Philip Bakelaar's blog

The IFVP Board of Directors met on Saturday morning, October 8. After spending time checking in, we reviewed past minutes, financial reports and updated ourselves on current developments. We are excited that two of our members have had workshops accepted by the IAF for highlighting during Facilitation week (October 17-25). This gives our visual community more exposure among a global group of facilitators who may never have considered using or working with visual approaches.

Coming out of the covid years and looking at all of the changes taking place in meeting styles and the challenges faced by our members, the 2022 Board of Directors undertook a series of guided strategic planning sessions to see what might need to evolve or change in our IFVP life. Those meetings led us to new mission and vision statements, as well as six initiatives and six committees that we will be working on/with through the next year. They are listed below.

The IFVP Institute continues to make progress on the Visual Practitioners Competency Model (v1.0) and our certification offering through INIFAC. We are not ready to launch fully yet, but you can read updates on the Institute resources page.

BE A FEATURED PRESENTER IN THE IAF FACILITATION WEEK EVENTS!!

This is a great opportunity and we are taking proposals until September 25.

Those who attended the Bilbao Visual Thinking Summit and the Guggenheim auditorium presentation will remember the performance of "What A Wonderful World." It was unforgettable! One of the physical artists (Rakel from Arymux) invited a blind and deaf audience member on stage for a visual rendition of this classic song, not in projected images but in hand gestures and movement.

Our 2022 global summit took place this past week in Bilbao, Spain. Hosted by Miry Artola and her company Muxote, she worked with an international team (koko) to create an amazing time of reconnecting and celebrating our community as we returned to an in-person gathering. There was dance and food and hugs and lots of joy as the team welcomed us to a well planned and artistically woven four days of meetings. I have yet to finish discovering all of the resources on the summit Miro board, which includes hours of video of speakers and the talented artists who enriched our time together.

If all goes as planned, I'll be in Bilbao in a few days for the Global Summit meeting, the first of our two year cycles in the new "conference" structure for the IFVP. As part of that gathering, we'll be holding our AGM on Thursday as a working lunch. We will have a dedicated zoom link available for those who cannot be there physically. This is a good moment to look back at the past year (or two!) and think about where we are going as an organization.

I recently read a description of the IFVP from an outside observer that made me proud. The article was reviewing the history of visual facilitation and noted that the IFVP is “the premier field-level [visual practice] organization.” The language was new to me, and I’m hoping we can integrate it into the way we see and talk about ourselves.

THE HYBRID SUMMIT EXPERIENCE IS A SPECIAL DISCOUNT OF 50% OFF THIS WEEK BEFORE THE CONFERENCE!!!

Over the past ten years I've gotten somewhat involved in this community. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be of service in these presidential roles for the IFVP and the IFVP Institute. I thought it might be useful for me to share why I'm here.