Visual note-taking, also known as graphic recording, is a process of representing ideas with drawings. Not only does it create a colorful, eye-catching way to capture content from a meeting or event, it can also help your attendees better process and retain complex information. And there are many ways to incorporate these graphics into your event that go beyond the standard whiteboard on an easel.
Here’s a look at how some planners are using visual note-taking before, during, and after their events.
For a party to commemorate Chicago Trading Company’s 20th birthday, Revel Global Events hired Ink Factory to create a custom 5- by 10-foot light box covered with lightweight acrylic. During the event, artists drew images on the light box to represent key moments in the company’s history. After the event, guests received small Plexiglas versions of the artwork as a gift.
Following its 2015 conference titled Selma at 50: Still Marching, the Chicago Theological Seminary transformed graphic recordings created by Ink Factory into wall art for its office.
For Maestro Health’s HR Technology Expo & Conference in 2016, Ink Factory’s artist took notes on a digital tablet and the image was projected on large screens that served as the backdrop on the stage.
At Maestro Health’s conference, eight screens hung around the large hall so all 9,000 attendees could clearly see the graphic recording as it was being created in real time.
Following Purdue University’s Dawn or Doom conference in 2015, organizers created a book that included details from every talk, and the visual notes created by Ink Factory.
For the OpenStack Summit in Austin in 2016, ImageThink created a graphic with tips for attendees that organizers displayed in the registration area.
At Content Marketing World, September 4 to 7 in Cleveland, Kingman Ink produced a PDF version of the visual notes its artists created from 20 sessions at the event. The company sent the PDF to attendees who requested a copy.
At the Chicago Theological Seminary’s 2016 conference, Ink Factory created a 7- by 20-foot mural illustrating content from sessions.
During Chicago Ideas Week in 2014, Ink Factory visualized the theme of “A Community of Curiosity” on the exterior of the Violet Hour, a bar in the Wicker Park neighborhood.
In the atrium and trade show hall at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, Kingman Ink created display towers from the boards of visual notes taken during Content Marketing World sessions.
