At the BIMM- network conference on language education, which took place in Graz at the beginning of April, I had the opportunity to try my hand at graphic recording for the first time. The conference was organised by BIMM (Sprachliche Bildung im Kontext von Migration und Mehrsprachigkeit), where I am part-time employed as a visualiser and developer of teaching materials, i.e. I was able to try out graphic recording as part of my normal work, which was a huge advantage. I knew the organisers and was already familiar with a lot of the content, but at the same time the large number of participants and the length of the conference with its many contents were a real challenge.
I was able to choose how comprehensive I wanted the graphic recording to be. In the end, I documented the entire conference on the iPad, but the drawing process itself was not projected. This allowed me to sit more or less incognito in the audience and do what I usually do when I make visual notes of interesting content for myself. The graphic recording was only presented at the end of the second day, where we projected the drawings and displayed them in printed form. The documents were also made available in the digital follow-up to the conference.
It was a very special experience for me. I know some really great graphic recorders and admire their work very much. Since I don’t like drawing under time pressure and always feel like I need a lot of time to think things through and revise existing notes, I didn’t think I was very capable of ‘graphic recording’ myself. When this opportunity arose at BIMM, however, I seized it immediately and am really glad I did.
What pleasantly surprised me was that there were short breaks during the conference where I could make minor adjustments and improvements. In the end, the time pressure wasn’t as high as I had thought. However, when it came to more complex content from the workshops, which I simply documented as a participant, I was very glad that I could use the evening of the first day of the conference to structure my sketch notes. Especially when I am very interested in the content of a topic and the content tends to develop from discussion and practical application, I find it difficult to filter and my notes tend to get a bit out of hand. 😉 This is supported by ‘Concepts’, the programme I work with, because it offers endless space on its infinite canvas and I can easily move, change and reassemble everything afterwards.
My admiration for full-time graphic recorders, who create great colourful recordings in all kinds of fields, both analogue and digital, has grown even greater as a result of this first personal experience. But I am really proud to have tried it myself and was also very happy about how enthusiastically the drawings were received.
However, I won’t be becoming a professional graphic recorder just yet. At the moment, I enjoy taking my own notes, which I can then edit at my leisure, think through again and put into shape before sharing them with others on LinkedIn or Instagram – or not. But if another opportunity for graphic recording arose, I would immediately take up the challenge again. 😊