The Center for Graphic Facilitation

Think Big! The IFVP 13th Annual Conference

From Brandy Agerbeck:

"This is an invite to the IFVP Conference here in sunny Chicago in two months! Already a graphic facilitator? Please join your colleagues. Not yet? Curious? We'll happily teach you! Think others will be interested? Please invite them. Thank you!"

 

Event: IFVP 13th Annual Conference, Chicago, August 6-8, 2008
What: Convention
Host: International Forum of Visual Practitioners
When: Wednesday, August 6 at 9:00am
Where: Chicago, Summit Executive Centre

Pricing: Click here

More information: http://ifvp.org/ivpc08/index.htm

To see more details and RSVP via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=24055539119

See reflections on 2006 Conference and 2007 Conference.

Fast Draw: Gus the Gas

From Deidre Crowley:

While watching the "Sunday Morning" news program this morning, I was shocked to see Mitch Butler and Josh Landis, the "Fast Draw". At interest to me: that these techniques are being used to support the evening news. Here is just one link and you can find many others through Googling Fast Draw, Josh Landis and Mitch Butler.

clipped from www.cbsnews.com 'Gus The Gas' Posted by Josh Landis and Mitch Butler | 1 As the price of crude oil keeps jumping, so has the amount of finger-pointing at factors in the seemingly relentless rise. What's behind it? Have the law of supply and demand and other usual economic forces given way to speculators bidding up the price for personal gain?

Be a Multi-Dimensional Facilitator

From Steve Davis' FacilitationU.com
(photo: FotoRita)

Artful facilitation requires awareness and action at all levels: physical, thinking, emotional, intuitive, energy, spiritual and synergistic.

It is important to know that what goes on in a group happens below the thinking level and below participants conscious awareness. It is the facilitator's job to bring these deeper levels into participants awareness so that they may be wholly effective.

Given that most innovative, creative, inventive, and visionary developments are born at these deeper levels, progressive teams will benefit by developing awareness of them.  In the book, Art Of Facilitation,the authors Dale Hunter, Anne Bailey, Bill Taylor do an excellent job of describing the characteristics and actions an effective facilitator must attend to each of the following levels of being:

• Physical Level
• Thinking Level
• Emotional Level
• Intuitive Level
• Energy Level
• Spiritual or Ritual Level
• Synergistic Level

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

Excellent career advice from Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools:

Presented in the form of manga (a comic book for grownups), this is the most succinct course in career counseling I've ever seen.

Not what career you should pursue, but *how* you should pursue it. You can read this masterpiece in an hour, but it will take a lifetime to work out the details of those six lessons.

This compact sermon will make the most difference to those just starting out in the workplace.

The six quick lessons [with my comments in brackets] are:

1. There is no plan. [The economy changes too fast for your career to have a plan]
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses. [Find your advantages]
3. It's not about you. [Serving others serves you best]
4. Persistence trumps talent. [Keep showing up]
5. Make excellent mistakes. [Take risks, but fail forward]
6. Leave an imprint. [Do something that matters]

Prometeus - The Media Revolution

Email recently celebrated it's 30th birthday (see article).

This week, NPR is focusing upon the effects of--and coping methods for--this single technology that has shaped the workflow, schedules and lifestyles of much of the world.

For a glimpse on where the emerging new media may take us as "prosumers" who produce and consume media, check out this vision of a future scenario, in which virtual reality, spiritual experience, and the commerce of memory are commonplace.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Mark Pinto's Sketchy Mind

Cleveland-based graphic facilitator Mark Pinto has launched a blog packed with images and thoughts on the profession of idea image-making: SketchyBiz.

Pinto posts on humility, e-marketing, sustainability and biomimicry.

FastCompany's Top Jobs

Animator, travel writer and interaction designer I've done.

"Brew Master" and "Flavorist" I pursued in the 90's as an amateur single man living in Uptown Chicago.

But "sensory brander" and "sleep instructor" sound like excuses I make around the house when I'm shirking my spousely chores.

And "Graphic Facilitator" didn't even make the list!

clipped from www.fastcompany.com

How to Unleash Your Creativity

"Experts discuss tips and tricks to let loose your inner ingenuity"
By Mariette DiChristina

clipped from www.sciam.com n a discussion with Scientific American Mind executive editor Mariette DiChristina, three noted experts on creativity, each with a very different perspective and background, reveal powerful ways to unleash your creat­ive self. John Houtz is a psychologist and professor at Fordham University. His most recent book is The Educational Psychology of Creativity (Hamptom Press, 2002). Julia Cameron is an award-winning poet, playwright and filmmaker. Her book The Artist's Way (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2002) has sold more than three million copies worldwide. Her latest book is The Writing Diet. Robert Epstein is a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego. Contributing editors for Scientific American Mind and former editor in chief of Psychology Today, Epstein has written several books on creativity, including The Big Book of Creativity Games (McGraw-Hill, 2000). I, too, have found the creative process to be teachable and trackable.