On Thursday night the Sketch Group team attended the Mumbrella: Publish awards, as the video we made for our lovely client CPA Australia had been nominated for an award, in the "best use of short-form video" category.

​I'll be honest, we don't pay a lot of attention to awards at Sketch Group. It was an honour to be nominated, but the whole team was so busy last week working on videos, posters, and live events for clients that we nearly decided not to go to the award night. In fact, it was only a few days before the awards ceremony that I realised the event was not being held in Melbourne, and had to book some last-minute flights and accommodation!

As it turns out, I'm glad we attended, as our video won! The judges said they were impressed with how we simplified a complex topic and made it easy to understand.

Which doesn't surprise me to hear, as simplifying the complex is what we do at Sketch Group. But it is nice to have it validated every now and then!

Congratulations to everyone on the Sketch Group team that worked on this video, including producer Kerstin Norburn, illustrator Serena Geddes, and videographer Simon Casamento. And a huge thank you to our wonderful client CPA Australia for giving us the opportunity to continue to tell important stories.

At Sketch Group, we're delighted to be part of the organising team behind VizConf 2018, Australia's first large-scale conference for visual practitioners, which is happening in Melbourne on October 13, 2018. The theme for VizConf 2018 is Think Global, Draw Local.

There have been many conversations in the past about running a conference like this in Australia, so for many this has been a long time coming. We believe it will be worth the wait. In the tradition of large, international conferences such as IFVP and EUViz, VizConf will be a day of learning, connecting, and being inspired by other visual facilitators, graphic recorders, and visual thinkers.

I know many folks are excited about our two amazing keynote speakers Sunni Brown (author of Gamestorming and The Doodle Revolution) and Jessamy Gee from Think in Colour. But the Open Space sessions between these talks, hosted by veteran facilitator Michelle Walker are bound to be just as inspiring, as are the connections attendees will make on the day.

​This event is a must for anyone interested in visual thinking. Here are the details:

• What: VizConf 2018
• Where: MYOB, 167 Cremorne St, Cremorne VIC 3121
• Date: Saturday, October 13, 2018
• Time: 9.00am–5.00pm

If you're interested in taking your learning to the next level, we are running a handful of pre-conference workshops in the week leading up to the day. Sign up when you purchase your VizConf 2018 ticket to learn more about graphic recording, visual storytelling, and more.

Tickets are $330, but only 100 tickets will be available. So if this is something that sounds up your alley, get in quick as we are expecting to sell out.

See you there. Oh, and please share this exciting news with anyone you think might be interested in coming along!