Peter Durand

Creative Director, Alphachimp Studio Inc.,

When invited to attend important strategy meetings of organizations such as the American Heart Association, Disney, Motorola, Google, Starbucks and Target, Peter Durand usually spends his time doodling while others talk.

But don't think that he's not paying attention. Considered one of the top graphic facilitators in the world, Durand, creative director of Pittsburgh-based Alphachimp Studio Inc., has an uncanny ability to take the salient points of a discussion and translate them into mural-sized illustrations that clarify content as much as they engage the audience. The resulting visual record captures the proceedings in a lively, engaging way and keeps the material fresh long after the meeting is over.

"There are so many different learning styles out there, but especially in the technical and business worlds we're so word-heavy—bulletpoints and bulletpoints and bulletpoints," says Durand, 36. "But there's a difference between showing people lots of information like in a PowerPoint presentation and showing them a visual story that helps them attach meaning to it. The visuals help people understand data and connect to it in a much more visceral and emotional way."

Harnessing the power of images may still be something of a novelty in the corporate world, but for Durand it's old hat. Born in Nairobi and raised in Knoxville, an encounter with a skeleton at age 3—it was Halloween—fired Durand's imagination and his interest in art. As a child Durand was drawn to comics, Mad Magazine and animation; as an adult he honed his design and illustration skills with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Visual Communications and study programs in Paris and Poland.

Durand worked as a DJ at Poland's first nationwide rock station, RMF-FM, but of greater impact was his encounter with the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. In 1991, he witnessed Pope John Paul II, originally from Krakow, return to his native country as the Russians pulled out. Watching close to 1 million people from across the world descend on the town to see a single medieval painting showed Durand the motivating power of images.

That message was reinforced as he worked with the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy in Poland's northwestern region. Durand drew diagrams explaining the complex systems of taxation, sanitation and the like in order to help struggling Polish municipalities navigate the transition to a new system of government.

Back in the States, Durand bet that his ability to translate words and concepts into diagrams and visual references could be a boon to businesses, and he was right: The number of events Alphachimp Studio Inc. is asked to facilitate has been growing by about 30 percent a year since it was started in 1998 and incorporated in 2001.

For Durand, facilitating a meeting is a kind of performance art: When the proceedings start he's standing in front of a blank sheet of paper, which he fills with his drawings, in real-time, as the meeting unfolds.

"I listen to those very powerful visual clues and metaphors, and I steal a lot from pop culture," he says. "I reference things from childhood or bad 1960's television or something that's happened recently in the news, and I embed those images."

The result is a visual record of the meeting that is both evocative and packed with information. Even years later, people who attended a meeting can see his drawings and instantly recall the stories, jokes and strategy sessions behind them, Durand says.

One of Durand's latest interests is social enterprise, a field where both for-profit and non-profit organizations are using new technologies and social networking opportunities to tackle pressing issues such as education or homelessness. Durand is serving as producer for a podcast series called ‘Globeshakers' on the Social Innovation Channel, a joint venture of Stanford's Business School Graduate Program and the Heinz Business School at Carnegie-Mellon.

"I think business leaders are now aware of how difficult it is to build a model that illustrates a concept, and graphic facilitation is one more tool companies can bring in to help make an authentic learning environment," Durand says. "Some people are really skeptical, but once they see it in the context of doing real work, they get it."

Not sure if you get it? Then wait: Though he's coming to the BIF-2 summit as a storyteller, Durand also will be working his magic while others talk, producing his distinctive illustrated records to capture the highlights of the event.