ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Every Gate Has a Gatekeeper | Federica Tabone in conversation with Karl Mortier, International Visual Storyteller and Master of Ceremonies
Recorded at the International Sketchnote Camp (ISC) in Verona, with European Visual Practitioners (EVP).
Behind the Event
Federica Tabone organised ISC Verona, and this is the look back over more than a year of work, from the first phone call to a campfire ready for the closing day. She is proud, and grateful for the volunteers who supported her and Claudio Nichele. Her reading: when a community feels intentionally connected around a practice, that becomes a common effort.
Organisational Psychologist and Graphic Recorder
Federica combines two professions rather than choosing, and went looking for a name for the combination. Visual Psychology was the result, and the title of her forthcoming book. Over 23 years she has delivered 160 coaching paths, the part she loves most.
The path was not direct. Six years as a recruiter, then independent work in gamification, experiential learning and outplacement, where she noticed that games and drawing energised a group and made it think differently. Ten years in, a friend invited her to a visual facilitation training. Love at first sight, for one reason: it was not about drawing well but about synthesising a conversation visually. She could already find the main point; visualisation was one step more.
Gatekeepers
Federica goes back 13 years. Italian practitioners told her about the European movement, and in 2015 she attended an event in Rome organised by Sara Serravalle, where she met colleagues from across Europe. Instagram kept those contacts alive, and year by year they became real. Karl Mortier names the pattern running through the episode: Sara as gatekeeper, and behind the gate a world.
From Intention to Decision
The idea of giving something back had been in her mind for years, but she waited until she was ready. First Tallinn, at the EVP annual meeting, where someone asked why she did not organise the next one. Then Birmingham, where the same signal came again and pushed her over the line.
In Birmingham she also met Claudio Nichele in person for the first time, having known him only through social media. She shared her idea and he said immediately he was with her. Another gatekeeper, another door. Used to doing everything alone, she felt the weight halve. Then Claudio phoned Karl Mortier, who still remembers the couch he sat on in the Netherlands. The ask: support from EVP on financial management and volunteer insurance.
What She Would tell another Organiser
Plan a great deal, and know that not everything will happen as you imagined. That awareness makes flexibility possible: accepting that what you designed is not the best solution, and finding another. Hold two things in view, the event itself and the relationships around it.
And start from a concept. What do you want to convey, and what distinguishes your event from every other? Without that you copy what you have seen. Take inspiration from earlier editions, then add your own DNA before building the deployment.
Concept and Context
Verona mattered as much as the concept, because a concept needs an environment to host it. Her reasoning is practical: people are comfortable when they can orient themselves, and Verona is small enough to walk, big enough to surprise, and near an airport.
Her own Takeaway
Confirmation that she can do this at international scale, and a reminder she wants to hold on to: when you are the one others look to for orientation, you still have to keep learning.
