The adventures of Roy Blumenthal, artist-at-large, as he galivants around coffee-shops, sketching people on his iPAQ pocket pc. Roy is a writer, artist, performer, filmmaker, voice-artist, and Hawaiian ka huna masseur.
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Animated Rich...! Mulholland tells us about Missing Link
He appeared last Saturday on the television show I work on. I'm the inhouse visual facilitator for Kaleidoscope on CNBC AFRICA, making pictures of the ideas liberated by the interview process.
Because Rich...! was in an insert, the picture I made of him went unaired. So I figured I'd turn it into an animation. I smsed him a rough script, and asked him to send me voice files via email.
He tweaked them, and made them his own, and sent them to me. I did a sound design and audio edit, and then made the speech bubbles to fit.
If you need any animated summaries made of any of your talks, get in touch with me. I work internationally, and I'm keen to see what I can produce for you. My email address is royblumenthal@gmail.com. My online gallery is at http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation.
Painting: ArtRage 2.5 & Photoshop CS3. Animation: CrazyTalk 5.1 Pro. Audio Editing: Audacity. Video Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro
Kyle Lindsay, lead singer of Elusion, leaked the fact that they're about to shoot a music video for the fifth track on their debut cd, the song 'Everything is Good'.
I was busy sketching him at the time, capturing his chiselled face in my Moleskine. I immediately whipped out my Nokia E71, on loan from Virgin Mobile South Africa, and asked him to repeat his news into the microphone.
I zapped home, and flung the pic into ArtRage 2.5, powered some colour into it, then smacked it immediately into CrazyTalk 5.1 Pro. Animated and ready for love, I mashed the clip into Adobe Premiere Pro, where I edited it into shape.
All on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.
The music in the background is... you guessed right... the last bit of the song in question.
The Business of Public Seminars -- Animated Summary
Paul du Toit is one of South Africa's busiest and most hardworking public speakers.
He makes a substantial income from one of his lines of business -- conducting public seminars.
He shared his secrets with the Johannesburg chapter of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa (PSASA) in a one-hour workshop.
I was present, making notes. This animation is my summary of the evening. Paul graciously visited my home to record the voice track. And I did all of the painting and animating. (And editing, and everything else.)
The music is by Derek R Audette, and is used under the terms outlined on his website... http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/index2.php
If you're interested in how my brand of visual facilitation can add value to your event, please feel free to contact me via email on royblumenthal@gmail.com. My portfolio is at http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation.
The seven points covered in this video are:
1. Ask yourself WHY you want to put on a public seminar.
2. Advertise well in advance of the event. Get front page or early right hand page placement.
3. For a general audience, have a topic with broad appeal.
4. An amazing venue, food, and a high-value giveaway are big drawcards.
5. Have systems. Secretarial backup. And easy-to-use internet booking tools.
6. Negotiate supplier prices. For example, venue costs.
7. Get paid 5 working days before the event.
All of the work for this was done on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. I used ArtRage 2.5 for the painting, CrazyTalk 5.1 Pro for the animation, and Premiere Pro for the editing. The music is an edit of a track titled 'Shunned' by Derek R Audette -- http://derekaudette.ottawaarts.com/index2.php. Thanks for the music, Derek!
Wow! What a cool pic! (I mean the pic on the froth, not the photo of the pic on the froth.) TP, the barrista at Latte Licious in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton made this piece of shlurpable art. Thanks dude.
Roy Blumenthal Visual Facilitator: CNBC AFRICA Kaleidoscope
I was interviewed on air on Saturday 4 October 2008 about my new role on the Kaleidoscope team.
I'm the show's resident visual facilitator, making pictorial interpretations of the interviews on the show.
We broadcast every Saturday night, 7:30pm to 8:00pm Central African Time (which is +2 hours GMT), on CNBC AFRICA. That's on Channel 410 on South Africa's DStv, and in various free-to-air satellite offerings across Africa.
I work on an Asus R1E tablet pc, sponsored by Rectron South Africa. I use ArtRage software to make my paintings.
I hope you'll check out my visual facilitation portfolio online. It's at http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation.
Hire me. I work internationally.
Tags: cnbc africa cnbcafrica kaleidoscope mandlakazi mpahlwa roy blumenthal royblumenthal coffeeshopschmuck visualfacilitation
I'm now a weekly co-anchor of CNBC AFRICA's business magazine show, 'Kaleidoscope'. Mandlakazi Mpahlwa draws information out of our guests. And I draw that info live on screen on my Asus R1E tablet pc.
I wrote this promo for the show when Catherine Gargan, my senior producer at CNBC AFRICA, confirmed that we'd be going ahead.
I had already secured a sponsorship deal with Rectron. They agreed to supply an Asus R1E tablet pc for me to use on the show.
However, when our shoot date arrived, there was no stock of the machine in the country. So I had to use my trusty old Toshiba Tecra M4 as the star of the show.
Thanks to Catherine Gargan for producing and directing, Bathabile Modutoane for camera, everyone in studio for getting the feed right, and Andre Oosthuizen for editing.
All paintings I make for the show will be made on my Rectron-sponsored Asus R1E tablet pc, running ArtRage 2.5. The show airs via satellite on Saturday nights, 7:30pm to 8:00pm (Central African TIme, or GMT +2 hours), on CNBC AFRICA. That's channel 410 on DStv.
This pic started out as a bit of black and white doodling in the CNBC Africa studio.
I was showing some of the crew how the Asus R1E works. I handed the stylus over to one of them, and she drew a few lines. One of the others then took over the stylus, and added a line or two, and the speech bubble.
When I got home, I decided to push it into the world of art.
This is the result.
This painting was made on my Rectron-sponsored Asus R1E tablet pc, using personally paid-for ArtRage 2.5 software.
2008-09-26 -- Mandla Mpahlwa -- Interviewer -- CNBC AFRICA Kaleidoscope
I made this pic while I was being interviewed by Mandla in the CNBC AFRICA 'Kaleidoscope' studio during our dummy run.
I'm doing live visual facilitation for all studio interviews as of Saturday 4 October.
In our kick-off show, Mandla will be chatting to me about what visual facilitation actually is. Then I'll spend the rest of the show standing at my easel and making artworks based on what people are saying.
The speech bubble here in this pic of Mandla came about when she turned to the huge video wall behind us and reacted with a tiny amount of disbelief.
I knew what she was going to say, so, as she was looking, I drew the bubble, and wrote the words almost as she said them.
The dummy run was a complete success. And we've tested the technology. And it all works spiffingly.
Notice the paper background I've painted Mandla on. If you look carefully, you'll see that it says 'Asus' in a repeated motif.
That's because the computer I'm now doing my visual facilitation on is a sponsered machine.
Rectron South Africa, the guys who distribute Asus here (amongst other machines), have given me a high-end Asus R1E to use on the show, and in my paid gigs. There's a good chance I'll be putting other machines from their stable under the unique pressure I apply to tablet pcs.
I want you to know that I'll be writing commentary about the machine every now and again. All kindnesses I display towards the machine are real. And all negative comments are also real. The fact that the computer is a freebie is not a factor in this.
I've discussed this with Sebastian Isaac, the Marketing Director of Rectron. And I've spelled out that I'll be providing fair comment. He's happy with that. I'm happy with that.
I will continue my habit of transparent attribution whenever I use a machine.
This painting was made live in the CNBC AFRICA 'Kaleidoscope' studio on a Rectron-sponsored Asus R1E tablet pc, running my own paid-for version of ArtRage 2.5.
Peter Boyd responds to my apology... to Edmund Reddy and thank you to Virgin Mobile South Africa
I had coffee with Peter last week Thursday, and he told me that I was welcome to post his response to my apology. So here it is. He sent it to me first thing the morning after I posted it.
Hi Roy,
Your note from last night really made me smile. Thanks so much for taking the time to write it too. The negative comments are always quick to flow (and nearly always justified when the consumer is annoyed), but it takes dedication as an active consumer to write the constructive comments - so a big thanks to you: it has such a brilliant effect on the team.
As I said in one of my responses to your blog, I am incredibly proud of the team (though I get very annoyed when things fall short, its got to be said). As you mention, we are in the process of hiring a new Head of Customer Services, so I am even more proud of the more junior team stepping up when and where they can, and appreciate our consumers' patience as we make the change.
I am also very acutely aware that you are just one consumer turned 'back to volunteer evangelism' from a negative experience, and we have to work hard to get through the group of our first upgraders (among them your friends on the blog and twitter), as well as welcome the newer people who are joining up (in good numbers by the way - the club is growing nicely!).
Finally, I still want you to take me up on the offer of a coffee this week - we want to be the most talked about mobile provider (in a good way!). We know we need to earn it, and I am sure you have some great tips for us. The path of the 'giant-killer', as you put it, will always be a tough one; but it is one we have chosen, and it doesn't mean we can't enjoy it. I remember two quotes from university days: the old economist's 'small is beautiful' and 'whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right'!
Speak soon, Peter
Peter Boyd CEO Virgin Mobile South Africa
An apology to Edmund Reddy, and a thank you to Virgin Mobile South Africa
Hi Edmund...
Thank you very much for meeting me in Sandton this afternoon. It was really good to connect with you as one human being to another.
I apologise for my incorrect evaluation of your gesture yesterday. Thanks for letting me know the reality behind it.
I'm blogging this letter at the same time as sending it to you, so I just want to fill in the blanks for anyone reading this.
The loan phone Edmund secured for me yesterday was in fact a top-of-the-range new Nokia N81. I mistook it for an old one. Pretty much because I was seeing things from a warped and negative perspective.
Edmund has basically made a huge breakthrough in the way customer service issues in the cellular phone industry might be dealt with in future. He says that in all his years in the cellphone business, he's only once seen a network give out a loan phone. And that was yesterday.
When I sent my dissatisfied email to his boss, the Virgin Mobile CEO, Peter Boyd, it must have come across really horribly.
Here I was, this whiney chihuahua, who actually took the phone, and now was claiming incorrectly that it was old and broken. I must have looked and sounded like a complete petty despot with a crap attitude.
I'm really glad we met today. Edmund was able to fill me in on his side of things. And I was able to be heard.
If I've understood Edmund correctly, this is what's happening...
o Recently, there was a change in management at the call centre, which has adversely affected staff performance and morale. This is being addressed, and should stabilise soon.
o In addition, a new data system is being installed to make it possible for call centre staff to engage with customers much more efficiently.
o The staff members who have dealt with me in this situation are being chatted to.
o Edmund has listened to the tapes, and will quite possibly come to find them funny once everyone's senses of humour have returned.
From Peter Boyd's comments on two of my blog posts about this, it's clear that learnings are being applied...
o They're changing the way customer retention will be handled in future. The company is two years old, and the first renewals are now happening. So it's a matter of adjusting something that's not working brilliantly. It seems that I'm not the only person who wants to just walk into a store and get my upgrade there.
o And they are paying attention to what people are saying. Particularly the bloggers and social media networkers. So thanks to everyone who responded on Twitter, Facebook, and my blog.
o The Virgin website is being revamped. (In my twitchiness and trigger-happy condition, I pounced on the email address as something to be reviled: notsohappy@virginmobile.com. Actually, it's pretty funny, and very cheeky. But yeah. Things do need to change. On the UK website, mobile numbers and email addresses are freely available.)
I feel very relieved that I've been heard. And I'm more than happy at the outcome of this whole blowup.
I'm typing this email/blog post on the unbearably gorgeous Nokia E71. It's brand new, out of the box, and is on loan to me until Nokia releases the N96 later this year. If I weren't so commited to my multimedia needs, I'd be offering to buy this baby right now. And I'm tempted, I can assure you.
Edmund Reddy is the guy I have to thank for solving this. He thought out of the box. And came up with a way of demonstrating that my needs had been heard.
Peter Boyd is the guy who allows Virgin to be the fast moving giant-killer I think it is.
And I'm back to my comfortable role as a volunteer Virgin Mobile evangelist. My bill is between 30% and 50% lower every month than my Vodacom Talk 500 package was. And I use my phone more now than I used to.
And the only time I have ever had bad service was in this upgrade process.
And the reasons for that are being dealt with. I'm happy to remain a Virgin user.
Thank you, Eddie. I'm sorry I misunderstood you. And I'm sorry I berated you on my blog and to your boss. I was wrong.
Thank you Peter.
Blue skies Love Roy
-- ------------------------------------------------ ROY BLUMENTHAL Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Sadly, this saga continues. I think it must be pretty tough being in your shoes right now. Virgin Mobile can't be the easiest place in the world to run with your people continually dropping the ball.
Eddie phoned this morning, and left a message letting me know that there were some exciting options he'd like to discuss with me. I was shooting my promo at the time, so was only able to get back to him much later.
When I spoke to him, he made the very kind offer of letting me have a loan N95 until the N96 is released later this year.
That sounded generous and awesome, and I was pretty chuffed about it. We arranged for me to pop round the Virgin Mobile office later in the day, and he'd give me the phone.
When I got there, I realised that I didn't know where to park. So Eddie suggested I just wait outside the building. Which I did. He then came down and met me at my car. He had a phone and charger with him.
The phone is an N81.
I feel like I was rushed and pressured into taking a phone I have absolutely no use for. I was in traffic. And there were cars coming and going. And Eddie even pointed out that I was blocking the exit for a car. He pretty much shooed me off.
He handed the phone through the window, and pointed out that the phone was damaged -- scratches on it, and a cracked top-right corner. I signed the release form. I have to say that in retrospect, I have no idea why I even allowed it into my car.
I drove away feeling as though I'd just taken part in a Hillbrow drug deal.
Before I even got home, I was emailing Eddie from my current phone, saying I'm returning the phone tomorrow.
Peter... I don't know what's happening with your company. Either you sanctioned Eddie's handing me an old, cracked, N81, or you didn't.
If you did, then I don't know what to say to you. Except that this is not a solution to the shoddy service I've received in this entire rigmarole.
If you didn't sanction this, then your people are pretty much doing their best to shut your business down. And I imagine that you're probably spitting mad right now. I hope so.
My instinct right now is to cut my losses with Virgin Mobile, and just go elsewhere. But my girlfriend says sense must prevail. You went out of your way to take control of this situation. You did so on a Sunday. And I owe you the respect of honouring your intention.
But Peter, this cycle of poor attitude and poor service and corner cutting has to stop.
I'd also like answers about what happened with Mark Jackson. Why didn't he contact me over the weekend? Why didn't he call me back to give me a solution to getting my phone on Friday already? Why did Na'eem not get back to me? Why did Eddie give me a broken old phone when he promised me a Nokia N95?
I don't know that I can trust your company. And I'm mystified at how this nonsense can be happening.
This email to you is also going straight to my blog. My modus operandi is to work with as much openness as I can.
Thanks for the N81. But dude... It's useless to me. I'll be bringing it back tomorrow morning.
I've got a meeting in Rosebank ending at 10. So if you're in the office around 10.30, I'll pop round and hand it back.
Eddie... This phone isn't even close to a top of the range Nokia. It's an old, cracked, last generation phone. No, dude. This leaves a quite a bad taste. Let's sort this out properly.
If you're going to give me a loan unit, please make it an N95. Or let's call it all quits. And I'll go to another provider.
Thanks. Roy
On 9/15/08, Edmund Reddy <Edmund.Reddy@virginmobile.co.za> wrote: > > Hi Roy, > > I have just tried to call you on your mobile, thought I might have some > luck with getting hold of you. I must really apologize for the > experience you have encountered whilst trying to get another mobile. > > After having a chat with Pete, I can say that we do have some options > for you regarding the new handset. > > Pete has been kind enough to get you a loan unit, most likely one of the > top handsets in the Nokia range, that you can use in the interim as the > Nokia N96 will only be available towards the end of this year. > > I can however arrange the Nokia N95 and will be more than happy to get > it to you by close of business today. I certainly do hope that we can > mend the relationship with you. > > Regards, > Edmund Reddy > 0116765500 ------------------------------------------------ ROY BLUMENTHAL Visual Facilitator, Illustrator, Writer, Director
Mandla is the presenter of Kaleidoscope on CNBC AFRICA. As of the 4th of October, I'll be a 'co-host' on the show. Mandla will do the interviews. And I'll be interpreting the interviews in pictures. Live. In the studio.
This pic forms part of a promo we're creating for the show. We'll be shooting the whole day today (Monday). And I'll zap the finished promo online once the editors have sunk their fangs into the footage.
This pic was made in ArtRage 2.5 on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.
The only customer feedback address on Virgin Mobile South Africa is 'notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za' -- lots of unhappy clients?
Seems as though Virgin Mobile in South Africa knows something about the way their clients perceive them.
For anyone struggling to see the words, I'll just break them up, making them easy to read...
Not That Happy.
Which is an understatement, really. I'm a lot less than happy. And it seems from the email address and all the Twitter responses that I'm not alone in feeling this.
Virgin UK -- Fwd: Please see my blog post about why Virgin Mobile South Africa is losing my business
Hiya Simon and Jo...
I've just blogged about some intensely shoddy service I received from Virgin Mobile in South Africa. Someone commenting on the blog post found your details on the UK site. So I thought it would be appropriate for you to know what's being done to your brand here in South Africa.
It mystifies me that the people I've been dealing with have been unable, unwilling, or unmotivated to escalate my trouble up to a level of competence, where it could have been dealt with.
This started out with my girlfriend switching to Virgin thanks to me. We both went in-store to purchase new Nokia N95 handsets. She was able to get one there and then. I was told I had to do the deal with Virgin Mobile Telesales, since I was already a customer. The rule, as it was explained to me, was that I could only buy a phone instore if I were willing to take a new contract, with a new phone number.
Strike one against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
Then I went through the exciting process of ordering a phone via telesales. Creason assured me the phone was on its way. A week later, and I was told that Creason didn't submit the order.
Strike two against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
Yesterday, I had a phone conversation with Mark Jackson, apparently the head of customer complaints. I asked for my phone to be delivered yesterday afternoon by close of play. He promised to get back to me with confirmation of that. And didn't.
Strike three against Virgin Mobile South Africa.
The final straw came with this morning's incompetence with one of the call centre supervisors -- Jacob Lesufi. He steadfastly refused to contact Mark Jackson at my request. And has effectively lost Virgin my business.
The interesting thing about all of this is not the loss of my business. I'm sure I'm a VERY small cog in a very big wheel. My business is surely trivial in the scheme of things. What's interesting is that I have shared my experience on Twitter and Facebook and my blog. And it appears as though Virgin Mobile in South Africa is now finding itself in the centre of a feeding frenzy.
The trouble with characters like Jacob Lesufi and Mark Jackson is that they really have no idea how potentially damaging an interaction can be. In today's networked, connected, instant-chat world, the sphere of influence of one individual is a lot more widespread than one might imagine.
I'm hoping that contacting you will do two things:
1. Prevent Virgin Mobile South Africa from losing my business (though that's VERY doubtful; my mind is pretty much made up -- the treatment I've received is shoddy, to say the very least, and actually infuriating).
2. Give you some insight into what's happening with the Virgin brand here in South Africa. I'm sure you'll want to take steps to prevent this kind of debacle from happening again.
It's telling to me that your names, email addresses and mobile numbers are freely available on your website. Whereas the South African website simply offers a fax number, a generic email address, and the call centre number. Not a good sign.
Thanks for reading this. And I wish you a happy weekend.
(By the way... if this situation is to be resolved, it really has to be done today (Saturday), or tomorrow. I'm not available on Monday, as we're shooting a promo for a weekly continent-wide business television show that I'm co-anchoring as of October 4. The show is called Kaleidoscope, and it's on CNBC AFRICA.)
PPS: Enclosed is a screen shot of some of the responses I've received on Twitter.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Roy Blumenthal<royblumenthal@gmail.com> Date: Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 10:22 AM Subject: Please see my blog post about why Virgin is losing my business To: notthathappy@virginmobile.co.za
Hiya Folks...
Please see my blog post about why Virgin is losing my business.
Virgin Mobile South Africa -- incompetence exemplified
1. I've been a Virgin Mobile customer for two years. (Was with Vodacom for 12 years prior.)
2. I want a new phone. A Nokia N95, to be precise.
3. Virgin REQUIRES me to purchase my new handset through their call centre, if I want to retain my phone number.
4. So, I order one. From Creason. I go through the whole process, and he says it'll be with me in 5 working days.
5. The days pass. I call to find out where my phone is.
6. Whoops. Creason didn't PLACE the order for some reason.
7. Noone can help me. They can't explain why it happened. They refuse to escalate my problem.
8. Eventually, I'm told that the head of Customer Complaints, Mark Jackson will call me at 8am the next morning (Thursday September 11).
9. Mark Jackson calls me mid-morning of Thursday, while I'm doing a visual facilitation. So I can't take his call.
10. I call back at 1pm, but he's at a function. So I speak to Na'eem.
11. Na'eem apologises for the mess-up, and asks me to speak to Eugene, a sales rep. I tell Na'eem that I want the phone the next day. He says he'll sort it out with the courier company they use, and that they'll expedite the delivery.
12. Eugene processes my NEW order, and tells me that it'll take 5 working days to get the phone to me.
13. I say that Na'eem is arranging to have it expedited. Eugene says that he'll just confirm that, and will get back to me within two minutes.
14. Thirty minutes later, I call back. I ask to speak to Eugene. He's on lunch. I ask to speak to Na'eem.
15. Na'eem apologises, confirms that the order has been placed, confirms that the delivery will be expedited, and assures me that he will call me first thing in the morning on Friday morning to confirm that delivery will take place that day.
16. At 11:30 on Friday 12 Sept, I call Na'eem. Whooops. He's waiting for confirmation from the courier company and will get back to me within half an hour.
17. Na'eem doesn't get back to me within half an hour. I call back. He's not there.
18. I speak to Mark Jackson. Mark tells me that Na'eem has gone on a team building exercise. He apologises for the fact that Na'eem has dropped the ball, and promises to deal with the situation.
19. I tell Mark that I would like to have the phone by close of play that day, as promised. He tells me that it's in the hands of the courier company, and that he'll follow up with them, and come back to me before close of play on Friday with confirmation from them that I'll have my phone. He promises to follow it up on Monday if he can't get it sorted on Friday.
20. I say that Monday is too late, and that I'll be terminating my dealings with Virgin if he can't sort something out. He understands, and reiterates that he'll call me back on Friday afternoon with an answer.
21. Mark Jackson doesn't call me back. He's dropped the ball.
22. Saturday morning, 8:50am, I phone the call centre. I speak to Zizi. She's not authorised to make a decision. So she puts me through to Jacob Lesufi, her supervisor at the call centre.
23. I ask Jacob if he's in a position to make a decision about how to retain me as a customer. He asks me for details of my question before he can answer. Good call on his part. I explain the situation to him. I say this: 'Jacob, the only way Virgin can retain my business is for me to have a Nokia N95 in my hands by 12 noon today. I don't mind going to the Sandton store to pick it up. Can you make a decision to make this happen?'
24. Jacob loses the plot completely. He starts explaining to me that the courier has the phone, that he can't do anything about it, that I'll have to wait till Monday.
25. I tell him that he doesn't need to explain anything to me. That he just needs to put me through to someone who CAN make it happen.
26. He tells me that there's noone in the office today, that it's a Saturday, that he's the most senior person there, that I'll have to wait till Monday.
27. I ask him who his boss is. It's Mark Jackson. I ask him to put me on hold, phone Mark Jackson, and patch me through to Mark.
28. He tells me it's impossible to do. I ask him why. He tells me it's because I refuse to listen to him. And I eventually give him a count of ten to put me on hold. Which he doesn't do. I end the call.
29. I phone the call centre again. And I speak to a call centre operative with a garbled name. I say, 'Please can you call Mark Jackson on his cellphone, and ask him to call me back within ten minutes.' She says, 'Who is Mark Jackson? Does he work here?' I say, 'He's your boss.' She says, 'Oh. Mark Jackson.' She agrees to give him my message. I say, 'It's now 9:11. Please ask Mark to call me back by 9:21.'
30. At 9:30, I call the call centre. My call is dropped three times in a row.
31. I get through on the fourth attempt. It's Zizi on the other end of the line. I ask her if Mark Jackson has been given my message. 'No,' she says, 'Jacob decided not to phone him.' I say, 'Well then Jacob is responsible for Virgin losing my business if I don't get my phone in my hands by 12 noon today.' She says, 'No, he's not responsible--' I say, 'That's fine. I'm blogging about this as we speak. And it's all going online. Please do the following... put me on hold, and have a discussion amongst yourselves... and all you have to do is decide whether or not you will phone Mark Jackson and let him have my message. That's all you have to do. So... put me on hold, have your discussion, make your decision, and come back to me with your answer. I'll wait.'
32. I'm on hold for ten minutes.
33. Zizi comes back to me. 'Thank you for your patience. Mark says he will be phoning you back.'
34. I say, 'When will Mark phone me back?'
35. Zizi says, 'I can't give you a time frame.' I say, 'It's now 9:40am. Please ask Mark to phone me back by 10.' She says, 'I can't give you a timeframe.' I say, 'Zizi, you don't have to give me a timeframe. I'm asking you to give Mark MY timeframe. Please ask Mark to call me back by 10.' She says, 'Okay. I'll give him that message.'
36. It's now 10am. No word from Mark Jackson. I wonder if he thought I meant 10 tonight?
Yesterday I did a second visual facilitation session for Coca-Cola.
Hosting the sessions was Keith Wilmot, the Global Director: Insights, Ideas, & Creativity, The Coca-Cola Company.
He and his team (John and Enzo) were impressed with what I contributed to the sessions.
And Keith gave me an audio testimonial which I recorded on my cellphone.
I made a sketch of him. Coloured it in ArtRage. Popped it into CrazyTalk. And with a whole bunch of intermediary programmes, I got the audio from my phone into the animation tool.
I exported the animation with a green-screen background.
This allowed me to create captions in Photoshop CS3, and pull them into my editing package...
Adobe Premiere Pro was the tool I used to pull everything together.
Creating this little 20-second testimonial video took about a day's worth of work.
Work that I believe is fully justified. Cos it's given me the workflow to be able to make animated video testimonials of all of my visual facilitations.
Sometime during the course of Friday the 12th of September 2008, Jacob Zuma will learn his fate.
Along with him, South Africa will also learn its fate.
If Zuma has his corruption charges dropped (like his trousers), he will become the next South African president, and the next African despot.
If he faces trial, South Africa gets a brief reprieve from certain calamity. It's brief because the man might still somehow evade justice on some or other technicalities.
This cartoon is based on an idea tweeted to me by Gustav, a Twitter bud. I'm not mentioning his surname, cos his version was a lot less inflammatory. And I simply don't want HIM getting killed by mad Zuma supporters thanks to MY crazy over-the-topness.
The other influence for this cartoon comes from the recent Zapiro editorial cartoon in the Sunday Times in which he shows Zuma getting ready to rape Justice as she is held down by four of his cronies in the ANC and SACP.
Zapiro took some serious heat for that cartoon. I'll take almost no heat, cos I simply don't have the same viewership as he does. Still... I hope this causes at least a slight tremor.
This pic started off as a sketch in my Moleskine notebook, after I interpreted Gustav's Tweeted suggestion. I then scanned it, and brought it into ArtRage 2.5. I coloured and manipulated the pic slightly. All on my overheating Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.
Boniface showed us a Covey video from THE EIGHTH HABIT. In it, there's a dude called Max. And a dog called Max. The video concludes by showing the parallels between Max the dog and Max the dude.
Made in realtime during a workshop on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc using ArtRage 2.5.
How to Go About Getting into Visual Facilitation
An ArtRage forum member sent me a message asking me how she could get into doing visual facilitation for a living. I figure my answer to her might be worth sharing. And maybe we can have some dialogue about my thoughts that might open it up and make it a bigger topic for us all.
Here's the main part of my letter to her (with pleasantries removed)...
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Good to hear that there's another person interested in doing this! It's an absolutely awesome rush to do!
Okay... Fundamentals...
1. Are you well-read, well-versed in non-fiction, specifically business stuff, psychology, marketing? You'll need to pump up your knowledge in these fields.
2. Are you able to concentrate fiercely well for long stretches, listening ardently to new information, synthesising patterns from it, picking out fascinating details pertinent to the greater whole?
3. Can you multi-task? REALLY multi-task? When you're doing a visual facilitation, you're doing lots of things at once. I've described it to someone as 'flying a helicopter while holding two simultaneous, in-depth conversations'. I think I might revise that description and add a second helicopter to the mix.
4. How do you prefer to work -- traditional media or digital? This is a far-reaching fundamental choice. Sounds from your skill-set that you're digitally comfortable.
You haven't mentioned whether you use a tablet pc (or Wacom Cintiq), or if you're using a Wacom tablet?
Tablet PC is my preferred route. There are currently three machines in South Africa that I can recommend... Toshiba Portege M700, Asus R1E, Fujitsu T5010.
Portability of your setup is of paramount importance. Heading out to some remote conference centre should not induce muscle strain or back pain.
Working on traditional media limits what you can offer to your client. Most of the visual facilitators around the world use traditional media. I so so so don't recommend it. No edge. No instant distribution. However, if you MUST do it that way, go for it.
5. Are you willing to expose yourself to a roomful of people by making art live, before their very eyes?
I assure you, you are totally naked when your stuff is appearing live, in real time, on a huge screen next to the speaker's screen. They're watching your every move.
If you have ANY fear of public humiliation, you're going to find visual facilitation pretty hardcore.
If you're comfortable to do some really nice work on the odd occasion, with mostly clodhopper ATTEMPTS at brilliance most of the time, with people watching you frown as you hit the eraser button on ArtRage, then you'll thrive. It helps if you're an exhibitionistic showoff with immense amounts of self-confidence.
6. Are you happy to spend a lot of time doing free gigs for high profile audiences in order to establish a name for yourself? Do you have the chutzpah to inveigle yourself into events as 'the visual facilitator', even though you weren't invited, they've never heard of you, and you don't wanna pay the entrance fee? Do you have the ability to earn an income elsewhere to allow you to take a year to build this up into a business? Are you willing to learn and adapt what you're offering based on the gigs you do?
7. Do you have a winning, magnetic, persuasive personality?
8. Do you have the ability to look someone in the eye and say without shame or embarrassment or hesitation, 'I charge R12 500 per day for what I do.'? If you're blushing at the thought, convert that blush into a warm, fuzzy, delicious feeling of anticipated joy and liberation.
9. Are you comfortable with technology as a means of disseminating information about yourself? I use Twitter as my main communication tool in the world. I've been a blogger for about 6 years. I've had a website since the internet came to South Africa. I use Flickr as my primary portfolio tool. And so on.
Regarding the actual 'How' of your question, I recommend just sitting in on some event or other, and pushing yourself into doing a live visual facilitation without screening your work or standing out from the crowd in any way. Just draw what you hear. Get a feeling for how much work you need to do to be on top of things. Do more of these.
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Do you have anything to add? Disagree with anything? Can you enhance anything?
1. CrazyTalk 5.1 allowed me to make this animation from a drawing. And it took less than 5 minutes to do. I'm blown away by that!
2. YouTube has introduced a new feature -- video annotations. The little speech bubble containing the link to my visual facilitation portfolio -- http://snipurl.com/visualfacilitation -- is one of those. Astounding.
'I believe I can fly!' -- starring Jacob 'Laduma' Zuma
Here's my latest little bit of messing around in CrazyTalk 5.1. This is a pic I made of Jacob 'Laduma' Zuma back when controversy hit him really hard. (Please don't confuse him with Zu-Ma Se Poes. Different politician.)
I'm experimenting with some ideas that Conrad Koch and I have been discussing. This is one of those experiments.
Oh yes. The magistrate in yesterday's court is INDEED 'the law'. What he says, goes.
When he said to Bill's lawyer, 'I'll make the decisions here,' he meant it.
And what he probably meant was, 'Don't come in here with your juvenile attempts at bullying me or your ex-wife or anyone else. I've been hearing cases of abuse in the Domestic Violence Court 22 for longer than I care to think about. And I know EVERY trick. And you guys are amateurs. Bill -- the FACT that you're a lawyer, the FACT that you BROUGHT a lawyer with you, the FACT that you act all obsequious in my court while your ex-wife stands proud and states the facts -- THESE facts mean YOU are NOT the LAW.'
He served the protection order with no revisions. And also pre-issued a ready-signed warrant for the arrest of Bill Morris for any transgressions of the many clauses in the protection order.
Neat, huh?
This pic was drawn in court in my Moleskine while Jennifer was at the stand. I then scanned the pic, brought it into Photoshop CS3, where I added captions and colour. On my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.
Jennifer and I went to the Randburg Magistrate's Court yesterday. Court 22, to be precise. The court dealing with domestic violence.
Our buddy, Big Bad Ed, joined us. He knows the inside of a courtroom. 'I hate these places,' he said. 'I've been in them way too often.'
Ed tells us an anecdote about a judge who once said to him, 'You're a one-man crime-wave.'
Ed replied, 'Thanks, your honour.'
And the judge responded, 'It wasn't a compliment.'
Ed was with us because we decided to manage the situation. Her ex-husband, Bill Morris, was expected to turn up to contest the protection order Jennifer was having finalised by the court.
According to the affidavits on public record in the court yesterday, William 'Bill' Morris was a wife beater who pressed his wife against the wall, then hacked the wall with an axe just inches next to her head. Amongst other things.
The magistrate heard Bill's smarmy and incompetent lawyer, Bradley Brazington saying things like, 'If it pleases the court, your worship, my client would like to set aside this order.'
To which the magistrate replied, 'Does your client need to come to the complainant's residence or place of work for any reason?'
To which Bradley Brazington Esq said, 'Uh... no... uh... your worship.'
And so, the protection order was finalised. With Bill Morris turning a deep red at the incompetence of his lawyer, and the idiocy of his own game plan ringing in his ears.
For godsake... the bloke arrived with his lawyer's satchel! Bill, not his lawyer... Bill himself brought the satchel.
What was he thinking? 'I'm a lawyer! If I bring my lawyer's satchel, it'll impress the magistrate, and he'll let me off! I'm a member of the legal profession! We stick together!' Is that what he thought???
Sheesh. What a misguided loser.
Anyway.
The protection order was served. And we now have a pre-issued warrant for William Morris's arrest, should he dare break any of the terms of the order.
And of course, Big Bad Ed is always waiting in the wings.
Using CrazyTalk 5.1 to Make a Talking Animated Self Portrait
Unbelievable.
I made a quick self portrait in ArtRage to test out my newly purchased piece of software -- CrazyTalk 5.1.
Opened CrazyTalk.
Imported the painting.
Placed the Mouth, Eyes, and Nose points.
Masked out the background with a single click.
Recorded a voice track.
Chose an emotion.
Published.
The entire process took less than five minutes. And the little 30 second vid below is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more I can do with the software.
Suffice to say that I'll be finding a way to incorporate this into my visual facilitation practice.
The little speech bubble containing the link to my visual facilitation portfolio online is something new to YouTube -- video annotations. You can place them wherever you want in a video. Also amazing. Very useful. Makes YouTube a very good teaching tool.
An apology for giving offence to the 27 Dinners dudes -- specially to Mike Stopforth
I apologize for making my comments on Monday night's 27 Dinner at Primi Piatti sound smug and blunt and horrid. They really weren't meant to be that, and they weren't meant to be an attack.
In my head, as I was writing, I thought I was being witty, provocative, informative, constructive. Reading back, I actually sound like a frothing dick. Hopefully I'm no syphilitic Mugabe.
I saw Vince's post, saw the comments there, saw that people were offering feedback, and saw that the feedback was being received. So I wanted to add to the pot.
As you know, I'm a big supporter of the spreading of knowledge for free. Everything I write and draw that's not under a commercial contract is open source. So for me, 27 Dinners is an awesome initiative.
My comments probably come from a primal part of my brainstem. I've encountered really bad presentations all through my business life. Even the MOST creative ad agencies and communication houses LOVE 'death-by-powerpoint'. And it frustrates me that so many people continue to embrace poor visual communication.
It's always reallllllllllllllly tricky for me to put my neck on the block by offering critical feedback of events. My income derives from the very people I'm being critical of. And I know nobody likes to come across as sucky. And I know that sucky is a completely personal judgement call.
When you mentioned my makeshift 'screen', at first I was jolted in a negative way. I thought, 'Sheesh! I was doing my best!' About one second later, I thought, 'Fuckit. Mike was also doing his best. And everyone at the 27 Dinner also did their best. Including the drunk American.' And then, about nine seconds later, I thought, 'Mike's right. I'm putting myself out there as a professional visual facilitator. And I didn't even bring my own screen. Shoddy, Roy, shoddy.'
The only reason I didn't buy the same screen you have from Makro on Sunday is that I found it won't fit in my car (I'm in a Mazda MX5, and I need something a bit more portable to get in there along with my other equipment).
So I'm on the hunt right now for something that folds up, rather than something that rolls up. What I'm primarily visualising is one of those round screens, much like the sun guard you get for cars. You know the kind of thing... a metal rim that kinda bends into a small, flat disk, with the screen folded into it. Any ideas where to find such a thing?
So to everyone who I probably offended, I apologize for the offence.
At the same time, I do believe that we can all up our game. More than that... we MUST up our game. Myself included.
