Tim Hamons of
Art of Awakening explains how visual recording has helped companies to transform meetings into engaging, impactful, and memorable learning events.
When and why did you start going into visual recordings?
Since I was a kid, I’ve loved drawing and would spend hours observing the world around me and capturing my observations in drawings. I love to learn and would attend many seminars on personal and professional development, and for the past 20 years have been making mind maps to capture my notes at these events. People began asking if they can have a copy of these hand-drawn notes, which were full of images and visual metaphors. I soon realised the value in visual note taking as a great way to leverage time and investment in a learning event.
Coming from a background with a degree in visual communication as well as many years teaching communication and creativity to corporate groups, this form of presenting complex ideas and concepts in a visual and narrative format just seemed to make sense. I decided I wanted to share this skill with others.
I had learnt about visual recording from facilitators, and was soon approached to provide this service for several different events.
We’ve worked with many organisations and industries to help them to visualise their communications and meetings, from medical industry and IT to management consultancies and finance. We work a lot with leadership and communication teams to help them articulate important strategic messages, including visioning, branding, innovation, and change management initiatives.
Other recent projects include an event for educational partners, where we worked with them to create visual environments, props and interactive walls to reflect the various stages of the students’ learning journey.
Our work has taken us to most key cities in Asia where our clients have important events, including China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. We have even worked with a client from Barcelona, Spain, an internationally acclaimed pastry boutique Pastelería Escribà on an event called “Fantasia” where we used visual maps to help them conceptualise and plan this flagship event in Asia.
What impact do visual recordings have for events?
The impact of these strategic visual messages is many-fold. After working with a client on a two-day leadership retreat, we were told that the visuals represent what they have been trying to express for over 10 years.
Others tell us that this work is exactly what they need to communicate their vision and the case for change to their leadership teams. It also helps teams to take ownership and personalise their vision and mission across various groups or countries. In a PR context, we have worked with teams to conceptualise and present a pitch, where the visuals will be presented to key stakeholders to support decision-making.
Perhaps the most inspiring project I have been involved with to date involves working with tri-sector leaders and influencers in a collaboration between University of Jakarta and MIT in Boston called “Ideas”. We worked alongside groups to map out their discussions on systemic issues such as poverty, environment, education, corruption, and to visualise and create prototypes for sustainable solutions.
What role DOES Art of Awakening play amid changing trends of the MICE industry?
Organisations are struggling to keep up with the amount of data that is becoming available in exponential amounts, and to more importantly convert this data into useful insights to share with their customers and teams.
Switched-on leaders and organisations realise that they need to find a way to create a more lasting emotional connection with the audience to create true learning and engagement at their events. This requires new ways of thinking about how we design events and learning environments. At a recent client event centred around a banking merger, the chairman encouraged his leadership team to “think less, and feel more”, to engage their creativity and intuition, and create compelling stories which will lead the organisation into the future.
At Art of Awakening, our vision is to inspire individuals, communities, and organisations to do just that. We use visual and creative tools, processes and environments to engage the powers of individual and collective imaginations, so as to create positive and meaningful change.
What is YOUR working process?
People often ask us this. We like to see the process as a partnership, where we become our clients’ “thought partner”. We will have a conversation with you to understand your event and the objectives, and then design a framework for the visual work to support those objectives.
When we are at your event and creating the visual maps, we use our understanding of these objectives to guide the output. Practising deep listening, and empathy, I’ve trained myself to connect with the messages that “stick” with a group. I’ve learnt to trust what I hear and feel from this space of co-creation with a client; that these are the messages that will best support the group and their learning.
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