You might have read how I got into sketchnoting. It takes a lot of love, willingness to practise and then enough courage to share your sketchnotes with the world. You might dedicate a lot of time to this phase, in which case you can up your skills quite quickly. Or you go about it the slow way, find resources online or in books, practise a bit here and there when it suits. I’m definitely in the latter group.
Organised training sessions are a really good opportunity to make sketchnotes, as it helps you memorise what you’ve learnt. While I was living in Birmingham (UK) the Google Digital Garage there opened, offering free (!) digital training. I attended the ‘Writing for social media’ training and made the sketchnote below in the Google colours. Absolute highlight however was when I tweeted it and Google UK RETWEETED IT! #fangirl
I started off doing my sketchnotes within the safety of our home. I would go to an event and take notes, then prep the sketchnote on the train back and finish it at home. But after a while I wanted more. I wanted to be able to share my sketchnotes with the audience on the same day, or even while the event was still taking place. So my very first live graphic recording was at another Google Digital Garage training, this time on the topic of digital advertising. The sketch itself is quite basic, and there is lots to be learnt and improved upon, but still, not bad (if I may say so myself).
A few weeks later I attended one of our biannual Eurodesk meetings, this time in Varna, Bulgaria. Six months earlier I had taken part in a sketchnote training at our meeting in Germany. And now here I was, making live graphic recordings of the workshops and discussions:
Brilliant opportunity, especially when you are surrounded by supportive colleagues, which makes it even better to be able to share your sketchnotes on the same day. Another step then towards live graphic recording at my biggest live event yet: the Erasmus+ UK Annual Conference 2017 in London. I was there on the Eurodesk stand in the Community Hub which allowed me to listen to all the plenary sessions. A bit tricky to get it all in on two pages, but a really good exercise. And amazing to be able to share it with the audience there and then! Great way to get some feedback but also to get people to check out your own/your organisation’s social media profiles and find out more about what you do.
Have you taken the step to graphic recording? Let me know if you have any hints and tips!
If you’d like to read more about my sketchnote learning process, have a look at these blog posts:
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