PHOTOS: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ifvp2012/pool/
This year's conference of International Forum of Visual Practitioners was held in the center of one of the great American industrial cities: Pittsburgh.
At first, there was a bit of skepticism when the venue was announced at the 2011 conference in Hawaii (location, location, location!).
However, this year's gathering of graphic recorders, visual facilitators, visual thinkers, designers, educators and artists had some decidely different goals.
Know the City
I have attended many conferences in places like San Francisco, Chicago, and even Dubai... but rarely does the event take us out into the community.
The organizers of 2012 not only hosted breakouts and learning sessions in places like MAYA Design, the Toonseum, and the fabulous Warhol Museum... they also brought diverse members of Pittsburghs education and arts community into the conference for a living laboratory.
Active Learning
Putting their newly acquired skills into action, IFVP attendees were able to practice using iPads, Wacom tablets, virtual scribing tools, and experience a variety of facilitation techniques.
The topic of discussion for the whole session is ‘Learning Activation’, a concept being researched by the Activation Lab at the University of Pittsburgh that seeks to answer the question “How can we activate children’s interest and curious minds in ways that ignite persistent engagement in learning and inquiry?”
Rather than brainstorm new programs, the sponsor organization, The Sprout Fund, was interested in charting potential future activation pathways through Pittsburgh’s existing institutional infrastructure. Through four comepletely different facilitation techniques, run in parallel, over 40 Pittsburghers experienced a avalanche of visual facilitation talent.
MORE HIGHLIGHTS:
The Sketchnote Comissar
The humble and talented Mike Rohde, a UX designer and proponent of sketchnoting, served as one of the many keynote speeches.
Year in Review
The past several years has seen a massive growth in the association, from 40 members in 2003 to over 200 from around the world. IFVP Jeannel King had nothing but good news to report fiscally and in terms of membership growth.
Over the summer, a series of virtual townhalls were facilitated by members of the IFVP Board and the team at The Grove, in order to identify the Five Bold Moves that the association intends to make in the coming months.
Mk Haley on Collaboration
ABOVE: Rosanna van Sacken
Longtime Disney imagineer and innovator, Mk Haley, spoke on the challenges of creative collaboration and led the members through The Marshmallow Challenge.
It's Official
The Office of the City Council declared the week of July 24-27th, 2012 as IFVP Week in Pittsburgh.
Special Thanks
To IFVP conference organizers: Leah Silverman, Emily Marko and Jonny Goldstein
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