Missed Talks at SXSW? Learn Visually With Sketchnotes

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / March 23, 2009 10:08 AM / 10 Comments

Mike Rohde was named the official "sketchnoter" of the South by Southwest Interactive conference this month in Austin and his sketches are the only form of note taking we've ever wanted to spend time going through after an event. Panel discussions at conferences are notoriously disappointing, but Rohde has done the dirty work and made it easy and fun for all of us to learn the lessons that speakers like Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, web standards guru Jeffrey Zeldman and many others came to Austin to share.

We love this way of learning from sessions we didn't attend and can imagine any conference having people offer visually grounded summaries of talks. Who wants to read through pages and pages of plain text notes? Check out the highlights of SXSW, according to Mike Rohde's pen.

It's really hard to create content while at a conference. Doing it in real time, artistically, is very impressive.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Comments

Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts

Why not release it as a book with Lulu or Blurb immediately after the event? I would buy it!

Posted by: erwin blom | March 23, 2009 10:39 AM

How very cool! Thanks, Mike.

Posted by: Alexander Korth | March 23, 2009 11:01 AM

What a unique way to share a live event. Thanks for the links and making us aware of Mike Rohde's talents.

Posted by: Internet Strategist | March 23, 2009 11:01 AM

Hey Marshall, thanks for the post on my sketchnotes! I'm very happy they're being so well received — that's why I enjoy sharing them so much.

@erwin I am working on a book of sketchnotes, so we're on the same wavelength. I have 34 pages from 2008 and 70 from 2009, I may put them together in one book.

@alexander and @Internet Strategist thanks for the kind words!

Posted by: Mike Rohde | March 23, 2009 11:39 AM

Well done. All conference notes should be that stylish.

Posted by: Keith | March 23, 2009 12:36 PM

This is really fantastic; in a way I can't quite articulate, the notes capture the rhythm of the speakers. A great resource. Thanks, Marshall and Mike.

Posted by: Merredith | March 23, 2009 1:18 PM

Love these sketchnotes, have only see them a few times including last year. The idea that you can visualize complex and real time conversations is amazing. I have used graphic recording many times and these sketchnotes remind me of a less graphical version of this.

Posted by: David Hauser | March 23, 2009 6:26 PM

This is really fantastic; in a way I can't quite articulate, the notes capture the rhythm of the speakers.

Posted by: mantolama | April 15, 2009 7:08 AM