| Event | VizThink 1 |
| Date | Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 |
| Time | 6:30pm |
| Location | Clay Tablet Technologies |
| - | 2 Berkeley Street |
| - | Suite 303 |
| - | Toronto, ON |
| - | (enter off Berkeley Street) |
| Capacity | Max +/-20 for this one. |
What You Should Bring
| Paper | Index Cards, 8.5x11", notepads etc., post-it notes |
| Pens | Make sure you've got pens, pencils, sharpies with you |
| Chair | If you have one of those handy folding chairs etc. it's a good way to guarantee yourself a seat. |
What we need
Projector - anyone got one they can bring/loan? (SH: Can bring - RC: Thx Sean!)
Easels - I have a couple but they're not geared for putting flipcharts on... I figure we'll need 3 to 4 easels.
VizThink is intended to be a vehicle for the community to meet, learn and discuss the ideas around the notion of Visual Thinking. Ideally this type of session will give people the tools they need to express themselves in new ways regardless of artistic ability.
What is Visual Thinking?
Visual Thinking encompasses a variety of techniques, approaches and disciplines including, but not limited to Visual Thinking, Concept Mapping, Mind Mapping, Illustration, Information Design etc. etc.
At the end of the day the idea is to either solve problems or convey thoughts, processes and concepts in a visual form. Now, before you tune out saying "I can't draw" / "I'm not an artist", take a deep breath and I'll let you in on a little secret - Visual Thinking isn't only for artists, in fact many of the concepts and iterations require nothing more than boxes and lines or stick people.
Sure, only a select (& lucky) few capable of spitting out illustrations like the guys at XPLANE, but at the end of the day visual thinking has far more uses than simply creating brilliant illustrations of business processes - it's also important to consider that illustrations such as XPLANE's are the PRODUCT of visual thinking, not the PROCESS. ANYONE can be equipped with the tools to think Visually and apply them to their work.
What is DemoCamp?
In case you're new to this blog "DemoCamp":http://barcamp.org/DemoCamp is "TorCamp's":http://barcamp.org/TorCamp answer to not wanting to run full blown BarCamp's every month but still wanting to get the community together on a regular basis. Each session involves 3-5 demos followed by drinks & discussion.
What is a DesignSlam?
DesignSlams are a fluid environment where a topic or idea is collectively conceived, designed and created within a specific period of time. True DesignSlams also incorporate roles for "clients" etc but for the purposes of this event we're going to simplify the format - in this case it's all about helping work through each other's ideas.
How Does a DemoCampDesignSlam format become VizThink?
Good question. Here's the format (at least to start):
- 6:30-7:15 - Presentation & Discussion on topic for the evening.
- 7:15-7:30 - Develop Slam "Agenda" (Who has ideas/problems/stuff they want to discuss & work through)
- 7:30-9:00 - Breakout groups into design sessions based on participant interest
- 9:00+ Find somewhere for a beer and continue the conversations.
For this event we're going to cap the registrations at about 20. Partially venue driven but as it's the first one I'd like to keep the number at a manageable size while we work the kinks out of the model/format. If there's interest down the road we'll certainly move somewhere with more capacity.
Free Labour
This isn't a venue for obtaining free-talent/labour. The goal of the Design half of the evening isn't to finish your work for you but help you:
- get started/brainstorm
- get over a hurdle
- get feedback on something you've created.
A Lecture
While there will be a "presentation" component presenters will be encouraged to keep "talking at" the crowd to a minimum with a focus on "talking with". Presentations should involve exercises, discussion, Q&A etc. Powerpoints are permitted but should only be used where they add value to the session - I saw Dave Gray (founder of XPLANE) do a session with almost 1000 slides in a 3 hour span and it was still an entirely engaging and interactive experience, it's about quality not quantity.
Come prepared to share, collaborate and contribute!
Registration: Select "edit page" at the bottom of this page and add your name to the list
- "Ryan":http://fitrans.blogspot.com "Coleman":http://fifocus.blogspot.com "Clay Tablet Technologies":http://www.clay-tablet.com
- Martin Cleaver http://martin.cleaver.org
- Mark Kuznicki, "Remarkk":http://remarkk.com
- michele perras, "beal institute":http://bealinstitute.org
- Matthew Burpee http://matthew.burpee.ca
- Deborah Hartmann www.infoq.com/agile
- "Hassan Masum":http://hmasum.com
- Kaleem
- Rannie Turingan photojunkie.ca
- Brian Cort
- Sean Howard "craphammer":http://www.craphammer.ca & "spinglobe":http://www.spinglobe.com/
- "Pearl Chen":http://www.karma-laboratory.com
- sasha uritsky www.nsemodules.com
- Alex Grunwald "spinglobe":http://www.spinglobe.com/
- Mark Mulholland
- Nick Pagee
- "Libin Pan":http://www.linkedin.com/in/libin
- Ellena Cheng
- Jeff Richman | www.clearroot.com
Because of the capacity limit, if you sign up and can't make it please do the right thing and take yourself off the list - grab the person on the top of the wait list pile and add them to the bottom of the registrations!
Waiting List:
If the Registration pile hits 20 please add your name here. Check back in the days leading up tot he event in case you get promoted to the reg list.
- Add yourself to the waiting list
