Yes! It’s a "thing’." There really is an International Sketchnote Camp! And it really is as much fun as it sounds.

Every year, visual thinkers from all over the world get together to share ideas, collectively doodle, and inspire each other.

When I discovered it was in Birmingham, UK, I immediately booked a ticket and raised my hand to volunteer.

In many ways, it was a no-brainer. The venue was right across the road from the NATECLA venue, where I would be delivering the keynote the week before.

Emily visually recording the closing plenary at NATECLA

ELT conference to International Sketchnote Camp!

It struck me that my professional career has led me to frequent English Language Teaching conferences such as IATEFL, NATECLA, Peru TESOL, and Anglo Uruguay. Occasionally, I’ll dip my toes in wider educational waters, but in general I stick in the cozy realms of communicative language classrooms.

I was intrigued to see what a sketchnoting conference would have in store for me. In this post, I’ll share some of my ELT-brained reflections.

Lesson 1: Conference names have character

I absolutely love that ISC markets itself as a "Camp," albeit one that doesn’t involve waking up in a soggy tent. The name immediately exudes fun, relaxed, and creative vibes.

Sketchnoting is one of the most therapeutic, enjoyable, and impactful skills that I have developed.

Then there is "International." ISC is now in its eighth year. The event passes the organizational baton to enthusiastic visual thinkers around the world, making it a truly global event. This year, the event was organized by Paddy Dhanda and Grant Wright from The Visual Jam, who also run supercool visual thinking meetups. 

Previous camps have taken place in Birmingham (UK), San Antonio (USA), Leiden (The Netherlands), Szczecin (Poland), Brussels (Belgium), Paris (France), Lisbon (Portugal), and Hamburg (Germany). Next year, the event will be in Verona (Italy) in September. Watch out for #ISC26 for updates or follow the organizer, Federica Tabone. 

Lesson 2: Visual games are a great way to connect

ISC 2025 kicked off with as much fun as you'd expect from 120 or so creatives. I teamed up with fellow volunteers Georgina Dean and Ania Staskiewicz to bring everyone together for visual games. While ELT conferences I've attended start with speeches, it got me wondering why, as a playful profession, we aren't starting with games! 

I got everyone warmed up with an activity I learned from Maaike Borsboom. We drew our own portraits while holding a piece of paper to our face. Then we added an interesting fact, scrunched up the paper, and launched it across the room. Campers were then asked to retrieve a paper ball and find its owner. 

Ania then handed out her beautifully presented "Human Bingo" (aka "Find Someone Who") cards. Instead of writing, our campers doodled an icon on finding a match—all while hunting for the creator of some rather interesting self-portraits. 

For the finale, Georgina Dean gave out playground chalk and task cards representing the theme for this year: Human Connections. The campers then created a collaborative artwork by doodling themes such as "new best friends" and "social bonds."

If you'd like some templates for Bingo or Find Someone Who, check out Ellii's Warm-Ups & Fillers. There are some pretty great ideas to help people get to know each other or kick off a conference in style. 

Lesson 3: FOMO lessens when you can share pretty notes

Conferences can lead to tough decisions. Often there are so many fantastic sessions happening at the same time that we are forced to choose.

ISC was no different. I was challenged to decide between Georgina Dean’s Adobe Fresco session or Stuart Young exploring Emotional Intelligence in the Age of AI. I also had to choose between bringing my doodles to life with Alejo Porras or developing my drawings of emotions with Andy Gray.

I needn’t have worried as I soon realized that multiple stunning crib notes would shortly appear on the camp Padlet and Whatsapp chat. These beautiful notes allowed me to catch up on what I missed and let me see a variety of sketchnoting styles.

Lesson 4: Every conference needs (GIANT) visual notes

As well as delegates' own personal notes, the conference also had Andy Gray taking large-scale visual recordings of each session. Having a live illustator capture the event meant that all the key takeaways could be shared easily and referred to for years to come.

It was a joyful experience to see Andy at work. For me, it brought the event to life and added a touch of magic. I feel like every conference needs a graphic recorder, whether they are working big on large sheets of paper or creating something digitally! 😉

Lesson 5: Embrace your own style

It would be impossible for everyone’s notes to look the same. This camp very much celebrated crafting our own unique style and the freedom of not comparing ourselves to others.

As someone with no formal art training who found sketchnoting in recent years, this was a powerful message. When I first signed up, I had been worried about feeling out of place, but I immediately felt at ease. 

It was freeing to see messy, scribbled, quick notes that were functional. The purpose of visual note-taking is not art, but communication.

Lesson 6: Bar camps give everyone a voice

On the final day of the camp, Stuart Young organized a "bar camp" session. This allowed all delegates the opportunity to explore topics of their choosing and share their skills organically.

Stuart set up a space for attendees to add their ideas on Post-its. These could be things people would like to explore more or informal workshops they would like to deliver.

I enjoyed the flexibility of this space and made two suggestions based on my own expertise and interest: neurodiversity and language teaching.

Bar Camp 1: Neurodiversity in the visual thinking community

This session was inspired by some discussions and sharing that had evolved in the ISC Whatsapp group. Many shared their personal experiences of neurodivergent thinking and how visuals have supported them to plan, organize, and focus.

We noticed that our community of visual thinkers has more neurodiverse minds than average. This cemented our view that visual thinking and sketchnoting are highly effective ways to support neurodiverse learners. 

Bar Camp 2: Language teaching for visual thinkers  

My second bar camp session was on visual thinking for language teachers. I wanted to bring together educators who were currently using their graphic facilitation skills and visual tools to support language acquisition. The session was extremely well attended and I was delighted to meet so many like-minded individuals.

This gave us the opportunity to share some of our favorite tools and techniques. Our plan is to stay connected and continue to share these ideas. Here's a Padlet we are working on. Feel free to add your own ideas. 

I got to meet two of my visual-thinking-in-language-teaching heroes: Fernanda Freytes and Jane Carvell. 

If you’d like to find out more about sketchnoting and visual thinking in ELT, check out these blog posts:

Sketchnoting 101: Supercharge Professional Development with Visual Notes

Graphic Facilitation 101: Teaching English through Visual Communication