Last night (31 March 2026) your committee gathered to share ideas and plan out the coming year ahead for Graphic Recorders Australia. This was also my first committee meeting as the new President, so I was fully pumped to help us all maximise our intent and gain momentum to sustain us through the year.
Here’s a summary of where we landed.
Showing up on purpose
We rededicated ourselves to our purpose here at GRA – To educate, support and connect upcoming and professional Australian Graphic Recorders to ensure the ongoing high standard of quality in our industry, for practitioners and our clients. But we also expanded this slightly:
- More love for Associate members – We’re going to be more intentional about extending these opportunities of education, support and connection to our Associate members as well as Professional members. Many Associate members are happy being facilitators, illustrators, trainers, change managers, and other roles that don’t mean making a living out of graphic recording. If that’s you, we see you, and we’re going to do more to help recognise and support your impact bringing visuals to your work. And if you do want to grow your skills to become a full-time professional graphic recorder or illustrator, we’re here for you too.
- More love for NZ – We’re also going to be more intentional about extending those same opportunities to folks in Aotearoa. We’re all better off when we hear from a wider range of perspectives and experiences.
Goals for 2026
As a volunteer-run association, we’ve all got a lot on our plates, but we’re passionate about our field, and our members, and we want to make a dent for graphic recording and visual storytelling in that big ol’ universe!
Here are 3 goals we’re going to focus on over the coming year:
1. Member experience
We value encouraging a supportive, welcoming and sharing community, and that should come through in your experience as a member. When you sign up, when you hear what we’re up to as a community, when you’re at our online and in-person events. Members help members, and it’s much easier to help out when you know that you are seen, appreciated, and empowered.
So yes, expect the regular kinds of online gatherings we do and resources we provide throughout the year, but tailored more toward what you have said you are more interested in (more on that below).
2. Strategic partnerships
In my own career as both a facilitator and graphic recorder, I know first-hand how amazing the partnership is between these two roles. Together, the facilitator and graphic recorder elevate meeting experiences and event experiences to much higher levels of clarity, engagement, and productivity. Well folks, we’re going to help to scale up these benefits throughout Australia and New Zealand by going after practical partnerships.
The first cab off the rank is International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Oceania. You’ll hear more on this soon, but in 2026 we’re partnering with IAF Oceania to take advantage of mutually beneficial opportunities for skill-sharing and education, support, and connection. Together, we can make a much bigger impact in all the rooms and meetings we’re in! Expect to see a big GRA presence at the IAF Oceania conference in Geelong, 14-16 October this year. We can’t wait!
3. Stronger community
It’s no secret that being a graphic recorder or illustrator can be a lonely old game. The roller-coaster feels of going from the conference buzz or the offsite camaraderie to slaving over an iPad alone at a desk for days always hits.
Now more than ever, community and connection is really important.
The thing is, there are lots of our members all doing their part to make that community and connection happen, and we the GRA committee are going to do what we can to help promote your events, your meetups, your gatherings. This will make it easier for everyone to know where, when and how to connect.
What’s next
There’s a whole lot to do as part of these big goals for the year, so if you want to help out, get in contact, we’d love to hear from you (or just DM or email me (Ben) or Deb). But in the meantime, you can expect to hear more about our graphic recording State of the Nation report dropping soon.
Big things ahead. We go further when we go together.
Ben
