What Am I Listening For? And What's Next?

Graphic recording, or visual scribing as I refer to it, is not one thing. Put five visual practitioners in the same room, and you will get five very different results. In this blog, I want to name some of those differences, because it helps clients and new practitioners alike.

My starting question

My first question is always: what am I listening for?

If a speaker says "dog," I am not going to draw a dog. I am trying to understand what the speaker is saying and capture the salient points and themes. Also, I do not filter their words and write down what I think they meant. I write down what they said, in their words. That way, the scribing becomes an artifact of the conversation that happened in the room. Listening is key, the knowledge capture is essential, and the visuals are the finishing layer.

Other ways of working

Other practitioners work differently, and that is fine.

Illustrative. A speaker mentions students, and a student appears. Someone says gaming, and a game player appears. Someone says AI, and a chatbot appears. This can be fun and eye-catching, and it works in the right setting. But it shows the topics that came up, not necessarily what was said about them.

Generative. This is listening at a deeper, more felt level. You may capture only a few words as people call them out, not full sentences. I have done this work, and I do it intentionally, but it is a different practice.

A recent example

At a recent conference, the schedule alternated between plenaries and several breakout workshops over a few days.

I captured each plenary as it happened. When people split into workshops, I moved between rooms and wrote down each workshop title and a few high-level points. I could not stay for every session, of course. The goal was that someone who missed a workshop could return to the recording and get a sense of what happened.

The result is text-forward, with readable sentences and visuals throughout. It looks different from more illustrative work, and that is okay.

The better question

No one approach is the right one. The better question is what the piece is for. Is it a record people return to? A visual moment for the room? A set of images to share on social media? A ready-to-go visual for marketing online?

Clients sometimes tell me style does not matter, but they often have a picture in mind. I would rather have that conversation early. As my portfolio reveals, my ability to show up for clients in many different ways goes beyond one style. My clients' requirements will also determine what level of listening I need to have.

What is coming next

In the coming weeks, I will share case studies on:

• Community conversations

• Strategy sessions

• Open space technology

• Reusing scribings as illustrations and social media assets

• Digital experiences on event platforms like QiqoChat

• Visual experiences at in-person conferences, including banners, mural boards, note cards, and workshop templates

If you hire graphic recorders, or are one, what are you listening for? Reply to this post or write me at ashanti@thesocialartcomplex.com.