Smart Ways Your Visual Notes Can Have Lasting Value

Screenshot of a ConverSketch illustration embedded in a post from USFWS Permits website.

When you bring a graphic recorder into your event, you’re making an investment financially, in your time, and in the success and impact of your event.

So, when I saw the way the Fish and Wildlife Service Permits team was using their visual notes from last summer, I knew I had to share it with you! Months later, they’re still creating engaging content chock full of visuals to maintain momentum and tell their stories.

What’s the secret to maximizing their investment in visuals?

We thought about it early in the process.

It’s that simple. In our initial discovery calls together, clarifying the Purpose, Outcomes and Process (POP) was step one. We made sure to not only discuss how visuals might best support the group on-site, but what their goals were for the charts after the workshop.

In these conversations, it became clear that capturing all the details of every session was less important, and creating more detailed illustrations of key ideas that could be used in digital content for months afterward was a priority.

Here are three questions you can ask yourself before any meeting to make sure you’re maximizing your time, whether you have a graphic recorder with you or not:

• What is our POP?

• What stories do we want people telling after the meeting?

• How can the graphics/follow up communication support this?

Thank you for your collaboration, humor, and what you do to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Children with Medical Complexity: You may recognize this project – I’ve had the pleasure of supporting Boston University’s research on family-centered care since 2020. This year, they’re building on the initial pilot and digging deeper into what those preliminary findings mean. Here’s one of the digital graphics from this year.

Video Series: Individualized Education Programs. In partnership with High Quality IEPs walks educators and administrators through the IEP process and shares WHY they matter and how they can make a positive difference in the lives of children with disabilities.

Join In Celebrating…Karina is a 40 Under 40 Honoree!

Karina and Spencer at the 40 under 40 Celebration.

Please join in celebrating with us: Karina is one of Northern Colorado’s 40 Under 40 this year! Hosted by BizWest, the event “celebrates young professionals shaping the future of Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado who are making a mark on their communities through professional success and volunteer activities”.

Founding and owning ConverSketch has been a core piece of who I am, and running a business that gives back to the community has always been part of my core values. That’s why I choose to give back in a variety of ways:

• Prioritizing work with organizations and teams that align with my values.

• Donating a portion of my proceeds each year to organizations that are working in conservation, climate resilience, and supporting women and girls in business and education.

• Offering a limited number of scholarships for discounted graphic recording each year.

• Volunteering supporting women in rural Kenya: I have been a co-leader for service-learning program through Colorado State University taking students to Samburu, Kenya, since 2013.

Thank you all for being my co-collaborators and, truly, for being the reason I get to do this work! And a special thank you to Rebecca Everette, who nominated me for this award. You are an inspiration and lift up the women in your life!

Thank you for your collaboration, humor, and what you do to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

It’s been a busy year! Here are select highlights from this summer to give a peek into what I’ve been up to. I’ll be sharing a new video series soon as well! Stay tuned.

Wisconsin, Texas, and Michigan: Hosting a series of workshops for the National Parks Conservation Association focused on building connections and place-specific strategies to support visitors to Parks in electric vehicles.

Workshop participants in Munising, Michigan discuss how to support EV infrastructure in their community and park.

West Virginia: Graphic recording with the US Fish and Wildlife Service ePermits program as they built connections and a shared understanding of how to more effectively modernize the permit process. We also created an illustrated video together earlier this year.

Permit process modernization with fish and wildlife is always a good excuse to draw animals.

The wall of visuals extended behind and in front of participants as the week progressed!

Aspen: At the annual Technology Policy Institute Aspen Forum discussing the leading edge on AI policy, safety and moderation, antitrust, and broadband.

Denver and Fort Collins: Apoyando el trabajo de La Cocina, un organización escuchando de la comunidad sobre desarollando un app sobre la salúd mental.

Supporting the work of La Cocina as they learned from the community what they’d like to see in a mental health app for the Latine community. Sessions were in Spanish and English and I translated key ideas to English for the summary illustrations to be used in future grant writing.

How to Use Graphics After Your Event for Seismic Engagement

Have you ever gotten a follow up email after attending an event? What was inside? A survey? A written meeting summary?

Was there any engagement? A lively volley of replies…or crickets?

After a workshop focused on zero waste in National Parks, the National Park Conservation Association (NPCA) blew me and the other participants away with the workshop summary.

And the results? More than 20 of the 32 participants replied to the summary, expressing delight in being a part of the group and the uniqueness of having graphic recording as part of the process. Here’s what Josh Simpson who founded Little Kamper refillable propane tanks wrote:

“For me, the most amazing part is reviewing the summary report and seeing how much was captured and translated into art. This was my first experience with having an artist in residence at a meeting and I'm blown away. My high hopes for this gathering were met at every step on the way and then exceeded when I reviewed the meeting summary.”

Another example of using the graphics to amplify impact is from the Boston University team working on improving care and outcomes for children with medical complexity.

They published a special issue of the  journal Pediatrics focusing on several years of collaborative and family-led work. In two of the papers, graphics from the process are used to illustrate key ideas and share important outcomes from the work.

Thank you for your collaboration, humor, and what you do to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

San Francisco, CA: As seen above, for the National Park Conservation Association and Subaru talking zero landfill input in National Parks.

Boulder, CO: For the City of Boulder as they asked citizens what they’d like to see in the Civic Area Park. This was created on paper on-site (and outdoors!) then additional color was added digitally after the event.

In the Studio: Storyboarding and managing several illustrated videos. Here’s a sneak peek at a first draft sketch for the US Fish and Wildlife Service – gotta love whatever makes bumblebees celebrate!

Cheers to 12 Years!

ConverSketch is twelve!

Thank you for being the reason for many years of discovery, creativity, fun, and making meaning together.  Am I proud of what we’ve done together? You bet I am!

If you asked me when I picked up my first chisel tip marker where I thought this would take me, I probably would have said something like “I don’t know, but this just feels like what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Through creativity, strategy, and deep listening, we've co-created to bring your visions to life and spark new possibilities. Each project has been a unique opportunity to learn, stretch our minds, and explore diverse perspectives.

Here's to another twelve years (and beyond!) of cultivating imaginative solutions and drawing your meaningful ideas together.

Thank you for your collaboration, humor, and what you do to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Virtual Global Driving K-12 Innovation Summit: Working with Laura at PumpkinBerry Consulting is always a delight, and collaborating on this Summit was no different. Our job was to bring educators and IT professionals together across the US and world to hold space for connection, creative problem-solving, and celebrating the work they do every day.

Sunrise, Florida: I joined the City of Sunrise to digitally graphically facilitate the community’s vision for the future of their city. I visualized what was most important to community members including parks, recreation, good government, safety, and multiple transportation options. After hearing more via surveys, the County Commissioners will add their ideas too!

Colorado State University: As part of a larger retreat for the Climate Adaptation and Management Planning Program, I graphically facilitated a visioning session with the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML). These folks are passionate about our planet and wildly smart – it was a treat to be in the room with them.

2023 Roundup & 2024 Reflection Gift For You

Welcome to 2024 y’all!

How has this new year felt for you? Has it been subtle shift or have you felt a more noticeable change in your life?

Each of us is figuring out the steps to the ever-changing dance of balancing working, caregiving, and pursuing other things that fill our cups – creative pursuits, moving our bodies, travel, or simply enjoying some tea and book.

For me, 2023 was full of learning curves as a mother. Even so, I’ve been delighted to collaborate with many of you on your fabulous projects - scroll down for highlights from videos to in-person graphic recording throughout autumn/winter of last year.

I hope for you 2024 feels like a deep breath of possibility that’s full of moments that feel delightful, balanced, and are opportunities to grow! 

Here is a sheet you can download to reflect and focus this next year. Mine is printed and hanging near my desk as a reminder!

Thank you for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Ute Mountain Ute NUCHU Planning Video Series: You can watch all three videos here to learn about the outcomes of the retreat we held last summer and how to get involved with the tribe’s community and economic development priorities.

National Park Service Climate Change Response Strategy Video: Here’s the link to watch the video about NPS’ approach to climate change.

Colorado Food Summit: Farmers, ranchers, chefs, schools, food access/equity organizations, and local food enthusiasts from around the state came together to learn and network to create a more robust local food system.

Soil Health Roundtable: Producers and researchers from across the intermountain west to work collaboratively on regional soil health. Without healthy soil,

Colorado Tourism Stewardship: How can we support tourism without loving destinations to death? Over the course of the day, I illustrated conference participants’ ideas in an Experience Wall based entirely on what I heard!

The Attainment Network: The Pathways Conference is an opportunity for educators from around the state to connect and share how they support learners who may not follow a “traditional” path. This is my third year working with this crew and I love the positive impact they’re having on young people!

Diverse Attorneys Retreat: How can a law firm not only attract, but nurture and empower diverse employees? At this retreat, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women attorneys envisioned their ideal work environment. The Chief Diversity Officer then took the chart to the Executive Leadership Retreat to share how they can do the work to support all their people.

A Personal Update: Kai and Ayla are now over a year old and are walking all over! I’m planning to continue part-time with ConverSketch this year and am slowly increasing my capacity for new projects while prioritizing time with family. Thank you for your patience and understanding as I navigate this new path!

No Travel Budget? You Can Still Have Graphic Recording

Are you planning an event that could use graphic recording, but you don’t have a budget for travel? Let’s talk about remote visuals.

I recently had the pleasure of supporting Wayne State University’s Center for Leadership in Environmental Awareness & Research (CLEAR) as they held a symposium on environmental justice for maternal and fetal health in the Detroit area.

Though most participants attended locally, I was able to join remotely to capture visuals in real-time. The team projected my work on large screens around the room in tandem with presenters’ slides so participants could see multiple ways of engaging with the information as it was being shared.

Here are some of my tips for success:

• Good sound is a must. Make sure your people have easy access to microphones so the graphic recorder can hear well.

• What’s your why for having visuals? Answer this question to decide what’s most useful for displaying the graphics. Is it important for participants to see the graphics as they emerge? Or as a reveal at the end? We can work together to design a strategy that best serves your needs.

• Before, during, after: we can work together to make the most of your investment by thinking about how to leverage the visuals to support your goals for the event.

• Practice makes everything better. Schedule a tech test to make sure sound and displays are showing up well so everything goes easy on the day of.

“The first comment about the CLEAR presentation was about how wonderful it was to see your graphic recordings and what a great idea it was to interpret the research in this way.

Thanks again for your excellent drawings that so innovatively communicate the work of CLEAR in such an easily accessible way.”

— Judith Moldenhauer, CLEAR Team

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

Though I’m still very much easing into working as a new parent, I’ve been loving the projects I’ve gotten to support this spring:

Wayne State University: Here is one of the graphics I created for the CLEAR symposium mentioned above. I loved learning about the community-centered and interdisciplinary approaches this group is taking around maternal and fetal health!

Learner Voice Symposium: Partnering with the Attainment Network is always a treat because they center learner voices and walk the talk of including youth and non-traditional learners in conversations that matter!

WildfireSAFE App Video Series: I’m delighted to finally get to share the WildfireSAFE app videos with the world! Matt Jolly and his team at USFS have developed an incredibly sophisticated and simple-to-use app that helps fire responders and residents understand fire danger in very specific locations and times. This app can help save lives – if you live in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), please check it out!

Tech Leadership: Supporting a leadership team as they navigate big shifts in the organization. I was impressed by the vulnerability and authenticity with which folks showed up in a completely remote environment!

ConverSketch Returns in April

Karina holding Kai (left) and Ayla (right).

Hello!

Here are a few updates as spring flowers emerge here in the Northern Hemisphere, and I start to emerge from the cocoon of newborn twin life:

• I’ll be returning to graphic recording part-time starting in April, focusing on virtual and single day local (Colorado) on-site projects. I plan to start traveling this summer. If you have an event that could use some visual thinking, I’d love to hear from you and get you in my calendar. I’m looking forward to partnering with you all!

• Our twins, Kai and Ayla, are growing and learning more every day. It’s a joy to have them home from the NICU and off oxygen and get to see their personalities emerging. Baby coos and smiles sure are special! We’re looking forward to more walks and seeing more friends as the weather warms up and the twins get stronger.

• ConverSketch turned 11 in February! An enormous thank you to each of you for being a part of what makes ConverSketch special – it’s all about your ideas, creativity, and collaboration!

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the Virtual World is ConverSketch?

While I have been fully immersed in being a new parent, here are some projects from last year that have been published in the last few months.

CoSN Driving K-12 Innovation: The Consortium for School Networking hosted another series of dialogues and ideation sessions to support educators and schools Driving K-12 Innovation across the nation last fall, and I got to create live graphics which are beautifully featured in their annual publications. Check out the full reports here.

Rangeland Ecosystem Services Publication: Another studio piece from the fall, created in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Service exploring pillars to resilient rangelands and rangeland ecosystem services.

The Wilderness Society: Last fall I had the joy of working with the TWS Community-Led Conservation team to create a vision and roadmap toward truly supporting communities and wilderness. This spring we got together to finish a summary illustration of their vision and values and how they fit into the larger TWS organization.

Watershed Perspectives

September brought fascinating work with clients across the country and across sectors, but one theme kept emerging organically. This is one of my favorite things about being a graphic facilitator – we get to listen, learn and make connections.

This month I keep hearing a similar idea from a team working on resilient coasts and watersheds, to social and ecological scientists working in mountain systems around the world, to community-led conservation practitioners:  

The same small perspective just doesn’t cut it. To really solve problems for our environment and people, we need to look at challenges from a larger perspective, like a watershed. If we’re only looking to solve problems for one community or piece of the ecosystem, there are bound to be repercussions or solutions that don’t last. Looking for system connections

Is there a way for you to take a “watershed” approach to a problem or challenge to look for a solution in a place you may not have thought of?

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Seattle, WA: Facilitating with the Wilderness Society’s Community-Led Conservation team as they explore what it would take to create a supportive, inclusive, and effective community of practice.

Basalt, CO: With mountain researchers from around the world exploring the potential of creating a new alliance to elevate indigenous and mountain community voices for better climate policy.

Denver, CO: With the Attainment Network learning and sharing about different career pathways to support students who may not choose to or think they can attend university.

Virginia Beach, VA: With the Environmental Defense Fund kicking off a series of systems thinking workshops for the Resilient Coasts and Watersheds team – the rest of the workshops are virtual throughout the fall.

Three Reasons to Put It on Paper

Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation, a book, or a brainstorm and felt like you needed to grab a pencil and paper to start writing things down? If so, you’re not alone! Here are three reasons to grab a notebook or scrap of paper and get your ideas on paper:

• Kinesthetic connection sparks memory. The act of physically writing rather than typing has been shown to improve memory through the movement of putting a pen to paper. Read more here.

• Take a (cognitive) load off. Our brains can only keep track of a finite amount of information at once, so writing or drawing your ideas out allows you to let go of some of the load while continuing what you’re doing. Getting it on paper allows you to look for connections, which also reduces cognitive load.

• Words and pictures are powerful. Writing things down with intention can be a powerful practice to focus your energy, thoughts, and emotions to let go of or bring in more of what you want. I enjoy creating vision boards during the new year or times of change to help me organize and focus my intentions.

For more science about why writing things down works for your brain, check out this one on complexity.

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

Cheers,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

In Case You Missed It: We’re expecting twins in December! For more on what this means for ConverSketch over the coming months, check out this post.

In the Studio: Working on a series of videos about wildfire safety, and a series of illustrations of local food gatherings around the state of Colorado. Here’s a snippet:

Speaking of Expectations…A Very Exciting Personal Update

Last week I shared some thoughts about how we can reinvent expectations together to counter the burnout many are feeling.

This week I’d like to share a personal spin on the theme of expectations. I’m delighted to get to finally share with you…

I’m pregnant with twins!

We’re feeling effervescent, they’re due in mid-December, and everyone is healthy.

What does this mean for ConverSketch?

• I’ll be taking a few months for parental leave from roughly December-February depending on when they make their debut

• I’m planning to begin working again part-time in the spring – recognizing this timeline will likely evolve and solidify as we get our bearings as parents

• I will not be traveling beyond October and will be tapering work in November

• If we’re already working together on a project, if the pregnancy continues as we expect, I’ll make sure we’re wrapped up before parental leave.

• For new projects during the time I’m away, I am wildly appreciative to have a network of phenomenal graphic recording and graphic facilitation colleagues to connect you with – so keep planning for visual thinking, creative process design, and meaningful connection.

Please feel free to reach out with questions – I want to make sure all of YOU, my wonderful thought partners are taken care of!

Once again, thank you from my heart and soul for your support, great senses of humor, brilliant minds, collaboration and what you're each doing to make the world a better place.

With prenatal bliss,

Where in the World is ConverSketch?

Pivoting from In-Person to Virtual: Last week, a team of fire social scientists and I made some tough calls due to covid and other unexpected challenges for participants. We went from a 2.5 day in-person meeting to a 1-day virtual meeting with additional follow up in a few weeks to discuss their work, create a strategy for the remaining funding, and envision what the long-term could look like to continue this work. Sensitive content has been blurred out.

In the Studio: Working on several illustration projects from core values and purpose to integrating the complex landscape of socio-ecological systems into a branded illustration for an upcoming conference I’ll be graphic recording.