I was lucky enough last week to be event facilitating at the NHS: Make Smoking History event at the Cure theatre in Leicester.  The event had been organised by Louise Ross, Manager of the STOP! smoking service NHS team in Leicester.  Louise had gathered a truly inspirational set of delegates, speakers and content and even as a firm non smoker I was shocked at some of the statistics thrown around on the day as well as taken aback by the completely wide ranging attitudes on smoking.

One of the most unusual features of the day was what was described to me initially as “graphic services”.  This wasn’t a term I had come across on my event management path so I was curious to see what the three ladies with reams of white paper and vibrant marker pens were up to.  The seminar began and by the arrival of the first coffee break most of the room had crowded round the walled area to view the graphic illustrations that had started to come alive.

The initial view was of something quite different and out of the ordinary – here were three ladies taking minutes of the event but not in the traditional shorthand written style but with colourful, quirky images.  Each one had captured key thoughts, facts, questions, statements about each of the speakers and a veritable sea of colour was emerging.

Throughout the half day session the scribbling continued with such fervour and determination that my eyes were continually drawn to the wall of “minute art”.  During my own breakout session my group had our thoughts captured and some of the icons that were drawn to represent our trains of thought provided a fantastic reference point and also a point of focus to come back to when the group veered off topic.

The team behind this fantastic idea is new possibilities, they are based in Hall Green Birmingham and describe graphic minute taking as the following: “Our experienced graphic facilitators can record meetings both large and small using pictures, symbols words and images.  The Graphic Record will show the keys facts while also capturing the mood and spirit of any discussion.  Recording minutes in this way encourages creative thinking and full participation from everyone.”

I would certainly agree that by the end of the day the 4 rolls of paper they had doodled, scribbled and turned their chunky felt tips too was no longer a blank canvas but full of colour, symbols, shapes, quotes, focus points and facts.  This certainly provided a talking point with the delegates in the room and no doubt will and should be used to pull the key findings together from the session with a few to moving forward and making the most of what was in essence a serious event.

So be different at your meetings – if you want to create a focused record of your thoughts and actions then I would seriously recommend graphic minute taking to create the ultimate board room talking point.