If you attended Foothold Expo 2011 this June, you may have seen an artist working on some rather large, colorful drawings. Mathias Vestergaard, a self-titled, “Creative Misfit And Ideator”, was on hand to create graphic recordings of our keynote presentations and several Expo sessions. Shortly before the Expo, Mathias approached us about graphically recording our event and we decided to take the plunge to see how this creative approach would complement the Expo.
If you don’t know what graphic recording is, don’t worry - you’re not alone. It’s an emerging technique that can be used as a learning support tool by visually representing thoughts, ideas and processes. Graphic recording is designed to visually capture and summarize real-time information in an unobtrusive, creative and interesting way. The recorder draws a map or mural of a discussion as it unfolds, recording the key points, insights, and “a-ha” moments in real time. The participants can see a visual representation of their ideas and how they are related, which leads to better understanding and retention of the topic of discussion. Since one of the primary goals of the Expo is to share ideas and promote a deeper understanding of AWARDS, we thought it was the perfect venue to try this unique learning method.
We were very impressed with Mathias’ work and we hope you were too. If you missed his drawings at the Expo, you can view pictures of them at http://expo.footholdtechnology.com and you can follow Mathias on Twitter @mathiasnyc.
