Taking the eagle eye view
The Core Team for EuViz 2014 decided to put a focus on harvesting this event in a very strategic way. We wanted to take a look at this field in a way that hadn’t been done before. This page captures both our strategy and the meta-perspective we’ve gained by taking the overview while all our participants were engaged in the specifics. We offer this as a benchmark and a challenge to the hosting teams that follow us.
We also offer some meta-perspectives from specific voices from the field — our harvesting team (Mary Alice Arthur, Mathias Weitbrecht, Sabine Soeder, Sandra Dirks), our hosts (Guido Neuland, Holger Scholz, Lynn Carruthers) and others.
Focus of the harvesting
Why harvest? Creating a harvest is a strategic decision. In what we choose to harvest and how we choose to harvest, we put the emphasis on something. It is like dropping a pebble into a pond and creating a ripple that impacts both the water and the shore as it travels out. Harvesting gives us the opportunity to make meaning together and also to have a sense of the deeper currents in what we create and see together.
Harvesting meta-view: Fundamental questions
• How can we capture the learning that takes place here?
• How can we make our individual and shared understanding visible?
• How can we use what we capture to inspire new practices and wiser actions, and in so doing ensure that we have made best use of this time together?
• What can we bring to the next level of we can see and create together?
Our EuViz harvesting had the following focus:
Support participants to remember & stay connected
• Help people who were at the conference to remember their experience/learning so they can integrate it into their life and work
• Offer the stimulus to stay connected
Make it visible/take it further
• Making the learning visible and alive
• Inquire more deeply into our topic and stimulate the conversation/thinking to go further
Extend the field
• Help people who were not there to understand what we have seen, experienced, decided or created together and enter the on-going conversation
• Strengthen and extend the field for visual practice
Some questions to keep in mind
• What is good learning? How can we best support it?
• How can we help to create a sense of shared invitation into learning and connection?
• How do we stay alongside both the content and the relational field to maximise the impact of both?
• How do we keep connecting the dots?
Elements
Website, graphic recording for each session, photography, video, written/narrative input, social media
Themes arising during the conference
- Who are we as a field? As a practice? At one point in the conference, Lynn Carruthers (who has now attended 14 IFVP conferences) said: “We always say ‘the time is now’”, however it felt like this is a significant time in the field of visual practice — as indeed it is in all participatory practice fields. There has been an explosion of interest and of practitioners. Indeed the conference was sold out long before the interest in it had peaked. What does this say about the awareness of visual practice as a value-add versus a “nice to have” addition to group meetings. What could be done to raise the awareness of the impact of visual practice on group work, clarity of mutual understanding and on learning? There was a very strong focus from the Education track on how to bring drawing back to education as one of the core competencies.But an additional question is: How strong is this field, as a field? How connected is it? How collaborative is it really? What is the balance of ownership and stewardship? What is the focus on sharing practice and growing practitioners? There is always a dynamic tension between creating a strong personal brand or business and being part of a collaborative field. What would we say the age, the stage and the health of this field and practice is?
- How do we move from individual to collective? What can we co-create? Many of those who attended the conference work as sole practitioners and many who were attending for the first time have questions about setting themselves up in business. There is a hunger to learn more, to gain more tools, to progress. And also to claim a space. Some of us wandered through the hallways worrying about how our style matched up to others. To step into a collective — and even more into co-creation — demands that we bring all that we are and that we leave some things behind.
- What difference do we make? Ahh, a very challenging and tender question. David Sibbet and Reinhard Kuchenmüller both spoke to this in the Elders Conversation. Sometimes this work is about capturing what’s happening in the room and then realising that the pictures will go no further, and having to surrender to that. Sometimes an image can do the work that nothing else can and help to shift a system. Reinhard spoke about realising that the greatest change could be made through individuals, so now he focusing on that. So what difference do we make? And how can we continue to focus on that?
- How do we address the power we hold? What is the balance of power and love? “He who holds the pen, holds the power.” Even though we like to think of ourselves as neutral, actually we always bring something with us to the work. How do we get even more aware of the power we wield in what and how we decide to capture something? David Sibbet mentioned Adam Kahane’s book Power & Love as a starting point for thinking about how these two attributes need to balance for effectiveness, and talked about the place of radical acceptance in this work.
- Where are you in your practice? How do we support each other into mastery? How do we raise standards with each other? For most of the participants, one of the most joyous things about attending a conference is being in a room full of like-minded and like-hearted people. “Ahh! I’m with my tribe!” There’s a lot of bonhomie and energy when we meet colleagues we’ve admired from afar, when we can learn something new and be seen. So many of us work alone in rooms — and that gets lonely. But there’s also the trap of “we all love each other” and so we may not speak what we are truly feeling, may not offer the challenge to a colleague or address something that’s not up to scratch. A robust, resilient field can have all the possible give and take as part of it and be the better for it. What are we prepared to look at together?
- How do we become more business saavy? How can we move beyond being enamoured with “pretty pictures” and into creating value? There is doing what we love to do and there’s making a living. But actually, why are these two separate? How can we help each other to become more business saavy, to start with the client instead of with what we think, to focus on the value we offer, rather than “getting it right”? How do we help each other and grow the field at the same time? Could it be that we’re not in competition, rather we’re in collaboration for something bigger?
- How do we keep connected? How do we connect to other fields? This conference took the theme “Connecting the Dots” because the Core Team sensed that this is an important time to begin to connect with other fields, to get business people into the room experiencing the power of visual practice. We didn’t succeed like we wanted to, but it raised the question about creating an event where practitioners bring their clients. What other fields could we connect with to take our practice, and the use of visual practice, further?
- What is the next level of my/our work in the world? That’s the big question, isn’t it? How do we maintain a focus on this?
Got something to add? Make your voice heard on our EuViz Facebook page.
From the Hosts
What did it feel like to decide to host something like this, Holger?
After deciding to host EuViz we were quite creative within our team and together with Neuland. When we hosted a European IAF Conference in 2005, Roswitha and me co-facilitated with Mary-Alice. This IAF Conference was a huge success with more than 200 participants from around 20 nations. From this experience we knew it will be a lot of work as well as a lot of joy and inspiration.
For EuViz we soon had the idea of a core team for mutual inquiry, planning and holding the event. This first meeting with the core team took place almost one year before the conference, also in Berlin in the beautiful nhow Hotel. To see all these mates in one room touched me. I was quite overwhelmed. It became more clear to me what EuViz might become. We all felt that there is this huge wave ahead and we will all have to surf it.
At first I tried to manage it all, to track all details and to somehow “manage” it. I faced this will not be the way this will work. So I decided to surrender and passed the coordination & management part to our very capable Verena. She did amazing work before, during and after EuViz and is still “on it“ somehow. To experience the mutual support, the expertise and creativity of all core team mates and others was unbelievable. It was like “Cast off!“ here they come… I remember my own amazement while witnessing this.
What happened for you during the event? What did you realise?
With EuViz I felt and celebrated the friendship of Guido and me. I realized it during the event. I did not conceived this beforehand. Above that we were blessed by the beautiful collaboration between Neuland and Kommunikationslotsen. All of us were moved during the opening and closure sessions of EuViz2014. It felt like some kind of ceremonial space which emerged because of the people, the place and the history. Mary-Alice, the core team and all participants held the space. I think a lot of the people in Berlin were almost yearning for something like that. And we as hosts were at the center and sometimes at the rim. This all was a truly amazing and deeply inspiring journey.
In addition to that I felt the strong support and trust of the IFVP. And in person this was Lynn Carruthers. She is a very inspiring kind of a leader. She advised me a lot and asked the right questions at the right time. I am very grateful for this team and co-hosting with IFVP.
Then I think of all the great people, colleagues and companions we met. The conference theme “Connecting the dots” was a self-fulfilling prophecy. We connected a lot. The venue-team of the nhow Hotel cheered about the amazing conference, too. EuViz 2014 provided many lateral effects. I still get goose bumps.
Holger Scholz
A truly memorable conference
EuViz 2014 was my 14th IFVP conference. Every year, as soon as the conference ends, I happily look forward to the next one. EuViz 2014 was special to me, as an individual and as president of the IFVP, for soo many reasons.
I’d been fortunate enough to be part of the core planning team for EuViz 2014 and so had been privy to all the thoughts, ideas, care, heart, time and money that went into making this a truly memorable conference. The idea that two IFVP members would create a conference, and invite the IFVP to co host, was soo generous. For a new president, when EuViz 2014 was first announced, it was an incredible gift, for the Board to be relieved of the responsibility of organizing our annual conference for one year, so we could really focus on improving and upgrading our infrastructure.
One of my favorite things about attending conferences year after year (IFVP and other organizations’) is seeing old friends and meeting new ones. EuViz 2014 was particularly thrilling in this respect as it attracted so many people, from so many countries, whom I had never met. Being in the room with all those visual practitioners, from such an array of fields and disciplines, was incredibly inspiring. And as I always do, year after year, I’ve made many connections and friends, quite possibly for a lifetime.
Generosity is a word that is often used when talking about the visual practitioner community and culture. And it was evident in every part and piece of EuViz 2014. Everywhere I turned there was someone offering a hello, a smile, assistance, an idea, a coffee, an invitation to meet and chat. I learned a great deal at EuViz2014, not only from the speakers and track or session leaders, also from the other people in the room, in the halls, on the boat or at a meal. The Neuland and Kommunikationslotsen staffs made sure the entire event ran seamlessly, always with a friendly greeting. The scholars (another wonderful act of generosity on the organizers’ part) were not only amazingly helpful but soo happy to be there. Their glee at being part of EuViz 2014 was contagious.
I haven’t put my namebadge, with all those cheery buttons away yet as every time I look at it, I smile and am reminded of the fantastic experience I had in Berlin this summer.
Lynn Carruthers, IFVP President
From the Harvesting Team & the Core Team
Harvesting Team member Sandra Dirks blogged about her EuViz experience in German, here.
An invitation
What a gift it was to be asked to MC this event! If there’s one thing I really like doing, it is working with a group of 2 – 300 or so, welcoming and hosting the coming together, inviting and working with the stories, seeing the shape of practice emerging. And to work with a group that has immediate life and energy is even more special. I loved it!
Throughout our time together I thought often about the field EuViz represented and the field I am most part of, the Art of Hosting network (www.artofhosting.org). We are mirrors of each other in so many ways — working for positive systemic shift, bringing our arts and practice to supporting people to step in, step up and do great work together, wanting to use what we have to make a difference all over the world. It seems that the synergy between our fields is ripe. We can help each other to impact more. And it is a time when the interest in participation and how to capture it is high.
Its more and more important that we reflect solidly on our work and its impact and that we make it visible in the world. That was one of the driving forces behind the way we decided to harvest and I encourage each of you to think about how you harvest your work, your impact and your story.
Its also important for all of us to see ourselves as a practitioners — one who is both the master and the apprentice at the same time. In our Art of Hosting practice we work with a light structure of apprentice, host and steward, seeking to encompass all levels of skill and practice and a diversity of ages to maximise the depth of our practice field. I wonder how visual practitioners can help each other even more so that the overall level of skill, practice and confidence grows. You have so much to offer the world! And not the least of which is to awaken the visual practitioner in everyone.
There were many times during the conference when I found myself speaking to that essence — Who you are matters. What you do is important. Keep going. The other thing I’d add is — lean in and stick together. The more we are asked to step into challenging events and edgy conversations, the more we need to be able to rely on each other — its important to have your mates at your back. And to be a mate is equally rewarding. Its time for the lone wolves to come in from the cold. We need each other. And the world need us. What are you waiting for?
Mary Alice Arthur, www.getsoaring.com
Behind the scenes there was a lot of work to do. And it was fun to see and feel how grateful people were for all the small and big thinks we tried to make nice. We were the hosts behind the curtain together with many other caring souls from Neuland, Kommunikationslotsen and the Core Team. The team work on site was a real joy to experience and to be part of.
Here are the three things someone else should know:
1. Put yourself in the shoes of a participant from time to time. Ask yourself: What would help me? How could someone make participation easier and more meaningful for me? When would I feel welcomed? Answer these questions at least 3 times a day and than try to make things come true.
2. Have a plan with like 1528 details. Be aware of the complexity. Try to reduce the complexity with clear roles and responsibilities. Stay in contact with the facilitator and with all the people who are in charge of the room, the technique, the catering, the helping hands … and appreciate what they are doing. Be there for them.
3. Help people to find their way through the conference with signage, sweets, socializing and don’t forget to sleep and to drink water, stay focused and hey … a quick hug with a team-member once in a while works miracles.
4. Most of all have fun doing all the work behind the scenes.
Roswitha Vesper & Verena Hanke
Voices from the field
There were so many styles of visual practice at the EuViz conference, including our own urban sketcher. Check out an online booklet of EuViz with sketches by Omar Jaramillo Traverso, here.
Imagine this…
A very creative event. No boring keynote speakers. Dialogues all over. Some “tracks to follow” in smaller groups. All documented in pictures. Hundreds of them. In mural format. All over the place on all the walls.
240 people meet. They talk about graphic recording, facilitation through symbols and how to make groups see their own work together. They carry markers in 24 colours, discuss the quality of paper in large roles and use large walls. They exchange ways to illustrate anything; a business, a team, money an emotion or just a person. They discuss what colour to use to get the joy in a group or their frustration. They talk about metaphors as ways of getting complex matters simple or how to get a group to see it future. All drawn on the walls all the time!
What’s going on? Visual practitioners from all over the world are gathered in Berlin. It is the first conference in Europe for Visual Practitioners.
Very special and very narrow. Only for nerds you think. How wrong you are. It is one of the core competences of the future.
Modern neuroscience now thinks that the brain functions differently. We don’t store and retrieve memories. It is not a computer where you get back what you put in. We “construct our reality”! That is, we make it as we “want” to see it rather than play it back as a film. Moreover, the construction is not linear it is associative. We allocate logic, value, feelings and connections based on a construction in the now.
The “construction” could be based on a very different logic than when at the storage time. It might use other feelings than when we experienced what we remember. It might work with very different connections than the ones we perceived. The mind doesn’t have a “re-member” function as a core process but it is the construction in the present that is the guiding principle for how we associate.
If that is true, it has significant consequences for all kind of business. In complex situations, with a lot of ambiguity, where problem solving is more than following a given procedure, then the creative element is absolutely vital. If you add that most such situations need teams to handle the situation, you have to combine the knowledge of several to solve your situation. When that is the need, then it is clear that the communication can not use only old ways.
Most direct two way communication is linear. We talk to each other. You say, I say, You say, I say, etc. When “you say” the next time the first part is more or less gone. The mind does not keep in awareness more than a few things simultaneously.
But if someone wrote on the wall what everyone say simultaneously, the conversation turns out differently. We see what we say all the time. The picture contains the whole conversation. The drawing will show our different views on the topic side by side. This is to construct our reality together.
The images are nonlinear, use associative elements, includes diversities, shows the complexity, is emotionally charged by our participation in the process and can be stored for retrieval. That is what graphic facilitation is all about.
My prognosis is that in the next 20 yrs, this skill — to illustrate the communication in teams — will be a very essential part of any business. It will be used in all situations where one needs to create, solve problems, handle diverse opinions and work with change. In short all the major situations for a company or an organization.
This conference shows that now a community of practitioners is established and it is growing. The use of these skills has numerous, rather astonishing, cases to refer to. The technical part is establishing itself as a core competence. It can be taught and it can be learned. It is easy to reach a level where one can get practical results even if the level of mastery needs a bit more. And it is fun and very creative, full of colours.
On a personal note, it feels good to know that what I have been using for more than 30 years now is a profession that can draw 240 people in a world conference.
Ulric Rudebeck
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