Visual notes aren’t just for the day of your event—they’re tools that amplify ROI, reinforce alignment, and extend your message across the organization.
At ImageThink, we’ve seen firsthand how strategic visuals drive deeper understanding in the moment—and continue to shape decisions long after the room clears.
This guide explores the dual value of visual notes, how organizations are using them post-event, and how you can maximize their potential to support everything from onboarding to strategic planning.
What Are Visual Notes?
Visual notes are real-time illustrated summaries that synthesize key ideas, conversations, and insights into a clear, engaging format. At ImageThink, we call this visual strategy. Unlike traditional note-taking, visual notes:
- Blend imagery and keywords to enhance recall
- Surface key patterns and connections
- Engage multiple learning modalities—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
And most importantly, they’re designed to spark action.
Why Using Visual Notes Matters
Your event may last a day—but the insights shouldn’t. Strategic visual notes extend the life of your event by:
- Reinforcing key messages
- Driving alignment across teams
- Supporting training and communication
- Boosting event ROI with enduring content
In short: visual storytelling transforms temporary moments into long-term strategic value.
Insightful Ways to Reuse Visual Notes After an Event
These proven strategies—used by ImageThink clients from Salesforce to the American Red Cross—will help you activate your visuals long after the last session ends.
Accountability Tool
Treat your visual notes as living strategy documents. Clients who revisit them in quarterly planning, tell us that they are instrumental for aligning teams and keeping the strategy on track. This process transforms a visual into a mirror for team accountability.
Replace your PowerPoint
Our clients came to us when they had the opportunity to present their business plan for merging two major divisions of the marketing team together. They had 6 months of research that they had to distill into a presentation with the board of directors- the parameters- 5 minutes and 3 slides.
ImageThink distilled their research into a visual story to present to the busy board. The results- the program was green lit and saved the company 170 Million dollars.
Internal Comm’s Content
Share with your internal comm’s team for internal posting. Our client, a major pharma organization, used our visual notes as the way to socialize and share a major initiative- keeping people in the loop and engaged while giving the business leads the credit they were due for an inspiring meeting.
Office Art that Inspires
Turn your visual notes into daily inspiration.
Displaying them in shared spaces keeps strategy top-of-mind and reinforces cultural values. We hear from clients that visual notes from ten years ago are up and displayed in hallways, offices and c-suite offices.
Team SWAG and Gifts
The internal team at Google surprised and delighted their team with coffee mugs featuring their visual notes from the annual team meeting. Another client created mousepads for their key clients from their advisory board session.
Turn your visuals into thoughtful, high-use touchpoints that keep the message literally in people’s hands. Think mugs, notebooks, mousepads, laptop sleeves, water bottles, stickers, or enamel pins—each becomes a daily reminder of the priorities you set together. We’ve seen sales teams bring visual-note notebooks to client meetings as conversation starters, and HR teams bundle sticker sheets into welcome kits to reinforce values in a friendly, non-corporate way.
Meaningful Murals
Ariba Network, an HP company, was looking to inspire and delight customers that came through their Executive Briefing Center. They loved the outcome of ImageThink’s visual notes from previous executive briefings; they commissioned us to create vinyl wall decals to transform the space.
Murals turn passing inspiration into a place. When your visual notes scale to a wall, they become a living briefing: visitors absorb your priorities at a glance, and teams meet “inside” the strategy they built. Beyond decals, consider framed panels, fabric prints, or magnetic boards that let you update sections as goals evolve.
Incorporate into Executive Summaries
Use visuals to replace—or enhance—long written recaps. Visual summaries help stakeholders quickly grasp insights, themes, and outcomes. Our non-profit clients have shared how the visual notes from sessions serve as meaningful proof of outcome in grant reports- and they love the time saving of skipping the lengthy recaps.
Use in Training and Onboarding Materials
Visual notes are ideal for communicating values, processes, or customer insights. They simplify complexity and connect new hires to organizational goals faster. IBM’s CIO used ImageThink visuals from a mission session as onboarding tools across departments.
Best Practices for Maximizing the Value of Visual Notes
Here’s how to keep your visuals working for you:
- Have a plan before the session- identify how you want to use the visual notes will help ensure you are organized. Share this with our team so we can create with intention
- Identify the next steps post meeting; What are you hoping to accomplish and how can the visuals be integrated into those steps.
- Line up your partners- Prints and gifts vendors
- Handle with care- Physical mural boards make incredible art, have a plan for transport and installing
Extending the Life of Your Event with Visual Notes
From conferences and workshops to executive planning sessions, your investment in live events is significant. Strategic visual notes ensure that the value lasts—helping you:
- Align teams around a shared story
- Communicate vision with clarity
- Drive action long after the event ends
Visual Notes Q&A
How can you repurpose visual notes after an event?
You can repurpose them for social content, internal training, post-event reporting, and strategic planning documents.
Why are visual notes valuable for organizations?
Visual notes drive engagement, increase retention by up to 30%, and create alignment through clear, visual communication.
Can visual notes be used in training?
Yes. Visual notes support onboarding, skill development, and cultural reinforcement.
How do visual notes improve team alignment?
By making strategy visible and accessible, teams build shared understanding and accountability.
Ready to Activate Your Visual Assets?
Let’s ensure your visuals deliver long after the marker cap clicks shut.
Ask us about how The ImageThink Method™ can help extend the impact of your next big meeting. Here’s to picturing your biggest ideas—and putting them to work.
