At Fall4Art, we do most of our work in the room. We listen to conference sessions, leadership summits, or workshops and draw as the conversation unfolds. Around that live work, we rely on a few digital tools to plan with clients, collect participant input, run virtual sessions, and deliver the final visual notes. Here are some we use and why we keep using them.

We use Zoom Whiteboard to take notes on client planning calls.

When we meet with a client to plan an event, we draw the call itself on Zoom Whiteboard. As we talk, the client watches their goals, the creative direction, logistics, decisions, and action items appear on screen. By the end of the call, we’re both looking at the same page of agreements, and the client has already seen how live visual notes work before the event starts. [1]

We have used Mentimeter to collect input for a few knowledge walls.

At conferences, we often build a knowledge wall, which some clients call a wisdom wall. Attendees answer a prompt, and we draw their responses into one large visual. With Mentimeter, people send their answers from their phones, so they can contribute from their seats. It’s a polling tool, and on these projects it brings more voices into the artwork. [2]

We use Miro and Mural to facilitate remotely.

In virtual workshops, the board works supports the meeting. Participants work on visual templates uploaded to Miro or Mural; this way, they can collaborate, make decisions, and create action plans. We post the graphic recordings from each session there, and participants react to them throughout the workshop. [3][4]

Canva handles most of what we design around the live work.

When a client wants to print merchandise with part or all of the visual notes from their event, we place the artwork on a product mockup so they can see what’s possible before they order. We keep Fall4Art’s brand kit in Canva, and when we create a color palette or brand guidelines for a client’s event, we build a project kit so our work matches their look. We also design the final client report in Canva, in a magazine-style layout that includes the graphic recordings in full or in selected parts. [5][6]

PowerPoint remains our standard choice for business presentations. Most organizations already have it, so the client’s team can open, edit, and present a deck we build without new software. Several people can also work on the same file at once and leave comments for each other. [7]

All of these tools support the live work at the center of what we do. Fall4Art provides graphic recording at conferences, leadership summits, and workshops for corporate, nonprofit, and government clients. We start with a planning call to learn the event’s purpose and who will be in the room. During the event, we capture key ideas as they arise on large onsite boards or digitally for hybrid and virtual audiences, in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. As a result, participants see their ideas take shape, giving the group a shared reference to return to during discussion. Afterward, the client receives digital files of the artwork, ready for reports, recaps, debriefs, and follow-up with people who couldn’t attend. Clients include ATD, KPMG, Amazon, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Canva. [8][9]

If you’re choosing tools for your own event, start with the job each one does: planning with a client, collecting input, running a virtual session, or packaging the results. Check with your organization and participants whether they have already used them, since familiar tools encourage more people to participate. Then test it in a small session before the main event.

If you’re planning a conference or workshop, book a discovery call with us. We’ll do visual note-taking on Zoom Whiteboard so you can see how the process works before your event.

None of the companies mentioned paid for or reviewed this article. Canva is a Fall4Art client.