That time of year is quickly approaching. Everything from preparing presentation slides, handouts for session attendees, travel plans, connecting and reconnecting with friends, and packing a pencil pouch for sketchnoting!
The Elearning Guild’s annual DevLearn Conference & Expo is by far the industry’s leading event. With my sixth consecutive visit to this conference I got to thinking. Why above all other events one could attend that I’m not only pulled professionally, but generally excited to attend? There’s no real easy answer to this question as it encapsulates various aspects of what we do. From connections and personal friendships, to professional discoveries and industry trends, there’s something for anyone who works in this business.
For me, this event breaks down into two categories: Share and Show.
SHARE:
I speak or teach at these events for two reasons: 1) Share or teach others what I know or what I’ve learned, and 2) To learn from others. The old saying is true that often participants or students will teach the teacher.
This year I’m teaching a preconference workshop titled Storyboard to Storyline, which is more about how the elearning authoring tool, Articulate Storyline, fits in the workflow of a project rather than the tool itself.
In the afternoon of the first day of the conference on Wednesday, I’ll be presenting a session titled, Style Guides: The Unsung Hero of Elearning Development. Following the theme of workflow, an elearning style guide is another tool(s) to help in the overall project.
SHOW:
On Thursday night I’m excited to show off a project at the extremely popular DemoFest of a completely custom elearning course developed in Storyline completed earlier this year.
Sketchnoting. For those who know me I tend to draw everything and anything all the time. Specifically, I enjoy sketchnoting the keynote speakers, a featured session or two and maybe an occasional caricature of an unsuspecting target.
I really don’t *need* new pencils but I use DevLearn as an excuse to get some new ones. I’ve always wanted a set of Chuck Jones Blackwing 602 pencils.
Pink erasers? on a real Blackwing? Quite the design statement. 🙂
I enjoyed your ATD article on “Visual Storyboarding.” We often include at least a few mock-ups of representative elearning screens during the (instructional) storyboard phase, whether or not we work out a full visual design up front. It helps clients to imagine how the course will function.
Wish I could be at DevLearn – maybe next year!
Hi Kim! I know right! The pink erasers I believe are on the Chuck Jones limited edition Blackings. Could be wrong but think you can get them on the Pearl White versions too.
Thanks and glad you enjoyed the ATD article which a preface for my upcoming Essentials of Storyboarding for Elearning online workshop kicking off next month. I don’t start a single project without “seeing” it mapped out to get a sense of the navigational, and more importantly, the instructional flow of an elearning course/module.
Whether the storyboard is drafted in MS Word or MS PPT, and regardless if it’s linear or not, most clients can’t get a feel of the experience without some sort of visual mock-up…visual storybaord.
Bummer you can’t make it to DevLearn. I see a lot of great things coming from Cinecraft and hopefully we’ll cross paths one day!