Wednesday, June 30, 2010 Webinar Meeting

Text is wonderful, but there are many messages that are hard to communicate with text alone. If you have to communicate those messages, visual explanations can help. This web seminar looks at what writers can do to develop more effective visual explanations by building on skills and knowledge that most writers already have.

This session is ideal for writers who believe that visual explanations could be a better way to present challenging topics to their audience. This session explores how visual explanations can fit into the work process that writers already understand. It is not about art or beauty. It's all about thinking.

Topics include:
• Visual literacy review.
• Examples of visual explanations and where they came from.
• The 14 basic building blocks and how to add blocks when needed.
• How to turn big ideas into vivid vignettes.
• The power of magic vision.
• An eight-step visual-explanation building process that works.
• The BuddyT Exercise (expanded version).
• Structures and when to use the classics.
• Checklist of common mistakes you'll want to avoid.

Bring your pencil. This fast-paced session will include five mini-exercises to help reinforce the ideas being addressed. There will be time along the way and at the end for questions.

The notes and worksheets for this session will be available as a PDF file the week before class. These resources are all you need to participate in the session. As a bonus, the first 10 students to register will receive a copy of Don's Napkin Sketch Workbook, Preview Edition. This 150-page book includes more exercises and additional resources.

This seminar is based on the workshop that Don conducted at the 2010 STC Summit in Dallas, Texas. Refinements have been made based on feedback from that event and to fit the web seminar format.

You'll enjoy the energy of this workshop and Don's enthusiasm for visual explanations. Bring a pencil and be prepared to work.

Program Title:
Building Visual Explanations: Practical Advice for Writers

Date and Time: Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 12:00 – 1:00 PM CST

Presenter: Don Moyer

Cost: Free to MTC members, $10 for non-members.

Location: Schneider Electric/Square D in the Juno Room. You may bring your lunch to eat during the presentation.

Location Address:
Schneider Electric. is located at 1010 Airpark Center Drive, Nashville, TN 37217

Presenter Bio:
Don Moyer is an award-winning designer and writer whose job is helping businesses make important ideas clear by making messages visible. Don has 40 years experience finding the essence of a message and turning it into something tangible and useful. Don and his team have created countless visual explanations for clients like AARP, Caterpillar, Deloitte, McDonald's, McKesson, Steelcase, and many others. For six years Don wrote and designed the "Panel Discussion" column monthly for Harvard Business Review. Don received degrees from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) and Yale University.

Please RSVP by 9 AM Wednesday, June 30, 2010.

Yes, I will attend.             No. Not this time.

<------or------->