I find solo graphic recording for World Cafe challenging. The way content comes in (all at once, not live/spoken but rather in text/on sticky notes, in 3 waves, 15 min apart). Also, in this case, the client wants a total of three (4ft x 6 ft) drawings (one per question) – so 3 boards. That’s a lot of real estate.
I have this great opportunity though, because I have been invited to do the same World Cafe 3 years in a row. Here is how my plan of attack has improved over time:
- year one: worked alone, and it was a struggle to receive, sift/sort/theme content, then draw like mad – the 3 drawings looked pretty hasty and thin, e.g.,
- year two: got help with sifting/sorting the content – much better experience for me, and I think the drawings captured more of the participants contributions. I had more of a plan up front for title/layout, but it still lacks an obvious order (this is something I am working on in general)
- year three: worked with a team (4 of us in total) – yay!
In future, I will either work as a team again on this World Cafe OR (if that’s not possible), see if we can switch to one drawing instead of 3.