of using (re-discovering) our visual capacity in face to face meetings. Just a pity they focus on “this will help you sell better and more”.
Sometimes we forget that we have one: A Visual Language. You can use a visual langauge to convey messages, create meaning together with others and build shared understandings. When working in a team over a longer period of time, your team can benefit from building a shared visual language. Start with listing the most common words you use. Then draw some fast sketches of icons of each word. Then expand your vocabulary and link them in groups. Continue making rough sketches. You can read more about Visual Language in Robert Horns Book.
