Meet our Newest Board Member, Kate! | International Forum of Visual Practitioners

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Name, Location, Company, Network affiliation(s), if any.
Insight Group, CEO and founder, Moscow, Russia

How many years have you worked as a visual practitioner?
I have been working with images my entire adult life, particularly actively in the last 5 years - teaching visual communication to people.

How did you come to the field of visual practice?
I worked as an HR consultant with various Russian and international companies before focusing on visual communication and visual practice. I decided later on to combine my expertise in visual field with experience in HR and I came up with programs on visual communication and the format of visual facilitation. More than 3 000 people have been my students by now in open and corporate formats, and I constantly work as a graphic recorder and a visual facilitator.

What do you love most about IFVP?
I really like our association because it unites professionals having a common love. I felt being in the circle of likeminded fellows when I attended the IFVP conference this summer!

Why did you join the IFVP board?
For me, expanding application fields of visualization and inspiring an increasing number of people to use graphics in their work and life are my personal mission. I develop this direction on as large scale as possible, and I have already achieved significant success in Russia, but I want to move on to the global level. By now I have managed to create the largest community of people interested in visualization in the Russian speaking space (https://www.facebook.com/insightscribing/). I feel a huge amount of energy, which, in combination with the strong expertise, will allow me to make a significant contribution to IFVP activities to popularize visual tools for businesses and individuals.

What would you like to accomplish during your time as an IFVP board member?
• To provide an increase in the number of members of the organization

• To big up the status of the organization at the global level through expert content on the website

• To expand awareness of the organization through new acquisition channels (social networks, videos, newsletters, articles)

• To change the organization's image: not only as a community of professionals, but also as a place where there are lots of useful materials for members and all interested.

Share what you think our field needs to get to the next level.
I think visual consulting is the next stage of development in the visual world, when the visual practitioner (graphic recorder, visual facilitator) ceases to be just the person who transforms customer's content into images. On the new level of visualization practice the visualizer should ensure the strategic transformation of customers’ businesses using the power of visual images.

Share a story about a time you were using visual facilitation.
It happened a few years ago. I worked in a team session, simultaneously as a coach and as a visual facilitator. I integrated training elements and team coaching into the program and shaped session results in the form of a sea world metaphor and challenges and obstacles, which the team overcomes. In the process of work, I realized that it was this visual canvas itself that inspired participants so much that they could not step away from it and still kept it a few years after the work was done. I deeply felt the real power of visual images in the release of the team’s internal potential that day.

Who are some people in the field of visual practice you admire, aspire to learn from, and/or work with? Why?
I admire books and the system approach to visualization by David Sibbet and Dan Roam.

Share a recording or piece of work you created you are proud of.
I am very proud of the work done by me and my team during forum The Atlantes. This is one of the largest business events in Russia, and we tried to cover all the speakers and managed to capture all main points.