As we near the start of 2026, I wanted to let you know about the visual thinking events taking place inside Verbal to Visual in the upcoming month.
If you’re already a member, mark your calendar for these workshops (you can also follow the links below to RSVP). If you’re not yet part of the community, this gives you a glimpse of what we do together each week.
In this video above and descriptions below I give you a quick run-down of the upcoming events.
How It Works
Inside Verbal to Visual, you get on-demand access to a full curriculum of hand-sketched video lessons that you can work through at your own pace.
To support that self-paced learning, we also gather live on Zoom every Thursday at 9:00 AM Pacific Time for 90-minute workshops. These sessions give us a chance to dive deep on specific visual thinking skills, share work, get feedback, ask questions, and connect with other visual thinkers from around the globe.
If you’re not able to join us live, worry not because the replays are posted later that same day.
January 8 – Workshop: Build Your Skills Wheel
We’re starting the year with a practical planning tool from the book Visual Collaboration (which we read together in 2025). The Skills Wheel helps you identify what skills you already have and which ones you want to develop. More importantly, it ensures the specific skills you’re working on actually align with what you want to be doing and the projects that matter to you.
January 15 – Q & A with Doug
This is your chance to share a piece of work for feedback, ask a specific question that’s come up in your practice, or figure out your plan for moving forward with visual thinking. These sessions are great because we spend the full 90 minutes seeing and hearing about your work. There’s always a wonderful cross-pollination of ideas.
January 22 – Discussion: AI for Visual Thinkers
There’s a lot happening in the world of AI right now. In this discussion we’ll explore the ethical implications of various AI tools, plus some specific workflows I’ve experimented with (and heard about from others). The key isn’t using AI to say “Hey ChatGPT, create a visual summary for me,” but rather using it as a thought partner or creative collaborator to bounce ideas off of. We’ll also look at ways to use AI in your skill development journey. (Note: the cover image for this event comes from this explainer video.)
January 29 – Book Club Kickoff: Slow Productivity and Sustainable Ambition
These two books are perfect for setting us up for sustainable success throughout the year. In this first session, I’ll help you create a plan for reading and sketching out one or both books.
Creating a visual summary of a book is a significant project, so I’ll help you map out the steps and figure out what will work for you. The goal isn’t comprehensive capture, it’s creating a visual artifact that helps you take the most impactful ideas and put them into practice in your own life.
If you’ve enjoyed my visual book summaries and want to experience what it’s like to create something similar yourself, I hope you’ll join us. We’ll check in at the end of February to see how the reading and sketching is going, then share our visual artifacts at the end of March.
Here’s where you can learn about the other selections for our 2026 Visual Thinking Book Club.
Join Us!
What I personally enjoy about these events is getting to see the work that you’re up to. Visual thinkers are an interesting group of people using these skills to have a real impact, both in their personal lives and in the work they’re doing in the world.
If you’re not already part of Verbal to Visual, know that when you sign up for the curriculum you get six months of access to these community events. If you enjoy them, you can continue with a reasonable monthly or annual subscription. Either way, you maintain lifetime access to the curriculum itself.
So consider joining us this month. Let’s kick off 2026 with a bang and make it a year full of sketching.
Hope to see you inside.
Cheers,
-Doug