The goal for Tuesday at the Producers Institute was to map out the deck that will ultimately become the presentation to potential funders on Friday. That was day two of four 13-hour days, running from 9AM to 10PM, sometimes longer, with breaks for good food, a little dose of sunshine and perspective away from the computers.
What does process look like at the Producers Institute? It's messy. It's color-coded Post-its. It's whiteboard with bright yellow scribbles. It's a missing sock. It's a few cups of wine, a few more cups of coffee, beautiful scans of sea creatures and sketches of trees. It's picking up trash. It's timelines and logos.
Monday was about refining the story. Tuesday has been about mapping out the deck and making things. The deck is on giant memo paper, on whiteboards and in slideshows. Fearless leader, BAVC Creative Director Wendy Levy, advised teams to also create visuals that start a two-way conversation.
Teams all have a different approach to mapping out the deck and different needs for visuals. Ethnographer and mentor Larisa Mann reminded participants to make sure that solutions and functions tie back directly to the finely tuned articulation of the problem. Each of these elements is part of the strategy for successful presentation, which will get rehearsal time on Thursday. But these presentations shouldn't be performances, says Levy, they should be storytelling in which you own the language.
A major driving force for the creativity emerging in the labs is the group of mentors who rotate among the teams, guiding, refining and helping produce stunning visuals. These crucial conversations are opportunities for project designs to pivot and gain momentum.
The core problem-solvers who are helping Wendy Levy guide the way--if you don't know these minds, you're missing out:
Eric Doversberger, Data Visualization Specialist, Google
Laura Hilliger, Webist, Zythepsary
Anselm Hook, Games Developer, Augmented Reality Specialist
Antonio Kaplan, CEO and Co-Founder, Innovent
Takaaki Okada, Co-founder, Creative Director, Condition One
Larisa Mann (aka DJ Ripley), Legal Ethnographer, UC Berkeley
Sophie Tusler, Software Developer, Whirl-i-Gig
Tony Walsh, Game Producer, Phantom Compass
The inspiration doesn't stop there, also dropping by have been: Wendy Cohen, Participant Media; Jubari Mahiri, TEACH; Gaby Brinks, Tomorrow Partners; and it's only Tuesday.
Very brief updates from our teams:
Question Bridge: Found a pedagogical partner and full time mentor in Jubari Mahiri.
We Were Here: Working closely with Kaiser Family Foundation and Greater than AIDS.
Wikilakes: Met this afternoon with ZYNGA executives to talk all things game.
Mapping Earth's Keepers: Project has been solidified with a new name, Equal Footing, and a strategic design for empowering Mayans with agency in land-use zoning.
Rekindling Venus: Forming an identity as Last Ocean, incorporating marine imagery, data and direct interaction with NGOs through coral.
More to come, don't forget to follow the #pi2011 hashtag to get micro-updates.