Let’s get XPLANE to SXSW 2009!

Hey bBlog readers, if you want, you could go vote for this panel to be part of next year’s SXSW :-)

Shift Happens: Moving from Words to Pictures | People are hardwired for visualization yet we rely significantly on text. Most games, graphic novels, magazines, interfaces, IKEA instructions, and many other forms of communication take advantage of people’s natural visual thinking ability. Panelists will discuss how to leverage visual techniques to improve your games, websites, movies, communications, or presentations.

The panel is scheduled to include Dan Roam, author of Back of the Napkin; Dave Gray, founder and Chairman of XPLANE; Lee LeFever, founder of Common Craft (authors of the wildly popular “In Plain English” podcast series); and expert visual facilitators and Austin natives Sunni Brown and Marilyn Martin.

Oliver Burkeman on why everything takes longer than you think

“Hofstadter’s law, conceived by the cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, goes like this: any task you’re planning to complete will always take longer than expected – even when Hofstadter’s law is taken into account. Even if you know a project will overrun, and build that knowledge into your planning, it’ll simply overrun your new estimated finish time, too, Hofstadter says. We chronically underestimate the time things take: that’s why Sydney Opera House opened 10 years later than scheduled, and why the new Wembley stadium opened last year, not in 2003, 2005 or 2006, each of which had been, at various points, the predicted completion date. It’s also why the list-makers among us get up each day and make to-do lists that by the same evening will seem laughable, even insane.”

The secret of the web (hint: it’s a virtue)

“Patience.

Google was a very good search engine for two years before you started using it.

The iPod was a dud.

I wrote Unleashing the Ideavirus 8 years ago. A few authors tried similar ideas but it didn’t work right away. So they gave up. Boingboing is one of the most popular blogs in the world because they never gave up.

The irony of the web is that the tactics work really quickly. You friend someone on Facebook and two minutes later, they friend you back. Bang.

But the strategy still takes forever. The strategy is the hard part, not the tactics.”

XPLANE workshops in London and Geneva: Thinking visually to tackle business challenges

A creative and innovative approach to problem solving: Statistical surveys have shown that design and visualisation have a verifiable impact on business performance. Visual articulation is important when solving a problem that involves strategic goals and initiatives. At its core, it helps bridge the problem or opportunity with the solution. That is why helping decision makers to think and express themselves visually gives organisations a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Facilitators for the September 30, 2008 London workshop include Pablo M. Ramírez, Client Services Director of XPLANE EMEA and Martin Hill, VP Marketing EMEA for Lawson Software.

• Understand the meaning and value of visual thinking
• Use a creative and innovative method to solve business challenges
• Use visual tools to help you generate, evaluate and organise ideas
• Learn how to use them to contextualise, prioritise and harness change
• Extend these new techniques and methodology to your team

Go to www.xplane.com/events to download the registration forms and get more info.