What Can Flow-Builders Do With Pen and Paper?

I attended Southeast Dreamin’ last week. This was my fourth event in Atlanta. I cannot be sure; the dates are blurry at this point.

I presented last year and delivered a hands-on training session this year. I was scheduled to give a hands-on training long ago, but Southeast Dreamin’ got canceled that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hands-on training sessions make this event very unique. There are things you cannot do in a 20 min or a 40 min session. Sometimes you need 1.5 – 2 hours to teach a topic in a certain way.

I have been trying to get a session approved that does not involve the participants looking at their notebook screens the whole time. I submitted a session proposal on Diagraming/Mapping last year, but it was not approved. I delivered a different version of that session at Florida Dreamin’: It could not be very interactive due to its limited duration (40 minutes).

Before this year, Southeast Dreamin’ was held at another hotel; this year it was moved to the Georgia Tech Conference Center and Hotel. I liked the location a lot. The hotel was good, and the area was pleasant for walking in. The expo room was suboptimal, but I will leave that to the sponsors to evaluate.

Architect Flow Solutions Session

I delivered a session titled Architect Flow Solutions, which had about 25 participants. I divided them into four subgroups, brought large Post-its, flip-chart paper, and markers and gave them scenarios and 20 minutes to talk with their team to design their solutions. They had approx. 3 minutes to present to the other groups. I prepared four scenarios but did not expect us to go through all of them. We completed two scenarios. It was a very interactive session. We debated the advantages and disadvantages of each solution without passing judgment.

I truly enjoyed delivering this session. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Participants said they wanted more; they wanted longer.

I am torn on whether I should attempt this on Zoom with breakout rooms because we need to be in one room to do this best. What do you think?

Result

I prepared a one-minute-long YouTube Short with the little clips I recorded in the session. I showed it to my daughter, and she said, “Where is the punchline?” Anyway, here it is if you want to see it:

https://youtube.com/shorts/w9FFiKwEJt8

Next, I have Midwest Dreamin’ coming in August: I will deliver a session titled Sometimes Later is Better; Async and Scheduled Flows.

I thank all Dreamin’ organizers, sponsors, speakers, volunteers, and participants.

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