During conferences the participants’ attention tends to wander after twenty minutes of presentation and after lunch. To counteract the presenters who ignored your request to only prepare ten slides, a live illustration of the key points – ‘visual facilitation’ is a marvel for keeping peoples’ attention. This can replace slides or complement text-based ones. My favourite method is to draw on an OHP transparency!
Conference drawings can also be done after the presentations and publicised for unpacking/recap sessions later. These drawings were for INTRAC’s fifth capacity building conference in the Netherlands in 2007.