Day 2: Al Sevin Presentation: CEU-ing

Facilitator, manager, former solo bike tourer and current Ph. D candidate Al Sevin led an afternoon presentation exploring his current research on choices graphic recorders/facilitators make during a session. He is looking at this through several lenses, including aesthetics, ethics, narrative, sensemaking and improvization - considering the practitioner, the representation and the participants.

The goals of Al's research are:
1. Make a complex phenonenom Visible; and
2. Fostering reflective practice.

Al's approach is built around CEU: Coherance, Engagement and Usefulness.

We participated in an exercise, a mock facilitation, if you will, to demonstrate the approach.

My impression? I felt like I just participated in a science experiment, and I was the test subject.

It was a bold risk on IFVP's part, and Al's, to come before the conference attendees and one that diversifies the offerings of the conference, but it fell flat.

I appreciate the work that has gone into the research and Al's efforts to create a system for evaluating the effectiveness of facilitation - and hope his disertation goes well. But from a presentation standpoint, it felt lacking to me.

Now its on the graphics jam...