Drawing at Meetings - why is hiring a conference artist so great anyway?

Jul 5

You might have been to a conference where an artist was drawing at the meeting. Maybe they were scribing on a long sheet of paper, or one of those fancy easels? You may have even seen a conference sketch artist drawing up on stage! Or on giant blocks that stack up. Or creating a huge mural?

There are loads of great innovative ways to hire an artist to draw your meetings, but today I am primarily focused on the benefits of digital live scribing, because it’s the best thing since sliced bread.

And I really like bread.

Hear me out.

katie chappell live illustrator zoom drawing ipad.jpg

Drawing at meetings

Meetings have changed a bit over the past 18 months. I’m writing this in July 2021, and at the moment we’re still wearing masks, and socially distancing. I haven’t been to an in-person event since March 2020! Before the pandemic was announced, I was fully booked and travelling around the UK and Europe to attend different conferences and meetings to draw at.

Overnight, all of my work was cancelled. I still remember that morning, refreshing my emails thinking ‘uhhh, what is going on? Is this thing…serious or something?’

Narrator: it was quite serious. Yes.

It took a month or so for me to gather myself and realise that great events were still happening.

Just…. online!

That’s when I threw myself headfirst into learning absolutely everything I could about virtual and online events. (And now hybrid events). So that I could help my clients get their messages out into a world that was now 100% virtual.

Thankfully I’m now even busier than I was pre-pandemic, and I have learned a metric shit tonne of stuff about virtual events along the way. I have a small team to help me now, as there’s only so much drawing one person can do before their hand falls off or turns into a claw.

Google, Facebook, the United Nations, Starbucks and Apple have trusted us to live illustrate at their online and hybrid events, and I’m happy to share some of the virtual events industry secrets here.

Rethinking Virtual Events

Pre-COVID, virtual events felt like a wishy washy ‘meh’ alternative to in-person events.

Not any moooore.

In the past year and a bit, I have seen the most incredible online events.

They are inclusive, creative, and fun. They celebrate diversity! They’re tangible, even though they’re stuck inside a tiny screen and there is still a brilliant, engaging legacy created afterwards.

I’ve created an assessment so you can see how you’re doing. It’s in progress but I’ll add it here as soon as it’s ready!

Hiring an artist to draw at your meeting

If you’ve watched the video above and you’re thinking “that sounds very easy and straight forward” you’d be right!

Send me an email and I’d love to talk about your project with you and see if live illustration, graphic recording and digital live scribing could be something we can help you with.

I have a lovely small team of expert live scribes who can help me on busier days, or when jobs require a few breakout rooms to be drawn.

The benefits of Digital Live Scribing

OMG so many. I’ve written extensively on this topic. Here are the top 3, and I’ll link a few previous blog posts if you’d like to dive in deeper.

Memorable AF: Attendees are SIX TIMES more likely to remember you if there’s a live illustrator there. (And it’s exciting.)
Boosts Engagement: Whip up online-event-excitement. Make complex stuff shareable, and beautifully accessible. YAAS!
Saves time: A bum-numbing conference becomes just a minute or two of animated video. Cool, creative, and useful.