A rare treat! You can watch the source of this graphic facilitation. Dr. Raynard Kington, Grinnell College's president, gave this speech at TEDx Youth@DesMoines. The theme was a Superheroes, a time limit of 18 minutes and an audience of children and teenagers.

Generally, I do little prep before a project. I only need a short context setting call. I don't need my clients' slide decks or speeches or annotated agendas. This lack of details isn't a lack of interest. My experience, responsiveness and adaptability in the room serves my clients better than knowing a lot of detail before I go into the room. And so often those details change.

This project was an exception. Knowing I'd need lightning fast fingers (one of my superpowers) to map 18 minutes of speech on a four foot by eight foot piece of paper, I read the speech beforehand. I'm more often mapping conversations (over presentations) and generally dialogue starts really ramping up 18 minutes in. I knew the eighteen minutes would be over in a flash.

This project was especially important to me. Sure, there's "TED cred" for be involved in TED talks. And I was very happy to be part of this TEDx Youth@DesMoines event. It meant so much more because it was for my alma mater, Grinnell College. I was the first in my family to go to college, and I had no idea what I was doing. Something resonated with me when I got that their brochure in the mail. Still wonder what exactly spoke to me and set that school apart from the others. I applied early admissions, got in, and thankfully, it was a good choice for me. A great choice. I loved the intensity and the independence of Grinnell. The beginning of my graphic facilitation career started when I decided to map a speech of my freshman tutorial as I gave it. Mapping the speech of the college president 20 years later? What a feeling of accomplishment, a great loop being closed, a big ribbon being tied.

p.s. Kington talks about how no one was written a comic book about Septima Clark. I think someone should.