I attended SXSW in 2011…
and was met with the sights and sounds of people from all over the world gathering in an amazing display of diversity and personality types.
Left-brainers, right-brainers and hybrids everywhere. It was an amazing and frenetic scene as we all clamored to get from session to session.
But there was one omnipresent and shiny new toy on the scene. Live scribers. People who were versed in spinning little cartoon tales into a MAD Magazine-like board of extracts from the keynote speaker or panel discussion on the stage. It all seemed so novel and clever at the time and the smell of markers was heavy in the air as these people scribbled away.
Guess what? It was all a farce. And it still is.
Look, I’m not trying to rain on any parades and I think there is a time and a place to add a little playfulness to the party and this gag is simply sorely misplaced. There is no real clever distillation when the ink dries. There are no key takeaways at the end of those dotted lines. No one, but no one ever revisits these boards with any kind of ‘aha’ moments or next steps. There is simply no substitute for copious notes and true ‘boiling down’ by multiple experts from multiple disciplines.
The final readout should be actionable and reveal deep insights from your speaker, panel or group and work to assist with instituting real change. I suggest leaving the cartoons to The New Yorker and take a serious view through the right lens in order to institute effective change for your brand.
