What others say about Michelle…

With her knowledge, enthusiasm, and impressive facilitation techniques, Michelle literally revolutionized our recent scientific conference on glaciology. By setting aside time for discussion and reflection, and avoiding the powerpoint marathons that plague so many other conferences, our symposium was about more than just knowledge dissemination. It was about knowledge synthesis, and building a scientific community. Despite our initial reluctance, the Open Spaces session that Michelle organized was a huge success and I am a convert – these should be a regular feature at high-level scientific conferences to get people talking! I have had nothing but positive comments from the conference attendees, some of whom said it was the best conference they ever attended. And I have nothing but a glowing recommendation for Michelle Laurie, who guided us skillfully through the entire conference planning, hosting, and facilitation process.

I worked with Michelle on a community engagement project. She took the lead, built a steering committee of diverse groups, co-ordinated the entire project while handling tricky relationships with skill and professionalism. The final written feedback questionnaire, designed by Michelle and stickhandled through the steering committee received a 60% response from the community, an unbelievable percentage. I credit Michelle and her work as the major reason that the response was so good. I recommend Michelle for any project to which she commits. I hope to have the pleasure to work with her again.

The graphic facilitation workshop experience added a new and innovative method to my professional skill set. After the workshop, I was offered a job with a community design organization because my skills of community engagement are linked with visual interaction. I highly recommend the workshop to others!

Michelle worked with the District of Elkford through the Columbia Basin Trust on a Climate Change adaptation Project. Michelle was completely committed to the project, and ensured it was on time and produced the intended results.  Michelle brings passion and enthusiasm to work.  It was a pleasure to work with Michelle.

Michelle is an amazing force in harnessing the collective wisdom of people, online and face to face. I have been a participant at events she facilitated, and a customer when she designed and facilitated for me. I especially appreciate her ability to anticipate how individual activities will unfold. Frequently, her design work involved being a sounding board for me where further distilling and sharpening of objectives for an event were needed. As a facilitator, she makes everyone feel heard and her competence allows me to focus on the learning process rather than worry about details. Working with Michelle produces excellent outcomes and outputs.

I wanted to send a quick thank you for hosting such a wonderful workshop. I had a fabulous time and learned a lot, even though I already took the workshop 4 years ago I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take again. The content is rich, the hands on application powerful, the people genuine and the instructors first class. Being immersed in this creative process for two whole days is an amazing experience, I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about graphic facilitation and how it can help positively transform group process.