Graphic Design

Come bring your junk journal, scissors, and ephemera and let’s journal together! Any type of journal style is welcome.

What does it look like when ideas come to life, in real time, on the wall? Join NOVA Scribes for a full-day, in-person open house where the public is invited to step inside the world of graphic recording and visual facilitation. This is a come-and-go experience designed for curiosity, exploration, and conversation. Whether you are new to visual thinking or already working with images and groups, you are welcome. The space will be set up as a "theater in the round," (see the image) with visual practitioners working live around the room. Throughout the day, you will see different techniques, styles, and modalities demonstrated in real time, from large-scale graphic recording to visual templates, facilitation tools, and decision-support visuals. You can observe, ask questions, and engage directly with the practitioners as the work unfolds. **What you can expect** * Live demonstrations of graphic recording and visual facilitation techniques * Multiple practitioners working simultaneously, each with their own approach and style * Short, informal demos and tiny teaches that explain how and why specific techniques are used * Opportunities to talk one-on-one with experienced graphic recorders and visual facilitators * A chance to see how visuals support sensemaking, alignment, and group dialogue **What you might explore** * Graphic recording for meetings, conferences, and retreats * Visual templates for planning, strategy, and reflection * Visual facilitation methods that support participation and decision making * Tools, materials, and setup considerations for live visual work * Different visual languages, from icons and lettering to layout and structure This open house is designed to be accessible, hands-on, and inspiring. You do not need to stay all day. Come for 20 minutes or stay for hours. Watch ideas take shape. Notice how visuals change the energy in the room. Ask the questions you have always wanted to ask. If you have ever been curious about how visual facilitation works, or how graphic recording supports groups, this is your chance to experience it up close. **Open to the general public. No prior experience required.** We’re not charging for this workshop, but we will be asking for donations! Donations cover the costs of hosting events on Meetup, to honorariums for new graphic recorders, and scholarships. Please be sure you are registered on Meetup! If you're not registered on Meetup, you will not be admitted.

10:00 AM - Meet & Create We’ll start with networking, content creation and more. This includes BTS photos, updated headshots, and in-action shots. We’ll use both indoor and outdoor spaces as available. 12noon - Lunch + Networking After the morning session, we’ll head to a local restaurant for lunch and continued networking and conversation. If the weather is nice, we’ll be outdoors. If it rains, we’ll use the studio.

Join us on **Thursday, May 7th** for Kickback & Connect in **Washington, D.C.** From magazines to motion graphics and from newsrooms to nonprofits, if you make things in D.C., you’re invited. This is a low-key happy hour bringing together designers and creatives across disciplines in the DMV to kickback, connect, and share ideas—no panels, no pitches, no pressure. We hope to see you there! **Book launch:** Designer, author, and educator Reginé Gilbert will be signing copies of her book ‘Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind’ (2nd edition.) [https://reginegilbert.com/](https://reginegilbert.com/) **Music by: Friends on Mars** Hosted by Good People DC and **[SPD](https://www.spd.org/)**, a nonprofit design community rooted in publishing and creative excellence. No cover charge = no excuse not to come Must be 21 to enter. Please drink responsibly.

Everyone has access to AI. Everyone is creating more content. The real question is **How do you create content that actually performs when everyone is using the same tools?** At this DC Marketing Tech Talks session, we’re going beyond prompts and tools and getting into what actually matters now: * How to build a content strategy that doesn’t fall into the “AI slop” trap * How AI and search engines are actually evaluating and surfacing your content * How to distribute and structure your content so it reaches the right audience and drives results **What This Session Will Cover** This session is designed as a focused, three-part experience, with each speaker taking a different angle on what it really means to create content in an AI-driven world. We’ll start with **[Tara L. Finney](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarafinney/)**, who brings a strategic lens shaped by over two decades of building content programs across B2B and B2C. Tara will walk through how to build a content strategy that aligns with your business goals, reflects your brand, and resonates with your audience. From there, **[Stephen Hart](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamstephenahart/)** will shift the focus to what happens after the content is created. Because even strong content fails if it doesn’t reach the right people. He’ll walk through how to structure your content ecosystem so it can be distributed effectively, reused across channels, and scaled without requiring constant output or burnout. We’ll close with **[Alex Lindley](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-lindley-50823437/)**, who will take the conversation into how content is actually being evaluated today. As AI becomes a gatekeeper for discovery, it’s no longer just about what you publish, but how it’s interpreted. Alex will unpack how AI and search systems read, assess, and surface your content, giving you a clearer understanding of what drives visibility in an AI-influenced search landscape. This is a practical discussion about how to create content that shows up, gets read, and supports real business growth in a world shaped by AI. If you’re a marketer, founder, or content leader trying to figure out how to stay relevant in an AI-saturated world, this is the conversation you need to be in.

**Agenda :** * 4.45 to 5.00 PM ET: Food and Networking * 5.00 to 5.50 PM ET: "Hands-On : GitHub Copilot SpecKit" Hello Everyone! Please join us for our April 14th edition of the AI-ML MeetUp. **Please note this is an in-person meeting and light refreshments/food will be provided. You will need a government-issued ID to enter the facility.** **Title:** Hands-On : GitHub Copilot SpecKit **Description:** Spec-Driven Development **flips the script** on traditional software development. For decades, code has been king — specifications were just scaffolding we built and discarded once the "real work" of coding began. Spec-Driven Development changes this: **specifications become executable**, directly generating working implementations rather than just guiding them. In this hands-on lab, we will be covering building your application using SpecKit. Pre-requisites: VSCode v1.107, GitHub Copilot, Python 3.13 + uv, Git installed. **Location:** The meeting will be hosted in the Applied Information Sciences ( AIS ) office in Reston, at 11440 Commerce Park Dr # 600 · Reston, VA. The location is also right off the Silver Line metro's Wiehle-Reston Metro Station. **Parking:** Parking is paid and can be validated at the AIS office reception. We will meet in Room Lake Anne. We hope to see you all there!!!!