Get the most value from graphic recordings – after your meeting
What’s the best thing to do with graphic recording images after a meeting? Use them! Here are some wise practices so you can get the most value from the images. Here are ideas, and I like to think of it as:
- sharing info
- engaging others
- and refining ideas.
“Create Once, Publish Everywhere”
You’ve heard “Create Once, Publish Everywhere”: We want to make it easy for you to share the graphic recordings, especially on the digital platforms of your choice.
You’ll receive beautiful, high-resolution digital images whether we work on paper or ipads.
You can:
- publish the full images online
- crop and highlight key messages and post on social media
- create a video/ slides to recap what happened
- or keep the work confidential, it’s completely up to you.
Email images to participants – a gift after the meeting
Emailing the images is a great opportunity to reconnect after any event.
For event/conference participants, receiving high-quality, inspirational visuals is a gift after a big event like a conference. It sparks a memory of a special event.
For internal teams, visual meeting notes are part of effective followup. Graphic recording visuals might say what, so what, now what and remind us of next steps.
Send out a video summary
We always encourage bringing the voice of the graphic recorder into the room – after all, they’ve been invited to be a deep listener!
A graphic recorder can present their work out loud at the end of the session. We often summarize the images, the meaning, and main themes. We also record this type of share-back on a video and send it to participants after.
Great for zoom meetings, digital and paper based graphics.
Executive summaries and reports
Graphic recordings are useful to summarize key information, and as an executive summary. It’s a great way to encourage people to read more:
- newsletters
- reports
- magazines
- features in academic journals
- and books.
Engagement – at the event
Keep members/clients engaged, informed – and reinforce your call to action. Share digital graphic recordings on big screens, or display large posters where people can walk over.
In person or online engagement after
In person: Take the posters back to the office hallway, lunch room, or reception area – and hang them up. Ask for feedback, or ask new questions.
Ask people to add comments with post-it notes, or use them to spark a conversation.
Online: upload them to a collaborative space like MURAL, and ask people to add comments with digital post it notes. Send people into breakout pairs/trios to talk about the images.
For remote teams, sending printed materials in the mail once the project is finished is a nice touch, too.
Exhibits and displays
Graphic recording was featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology, curated by the Heiltsuk Nation.
We try to emphasize that graphic recording is more “process” and not a “perfect” – but we also know it can be truly beautiful and bring value for a long, long time.
Professional publications
Professional publication ideas include: academic poster presentations, professional storyboards at conferences, and journals.
Graphic recording as methodology is an emerging field and many people are interested in how the process informs the research and results.
Consultation: updates between meetings
Sometimes, meetings are weeks or months apart. Or teams are geographically spread out, requiring multiple sessions, or teams alternate who attends quarterly sessions. Bring people up to speed by printing copies of the posters and placing it on their tables/chairs. In digital meetings, send a package for people to review electronically or have a slideshow of graphics before the meeting starts.
Bring the images to the meeting with you! By seeing them again, you’ll be surrounded by colour and quotes from the initial session.
Refine the content: infographics
Graphic recordings drawn by hand can be transformed into a brand new, refined, digital infographic. Select the best parts of a graphic recording poster/posters, and then we’ll create a new product with edits and refinement.
Or, one of our favourite services is to take multiple graphic recording page and distill it into one, summary poster. You’ll direct us to the best content and we’ll assemble it for you.
Celebrate teams with keepsakes
Celebrate your successes! Clients have printed graphic recordings into calendars, notebooks, thank you cards, puzzles, and framed prints.
And when you’re ready to recycle …. graphic recordings make great gift wrap, too.
