Decided, you know, we want to start looking at the other side of women, peace and security, men, peace and security, and it is the other side of the same coin. We have tended to forget about men and men as gendered beings. What young men express is that they're actually seeing in one way what they feel it means to be a man, non-violent, showing your emotions. On the other hand these young men are actually experiencing all the time the stress from the society that there should be this match of men. When the world is falling apart, the circumstances have changed. There's war. What else do they have to demonstrate their manhood? Often is to demonstrate that manhood through the use of violence. Young men were saying about violence that was part of everyday life. This ex-combatant, when they are being assembled, you don't only take the guns from them. Physically, you take the guns from them mentally. An entire generation of South Sudanese young men had only been military men. While there are no jobs for them, it means that they will be civilian men with guns, which is the paradox of peace. The problem by and large is not that many men are doing terrible things, is that many men are not saying anything about the other men who are doing terrible things. There's a hegemonic or a normal idea about what men are, but so many men don't fit that either and certainly women don't. I think it's easy to assume that most men are resistant to change. Most men are kind of inevitably opposed to gender equality. That's not our experience. Our experience is in fact quite the opposite. I think the key instrument here is to communicate because mindsets, as you know, take time to change.


Alrighty, let's play this here. There's no sound. Play this once. Let's play this twice. It's short and All right, and there is also this Better reference here from the side Interesting to see on that camera shake there cool cool cool All right And then here is bring this up here a bit That is what's playing in the corner of the original Now, um, you're saying that this is an exercise because I was going to say Maybe do not replicate something that's already in a movie You might argue that's a shot if I can just use anywhere but Let's take a look at this again So if we get away from the reference because you got the motion there, it's got the steps You have to have more breakdown so you can see the details when the legs And our move so it's less Twinned and post-to-post you can tweak this but you got And it's your patient there with his arms.  I think I would definitely replicate this. I know we're here And we're somewhat matching although I feel like he is further back The head is before the back and arms are for the back if you look at this But you definitely want later on to have that swing. It's the arm that propels them up Same thing with his leg going up here And there's something about the jump. Let me see. I think it could work. I'm just looking at how high he jumps With that turn. I wonder if yours is too low It's a slight feeling of it could go higher. There's a good Explosion through there, but then after that it seems minimal where I feel like you want to be higher So just watch out for that as you continue But again, we got the contact point matching that pose Fairly closely and then with your own recovery Now if you go away from this, let me see We'll see. We'll see how this is flying. I have a I feel like the ending turn and that impact Needs to get tweaked a bit. I mean you can see Also, how it's like that's a big impact on one leg. Oh that kicks over this side and you can see Excuse me. I've been holding in that cough You can see how he's going to go over there and potentially do like a Step over there just kind of regain the balance And I would not discount that as you land BAM on this to just kind of Pop over and notice a step That was one of those tricky things with step that just pops over into this So you definitely have to have enough impact compression Boom and then potentially like an adjustment side step To being here versus that very controlled Stop Unless you swing this more So that here the body is a bit higher so that on impact He's a bit there meaning that just so that that swing continues on because right now it feels like it's down Down stays down down and then to suddenly have that swing up might be a bit weird once you're supplying this But so I'm saying what if you go away from the reference and have him go up And again, I can set up higher here so at this point He's higher because he's initiating a backward swing into this And then you probably because of that massive swing you will go back and probably lean over With that foot in the air For then on the next frame You know a side step to his left Right, so he goes boop boop and up and then back down. So this is up in the air shadow back down there I think that would be my thing was That's the only thing I'm kind of worried about with that end Everything feels okay, and then suddenly suddenly the weight and the mechanics of this feels a bit Not good. Sure This will work and also careful if you do a swing like this It's almost going this way actually that arm it could be also cool to do Boom Instead of him, you know from that impact and then immediately going up to regain balance if he's more He is more balanced there to do something where the arm is then here boom boom boom going back that arm is here Boom boom boom, you know where it's back Swing this way to then almost lead into Into that offside with that arm here and then the arm goes back and the whole body goes back into My awesome scribble over there I think I will continue to Work on that And here I would just do whatever you feel is right because his reference is not working because it's so late his reaction is late And that contact is mainly hitting this he would not go back anyway So you have to decide do you want to do where the character? Maybe he's not holding this and the character is just standing there and kind of I don't know maybe holding something nice still wet ready to strike and then palm hits the chest and head So if you kind of look at sort of this is not quite working because this is obviously fake In terms of contact points All right, that's kind of it from me. Thank you All right, there's an email you can sign up you can start whenever you want you can submit whatever you want You get 16 submissions either way a like and subscribe would be awesome. All right. Thank you


Happy New Year. I'm Lorna Foy, President of the Wisconsin Technical College System. When I look back on this past year, I am so proud of the accomplishments of our students, faculty, and staff all across the state. Whether in the classroom, lab, and workshop, or virtually through teams and Zoom calls, over the last three years we've learned new ways to get the job done. Dual credit enrollment for high school students is the highest it's been in five years. Overall enrollment is up 10%. We are serving more employers throughout the state through contract training and continuing education. We are providing classroom instruction for thousands of apprentices in more disciplines than ever before. All 16 of our colleges now offer the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees, expanding access to students across the state. We're also making it easier to get to class and finish a credential by helping students manage their lives outside of college with food, housing, transportation, and childcare assistance. From nursing to manufacturing, culinary to criminal justice, the Northwest to the Southeast. Through technology and innovation, we are preparing our graduates for great jobs right now and successful careers in the years ahead. Change isn't easy, but it is fundamental to growth and innovation. Wisconsin's technical colleges, students, and employer partners are transforming the way we teach, learn, and collaborate. Come join us, take a class, explore new career opportunities, earn a credential, consider teaching the next generation, or helping us maintain our world-class facilities, become a member of your local colleges, program advisory committees, or governing boards. In whatever ways you connect with your local technical college, thank you for your support for our students, faculty, staff, and community partners. Together, we're building a stronger future for Wisconsin. Here's to a great new year ahead.


Can you do that? Hi. Oh. Oh.    I'm Alexis. I am Rick.  And, uh, please follow us on Instagram. I'm on Twitter. I'm on YouTube. It's so juicy. No, it's not. No, it's not. No, it's not. Yeah! Why are you saying that? Lexi has a thing now, and I'm looking directly in camera.  Uh, but a new trailer dropped.  I'm sorry. Uh, but we are... We were sleeping. We reacted to the teaser two days ago, so you should be fine. Yeah. But this is called, uh, Article 15. Oh, this is the full trailer now. This is the full trailer. Woo hoo! It's the guy from, uh, Andahan Gahan Gahan. Oh! Uh, so... Yeah, we knew that from the teaser. Yeah, we knew it from the teaser. Here we go! I've been asking you a lot. Is there any connection? Did you both commit suicide together? The third child. Huh? Yeah, sir. Nothing is going on. Was that wrong? We needed a hero. We don't need a hero. We just need people like him to wait for the hero. What are you saying? Sir, the case doesn't look so serious. When does it look serious?  Anand is killing us.  And we are getting a case, sir. Did you kill Achu Nari? Yes, sir. I'm going to pay 3 rupees for the murder. How much? 3 rupees.   I can't work here, sir. I can't do anything. And what about the case? I'm going to pay the case, sir. I'll get it in an hour, sir. It's been three days. I think you'll get it. Who did this? Sir, I'm going to fight Manji. Who is Manji? Manji? Manji? Yes, sir. Is he a Brahmin? Sir, you've changed. Yes, sir.  No, sir. I'm a Brahmin. He's a Brahmin. Why are you doing this? I'm a Brahmin, sir. Why me? I mean, I'm a Brahmin. Manji is the same. No, sir. He's a Brahmin. He's a Brahmin. He's a Brahmin. You're right, buddy.  Indeed. He's a Brahmin, sir. Indeed. Wow. He's a Brahmin. He's a Brahmin. He's a Brahmin. He's a Brahmin. Wow. This is the fight, Shahad. You'll have to burn that book. That's what the nation will do. These girls had only 3 extra rupees in their diet. 3 rupees. The mineral water you're drinking is 2 or 3 mL. Because of this mistake, they were raped. And they were put on the ground so that the whole family remembers their place. Dang. Wow. Okay, so it's about the caste system. So that's what this article I'm guessing was about. You were correct when guessing the last time that it was about that whole thing. But it looks like it's fully about the caste system. What year did it say this was then? Did it say? The events that took place? Yeah. If it said I didn't see. But I'm guessing it's recent. When the Constitution was... Yeah, well that was in 1950. 1950, but when the Article 15 was created. At the same time as the Constitution. Because they got their independence in 49 with the partition. And then the Constitution was 50. And that's when Article 15, in my understanding, that was part of the Constitution in 1950. Okay. It's more recent. Recent. Yeah, like in the past five years maybe. And it touches home in a lot of ways. Because I actually just recently...  They've sweetly said things like when you come to India you're discovering through the films a lot of really beautiful things about India. But India has a really dark, nasty side. And by the way guys, every country does. Even America. Wait, hold on. America? What have we ever done bad? And not just in the past, but in the present. So we're not naive to that. But I just recently got a very long message from somebody who was wanting to ensure that we were really understanding the depth of some of the atrocities that go on there. Particularly the rapings. And the abuses and the murders that are done in the name of caste and the name of religious hierarchy. That's why I got the chills with let's just be Indians. The trailer was phenomenal. It was one of the best trailers. The new trailer is that we've seen this year and I'm very much looking forward to one, the actor. I like him. I do too. He was really good. He's a very good actor. Two, this looks very educational. Yeah. And good. This carries all, because we talk about this a lot when we've talked about movies over the years, is important. That there are films that become important because they either reveal something that took place in the past and we don't want history to repeat itself or it's really raw and new. And this looks, and I hope it stays that way, this looks daring and bold and the kind of movie that a lot of people wouldn't want out. Yeah, because it's going to talk about stuff. It's probably going to get protests and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Because it's being done the right way. Usually political movies from what I found in India get a lot of protests when they come out. And even more. And it looks even more important for people that aren't Indians. Yes. Because they probably know all this stuff already. We only know the bare minimum of the caste system. Well, not just the political side of things, but the religious side of things. Remember where we heard about what happened with Padma Vaat? Because it was originally, did you know that? Yeah, it was Padma Vaati. And they were like, first of all, you shouldn't be making the movie. So change the name and he got attacked. And then also with, what was the other one?  Oh, yeah. Yeah. A lot of people were upset with the way things were represented in PK. So what did you, just looking at the trailer, what was your thoughts on if you would see the movie? Was it intriguing? Did it draw you in? It was intriguing and I would probably see it, but I think, I don't know if I would enjoy it. It's not your type of movie. It's, yeah. Well, this isn't the one that you're going to be like. No. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, Lexi, that was a feel-good movie. Lexi likes feel-good rom-coms. And musicals. Yeah. So this is going to be, it looks like an intense police drama with political and religious tensions put into it. Yeah. It looks really, really good. The color and the score behind it too was like a really good, like epic strong score behind it. Yeah. So, yeah, I thought it was really good. Let us know what you thought. And like other stuff too. Please, thank you. Let us know just stuff. Yeah. That's what we're here for. Just write down in the comments like, hey, here's something you didn't know. Like, really pertinent stuff, like the average foot size. Yeah. And like, like, hey, I noticed those things behind you.


What do you think?  It's this is Corbin This is Rick and you could follow all this on Instagram and From our juicy content Thank you so much on patreon follow an official twitter account ring the bell to be part of the notification squad That's how you get to know when we post videos hence what a notification is And follow our personal youtube channels links always in description below yeah, go down there and jump on the links I'm not talking about golf and Today we are doing a movie review a long Da-da-da-da-da long awaited long a very long awaited Movie review as they all are now I think They are but we reacted we reacted to the trailer on this like 11 months ago. No, we got sent the DVD Many moons ago But we get there. We're like we're like the rabbit in the hair race or you know the little tugboat I think I can I think I we get there eventually it might be eventually 2037, but we'll get that's true Today we reviewed a NAND Which I don't know that's how you pronounce it I think I'm pretty sure that's not yeah, I'm pretty sure it's pronounced like Anand I think Something like that. Yeah, I'm in Obviously it came out in 1971 Directed by say his name for me Rick, please Well, you're expecting me to already have my IMDB open. I'm expecting you to be a professional, but I guess that was too much Oh, that's way too much. I mean, do you think this is our professional reactions? That's true That's true, but it it is It is because I can tell you this I know his last name is McCurgy because he's a Bengali Yes, okay got it open. Yes Rich cash McCurgy Directed written and produced by him Correct in starring say all their names for me This this guy that we've just been introduced to named I'm a top batch Chan. Yeah, he seemed okay. He seemed okay I don't know why we haven't heard more from him because he looked very promising and I guess he just fell off Anyway, he's done anything else. Yeah, and Rajesh Khanna, which Even to now, I know we still don't know everybody was saying you think Big B is the legend Well, this is the legend before the legend. Yeah And then say the other two And then the role of Renu was played by Sumita Sanyal and then his doctor friend was Ramesh Dale Yes And a hundred percent spoiler of you because it came out in 1971 if you haven't seen it. You're not really Indian I'm pretty sure Yeah, I think this is a requirement for Indian citizenship. Have you seen? On it. Yeah, anyways But it's the story of a terminally ill man. I wish they wouldn't put that in there immediately I guess I know me too. I guess they tell you pretty soon though A story of a terminally ill man who wishes to live life to the full before the inevitable occurs as told by his best friend That's okay. It could be a worse synopsis initial thoughts I'll give you my little paragraph for my initial thought. How's that? Is that good? All right of the older Indian films we've seen which shamefully there's like Three if you can if you make the opu trilogy one film and when I mean older, I mean like the 70s or before, right? And of those that we've seen I Still hold as far as cinematic stuff Opu has a very special place in is the number one cinematic artistry thing But this would be my number one selection for American audiences to ingest and to see I think it it the one area it lacks in realism is absolutely made up for in its many important and beautifully told messages about death dying life and living with an absolutely beautiful representation of modern Mumbai at the time and Often painfully beautiful poetic writing worthy of the reputation of Gulsar if that's you pronounce that man's name I actually have a little book of his poems Gulsar Gulsar, please help me stupid babies to pronounce his name, right? That's my initial initial impression. What about you? Oh, I liked it a lot. Yeah, I think I would agree in terms of Films if an American audience was the limited ones we've seen I'm sure there's a ton more. Yeah, we've got a gazillion to see Yeah, I think this is the most digestible in terms for an American audience that hasn't seen anything yet Close second for me, especially if you're like my wife is Sholei Obviously, I prefer Sholei more But it's only because it's my personal taste not because of anything that I think is better than this or worse than that Same same thing with me. This is I prefer this over Sholei, but it's not I didn't it's not that I dislike it It's just personal taste and I have no qualms if somebody says they'd like Sholei better than they like on it I thought it was a beautiful Telling and I thought a really good telling and I I know that I'm a tagbaksha and was like New at this point and I could see why people saw so much in him I don't know how much he did before he he put on a really different strong performance that I've never seen because I think he was So young And we haven't even seen him this young and when he became a star star. I think he preferred the angry young men Rolls that I think he was called for for a while And so this was I think a very different role that not that he was out of his stretch obviously, but I was really impressed with our first introduction to Rajesh Khanna Yes I thought he was a ball like he was basically what I was trying to figure out the entire time I was like, what does he remind me of and I'm not trying to compare him and obviously this is a weird comparison But he reminded me of like real-life Olaf Uh Yeah, that's a good good. That's a good comparison a very happy Person, which is why everybody liked them in his life so much Um and and being around him, but I thought the whole And you've seen films like this terminally ill people that choose to be really happy But it's it's one of those stories that Deserves retelling on and off because it's such a cute story. Obviously death. Yes. It's probably one of the most human things Around because everybody's gonna go through it Um, and so the fact that you know, he's so happy and it's more about everybody else grieving and Yeah, and him being like I want to just and it's how you you would think you would want to enjoy your last days If you knew your days were numbered you'd be like, I want to be I don't want to dwell It's gonna happen. I can't really change that but right he did show in certain times his his um emotion About his struggle. Yeah multiple times. I think there's two or three times in songs. Oh, yeah, or at the very end where he was like I don't want to die He really let it come through But so you saw that humaneness side of him, which is I think a beautiful Thing to tell on film To tell that part of it But the whole of it being like everybody's grieving like how does a doctor who sees death all the time grieve? How does you know and then he becomes best friends and then how does the the females in this grief and Yeah, so I thought that whole part was just so so beautiful and I could see why people like this film so much Oh, absolutely can and I I um If I were remaking it today and we were you know, because I think so many times about how there's You know Indian films have consistently remade films from Hollywood And we've talked about how I would love to see films from India be made into american films The role that I would cast we can't use that actor Um, but I would I would put uh in the role that rogers connor played. I'd put robin williams His that he had, you know very different personality, but he had that same sense of innocence and joy, but also That the little bit of the sorrow behind there that He will look at but he there's you know when he says to uh big b That moment when he says, um, I'm not gonna basically says I'm not sharing this with other people. This is my private pain Yeah, it it didn't come across as a guy trying to hide or not wanting to share It just was this point of sometimes people do need to be alone with their struggle and that's That's okay. There's a balance because sometimes that's a really slippery abyss to go down But that it made that musical number we saw where he's walking along the beach Even even more touching uh and beautiful and I yeah the the biggest thing of all I I just was so happy to see Uh an older film in india that you could you know, you could recommend Because we so want to see people have the stereotypes that have in their mind about Bollywood shattered This is a great film to grab show lay is as well But the drawback as you I think you would agree would be this as a shorter runtime So it's a little bit more digestible. It's a little bit more contemporary in terms of the feelings and stuff But I love that. I love the way mumbai felt more like la of 1971 than it did some distance You know, it really gives you the idea of hey, you know what india's not this third world country You think it is and it really never has been guys you need to Recognize that and my only critique of it. I mentioned to my little paragraph was There's moments that and it's it's not a fault. It's just the way it was with people's cinematic development at the time Not everybody developed at the same time There are several moments that are cliched with the score where someone has a dramatic moment and the score does that Mellow drama soap opera kind of thing which at the time was completely acceptable But for today's digestion People need to recognize don't give this a 21st century parameter For what they were doing the 20th century back then that also happened in old school hollywood as well Some of the it sure did some in which is why i'm not as big of a fan of a lot of older hollywood stuff Because except for certain ones because the people that broke the mold marlon brando james dean Uh, that's why they were so revolutionary because everybody was doing this almost Just acting almost theater type acting on screen almost Um, and not just bollywood in hollywood Um, oh yeah, and then people came in and they were like no, let's let's be real Let's like right make it more realistic And that's why they were so revolutionary and then I think big b took the mantle of that as well in the industry In bollywood and and really changed the game in bollywood because he was he's always He was he was never over the top. I don't think big b can be over the top. I'm gonna be honest with you He's he's quite a small actor Well, and most of the performances in this Were on the smaller side for the most part and that's a that's a testament as well to rajah khanah because His character could have been zany. Yeah, and it wouldn't have worked And and for a character that was so Over the top he kept it Relatively grounded and that's also true We pointed that out a lot about the actor because we're both we're both actors and we've talked about how You know the silent era informed the era of sound with cliched acting and as did um other aspects of vaudeville and then when sat when brando came on the scene and Lee schrossberg and method acting it The other thing is the directing as well. So like in 1971 the same year that this came out It was the same year that dirty harry came out and and and the french connection and fiddler on the roof And that even the directing style was evolving, but you can't You can't compare those for me. I did that at first. I was like, well, this isn't this Real Yeah, and that's not if anybody who would critique the film on that level I don't think is seeing the larger hole and that's my That's my only critique as a whole. I think this is a really wonderful wonderful movie Yeah, I I really really enjoyed it. Like I said, my favorite parts were probably when um Rajesh's character broke Uh, either during the song when he was singing Uh, and then big b saw him singing Um, or the very end when he broke and he was crying to her He's like, I don't want to die and waiting for me to come back and I thought the ending was phenomenal I knew it was gonna. Yeah, I knew it was gonna come too because with the recording He was like talk to me talk to me and then the recorded started playing I thought that was that was really really well done in terms of Ending it like that. Did you cry? I did not but I had might have three favorite moments I did get emotional, but I didn't have tears coming down the cheeks. Yeah, did you? Nowhere close. I had many favorite moments My first favorite moment is at the beginning of the film when He says when big b is looking at him and basically says do you realize your prognosis here? Do you realize what's gonna happen to you and he says to big b?   Yeah, it plays and it's the two of them and it ends with their laughter Like really laughing in the face of death.  So yeah, I know I know a lot of people There was like people on twitter saying this will make Corbin cry because they've been trying to make me cry for A long time now and it's just yes. I have no soul if The part of Rajesh Khanna Had been a terminally ill dog whining in the bed. Yeah, that would be much more likely That would have been much more although father son stuff is touching me a lot more now than it ever did all right The club my brother that uh, welcome to the club that that obviously changes stuff when you have a child I got two quick things of trivia you may know and I know these because of of Stupid babies One, did you know that Rajesh Khanna was the father-in-law to the king of cheese Akshay? I think they've told us that yeah They did and then the other thing that's true and the big b apparently confirmed this was Big b was not known at all And when he went to the gas station to fill up his car Before the release of the film nobody knew who he was The next time the next time he went to the exact same gas station. It was after the film was released And everybody was recognizing him. That is how big This movie was and how much it catapulted big b from Nobody knew who he was to now suddenly he's the guy who was in that great film with Rajesh Khanna Yeah, I and I see why I really like I said, I really enjoy this movie I would rate if like somebody you wanted to introduce an american to an old school Bollywood film. Yes, this would be a good one to introduce them to the style that was uh, then back then Absolutely, but obviously we've seen very little And so that could change and I'm very obviously interested for a lot of reasons I would like to see because he's got a ton Of stuff on his resume. I would love to see more films By, uh, uh, Richie kesh McCurgy Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah, be awesome very interested in him because we've talked about getting into other Bengali Films other than such is right And there's others. I don't yeah, there actually are So yeah, I like I said, I really enjoyed this film. I really enjoyed the songs a lot The songs were really great even the ones that we didn't see really good. I thought they were really really good Uh public service announcement Don't release balloons Balloons that you originally thought favored the shape size and color of the human male penis. Yes No, yes, you know it it kills animals and turtles. So don't do it Just like you shouldn't feed ducks bread. Just don't do it. It's not good. It's bad for them You could feed them seeds get them seeds throw the ducks some seeds. Don't feed Anyways, I'm on my I'm on my soapbox now. Don't release balloons into the air. It's bad for Anyway, take a ride that was actually uh, because Steph watched it with me. She was like, yeah, don't do that Because she's the first time seeing it Yeah So, uh, yeah, that was great. Let us know what other, um Uh, Rajesh Kana films we should watch the next big big classic we should watch and classic bollywood in general Even if it doesn't have them Let us know what we should watch down below We have a lot to watch because bollywood's been around for a little while now Uh, from what I've been told Think about it Let us know You


I'm a winner. I'm a winner. I am hungrier.  I'm adopted. My parents never cared. I just wouldn't be told that I was loved. OK, well, no, that's not what you're supposed to say. I say, I'm a winner. I'm a winner. OK, say it again. I'm a winner. I'm a winner. OK.


Best about to start the Brandon badges half-a-door designers create with inkscape talk with wonderful Marie and Jess here So we're gonna have a few questions in the middle But I will turn off my camera and let you guys take it away. I'm really excited for this. Awesome. Thank you, Madeline I'm Marie Norden and Here with me is Jess and me organizers of this data freedom summit So we're really excited to be able to share with you and Jess is going to be kicking it off today Cool. So hi everyone. Um, so we're gonna be talking about the brands part first Which is my section. So So just a little bit about me first. So I'm currently a fedora. Oh, excuse me. I'm currently a fedora community design intern and working with Red Hat based in Ireland and I've been here for for only a year. So my my knowledge of inkscape is is It's at a good level. Um, so I've worked on many projects in the in the fedora community such as the fedora brand book and And also the fedora brand guidelines that what we're turning the book into a website moment So I'm working on that too And we also have the nest flock and hatch logos as you can see there. There's one of the logos and there that I I worked on and Also logos like the mentor summit that you can see there and the fedora gaming logo as well as well as our new mascot color so Did a lot of stuff so Yeah, and again working with inkscape Doing the blender learning and all that stuff. So So in this talk, I'm just gonna talk about some things in inkscape That's and I found useful during my my internship here and And things that I've learned along the way. So we'll start off with the fedora gaming and Logo and for this one I use the para stroke feature. It was really cool feature and So when creating the fedora gaming logo, I wanted to keep the look of the original hot dog that we have like it looks very hand-drawn and So we wanted to recreate that in the vectorization of the logo because the original drawing I think I think it was drawn in critter. So we wanted to do some stuff like that. So Moe you've probably seen her Maureen as she introduced me to This feature called the para stroke feature, which is a really good way of portraying that hand-drawn feature and so it gives tapered ends and at the ends of different strokes and and other options the taper stroke as well, but I feel like with the With the para stroke feature you can kind of manipulate it better and the taper stroke is very kind of one-sided.  So in the next video In the next slide I have a little video of This feature so I just wanted to show it in action It's better better to see it So I Went into the path effects tab and you can actually get this by clicking path and path effects And you can see the little nodes there just pulling them in and out and you can create the different shapes and Yeah reshape the stroke into a tapered line and even on one side rounder than the other side point to whichever You prefer so yes, that's the para stroke feature. So for the Fedora mentor summit and we created this like little Venn diagram Esk logo with a little light bulb to and I Suppose symbolize, you know, two people coming together creating really cool ideas and and that's all that mentorship is about so with this I originally wanted for the the two circles when they intertwined to kind of You know have that transparency effect. So I originally used you can use like The opacity slide on inkscape and we try to use that bush Thinking about it for like printing and stuff. It doesn't really Like it won't come out as good like it's best to have like three solid objects rather than have one object solid and then the other one transparent so So yeah, having three solid objects with no transparency effects would just make printing a lot easier and so The tools I use for this was the union difference and intersection path tools. So these are basically like cutouts and And so I use the So like the intersection tool I use that to create the center part of the diagram So you literally just get the two circles put them together and then whatever is on the top It cuts it out at the bottom. So it's kind of like a cookie cutter effect and then I also use that the same method in the actual light bulb itself like for the f looking and And in the light bulb, I literally just turned it from stroke to path and then And right to both and then you do the difference And it just cuts that squeaky shape into that light bulb shape that I made and it's the same with the the bottom too So this is a little demo. So the union tool then you select the two shapes and you go to path and union and and it just combines the two shapes together and Whatever is underneath it takes that and so the different the difference to so So whatever is on top acts as the cookie cutter and just cuts out from the bottom and Then same with the intersection tool. It's the reverse of the difference tool. So whatever is Whatever is actually underneath the the orange circle in this case actually gets cut out and The exclusion tool is kind of cool and it takes away Whatever is like overlapping and just leaves the other two there And then the difference tool is like a miss a mishmash of the difference through an intersection tool And you have the two little bits that It cuts out the two shape shapes, but it doesn't delete them It just separates them too so you can work with both of them So in the next one then so we have the next the nest flock and hatch those and this feature That I learned from this was using text as a logo type base. So I originally sketched up these logos by drawing them first so I use Comfort a as The base type the font is the base for this logo on the flock and hatch and then when sketching out the designs first and What I did with the original was I actually imported my sketch into inkscape And I got a really thick like I use the pen tool and I got a really thick stroke and drew them out which is totally not the way to do it and so So then what we did instead is actually Marie helped me out with this a lot since she has a lot of experience of creating logos and we did a little workshop and What I learned from that was to actually use the the logo type and if you select it and go to path and then it's object to object to path each letter becomes its own Individual like object so you can like manipulate the nodes however way you want and that's how I created the Like on the end you see there's like a little gap So what we did was we actually duplicated the end we took a little section off of The like the very like the foot of the end basically and we cut that off We kind of we put it in where the tail meets this like you have the end here. It's probably gonna be mirrored I don't know which way but So you have the stem of the end and then the curved bit so we just separated them to and then added that little foot just to create the round bit and Same with the E and the T as well, and then we added the the little tree then so Again with the freedom. Yeah, so this is just me Bringing the object to path Thing to to reality and then it just shows you then you can Manipulate the nodes and what's nice about this as well You can actually get the pen tool and whatever node you selected you can actually extend that and that's how I made the little tree on the On the T on the nest logo so and also you can do that or you can actually just draw it and then You can select to and do the union and then they all become one piece So then for color I learned how to use the gradient mesh, so Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself so sorry So the gradient mesh consists of nodes and arrows that let you control the blend so it's basically it's like a massive grid and You can just plot your different colors that you want to use and I have here have to be careful when trying to blend colors I mean, it's it's like basic color theory like well, especially with the orange and the the Green that I used of course. They don't really mix together So they kind of look well at the start it looked kind of brown like a really muddy color It wasn't that great. So again, just like adjusting it with the little arrows you can move it around and so I don't want it to be really colorful as well Because when I originally drew it out, I am I was like sketching sketching it and blending it in Incredible and doing it that way so And I wanted to create the same feel with the gradient mesh. So this is just me and messing around with it with a circle And so again once you select it, then you can use the different nodes And like especially in the bottom where the green is you can see that there's a node there You can click on it and change the colors This is me just messing around with the arrows so you can see how you can change the direction of the gradient, which is really nice and and If you like put the arrows in a certain way so that they overlap You can actually make a line in the gradient, which you'll see at the end but again, you can like do make little shapes and Kind of manipulate the the gradient to where you want it to be and it's quite nice as well to have that bending and motion so that you can If you if you're doing like a 3d effect on a sphere or something. Oh, yeah, it's me don't mind that and So yeah, this is what I meant by creating the line So when I do select it at the end you can see there's a line there So and the last but I'm going to talk about is the multi-page feature which Was recently introduced into inkscape and it is my favorite thing ever. I love having multiple art boards on an inkscape design so Yes, so use the multiple feet the multi-page feature to organize the brand book and it was really helpful when exporting the pages In the video afterwards. I'll show you boss. Um, it's It's really nice. You can just select batch export and Pages and it just exports everything and it was really nice to keep everything organized as well And it's really nice, especially if you if you want to work on like multiple logos On the one like inkscape file rather than have many inkscape files. It's really nice to organize it that way as well, so We'll move on then to the video and this is just me showing how I used it for the four-door brand book and just sectioning at the pages and So this is me just going into a new file and then you have the page there and But you can also add pages with the Page tools that create a new page it'll immediately make another a4 But you can resize it and there's different like in the drop down beside that. There's different Page types you can pick you can rename your pages like I have cover page here That's a single image export so you can switch between the pages But the batch export is where the magic happens. It's so good so you can select whichever pages you want and You can export them you can actually export one page as two separate files So let's say for the front page of the brand book I can export that as a PNG to put into a PDF But I can also export it as an SVG if I ever wanted to have separate SVGs for some reason But it's handy for logos as well a few if someone requests like a specific logo And you can export that one out of your big and inkscape Files so yeah, so this is my section of of the top and done so I'll take we'll do a little break for questions if that's okay. So yes, we have some that have come in So the first one is is the fedora brand guidelines maybe public it would be nice to have a look on it Yes, they are public. We have a git lab for them I can Share that after this actually Next question is hi everyone great presentation. I wanted to ask what sources Like videos courses online material would you recommend for newcomers to learn more about inkscape? Thank you Oh well my Learning experience. I was just kind of All self-taught and going back to like mose my My mentor so a lot of going back and forth to her but I find I know like I know it's kind of a proprietor or software, but youtube is your your best friend when it comes to these things and especially since they're all free to access and and Yeah, like I'd say youtube was like my main Prior to like if I didn't get something I'd just google it or youtube or any kind of form even as well, so um, and I'll say that like I think as members of the design team. We're all really willing to Answer people's questions if they're ever in the design team element Like chat room, but yeah, youtube's a great place and then um, my own question was As you were showing all of the kind of tips and tricks and you know stuff that I'm familiar with But I often have a hard time remembering like sometimes I'll be trying to exclude something or exclude something and Then I choose the wrong one and I was like, I wonder if we could come up with a mnemonic device for remembering like certain groups of features and inkscape that like I don't know it'd be kind of a fun catchy thing. So I don't know something to consider Yeah, that's pretty cool I suppose like different colors and Finding it that way because I find it difficult to sometimes like us the layer meant to be above or below and which one do I select? Yeah, when I'm clipping something it's like oops. I've selected the wrong thing. Um, yeah But yeah, great so far and I I'll let you know at the end if any other questions come in for you guys perfect, um, I suppose one thing as well, uh that I'd like to mention too is um With the multi page feature as well. There's um one thing that It'd be really cool if there was like a pn like you can export all pages as like one pdf um Bosh Yes, I love I love thanks But yeah, I'll move on to marie to talk about badges then so Thank you. Just um I wonder if that's an option already or we could put a feature request in or maybe martin knows the answer if he's with us in chat Um, cool. So today I'm going to talk about badges um This is less of a this is how to use inkscape tool and more of a This is how inkscape has made the fedora community better and stronger and um Improved our culture over many many years So just a tiny bit about me um, I started with badges design and now I'm here I work at red hat as the code of conduct specialist doing code of conduct work and consulting But you might know me as The fedora projects former fcake. So I worked as a community architect in the fedora project for the past three years We recently moved into a code of conduct role um I was introduced to open source in 2013. So Just shy of 10 years ago um a shout out through outreachy and an amazing mentorship program and of course marine duffy my mentor and many A mentor for many other people in the fedora design team Um, I'm also an artist designer and maker. You can see some of my things here on the right side some drawings Some dot paintings some calligraphy and book binding So just thought I'd share that with you as well so Fedora badges If you don't know what they are, I'm just going to give a quick introduction to that They're a huge part of the fedora project culture. So that sub sub project was initiated in 2013 before I came on And the main goal of badges is to recognize contributions to the fedora project It's a gamification system Basically to give ourselves that hit up dopamine and serotonin and make it even more fun and exciting to Be a part of the fedora community. So the back end is built built with terrier and fedora messaging We have some automated badges that connect up to our fedora systems And that's made possible using yaml But the point that I want to talk about is that dozens and dozens of artists have contributed to creating badge art At this point we have 600 plus badge designs and there are requests for probably about 100 or 50 150 more That aren't even graded or haven't been able to be automated at this point Um So there's six main categories that we award badges for and that's content development quality community Events and miscellaneous. We needed a miscellaneous because there's just always those things that come up but here's a social panda badge that I designed for Uh joining a fedora virtual social so back when Badges all started there were some design goals for You know, what we wanted it to be, right? So we wanted to be fun and friendly um Basically tying back to that friend's foundation in the fedora project So we wanted to use that fedora color palette which would tie back to fedora's brand and also keeps the tones kind of lighter Some kind of pastel colors to keep it kind of airy and fun and fresh, right? So we don't have people represented in The badges as humans. We have them represented as animals. So that was another way that we keep it very fun and friendly So we have pandas in there and people ask where the pandas came from and I will tell you it's moe. I think And we also have Badgers snakes I'm sure we'll see color popping up in there now that we have a new mascot um, and back when this all started Comfortog was Like the main fedora type typeface that we used at this point. It's been deprecated um For use in a lot of fedora designs But we've held on to it here because it kind of embodies still that fun and friendly look And we also have that as a basis for some of our other logos like the nest logo that jess was talking about So we've we've held on to it in the badges space So here you can see like the anatomy of a badge We have an outer ring that denotes what category it it falls in background color There's usually a pattern of some kind and then on the top of that lays a graphic So I wanted to showcase the creativity Of our designers and these are all designed by pretty much different people. I think we have a few a few, you know mashups with multiple contributors, but Here you can see we have a similar look and feel across all different badges with all different artists and the creativity that we've been able to express through badges as a fedora design team over the years has been um A really fun part of being a part of fedora and being a part of the badges project As you can see we kind of have cultural references in here um And just you know kind of fun depictions of you know, this one were testing Fedora core os so Or this one I think is for the Community outreach revamps so people all over the world working together This one was for a social at a at a flock event. I believe so Some really really cool art and a chance to make art With each other We've also spent a lot of time passing on uh knowledge about inkscape and badges and fedora culture with design workshops at both flock or in-person conference and nest with fedora our virtual conference So all the way back in 2014 I gave a presentation on the internship. I did with badges And then after that I started giving badge design workshops so that I could add more artists into the folds and You know create more badge designs in general Uh in flock 2019 we had a hack fest and that merged the designers and the developers together to try to improve the system overall um We you know covid happened and things slowed down on that but we still managed to do some Um More workshops and presentations at our virtual event. This here is the badger pado on badge and that is for participating at a workshop a badge design workshop so Very excitingly and very full circle. I was able to mentor a Badges intern over this last summer. I co-mentored with smarigol. We um interned amazingly talented young woman nikita trapathy and We had some Goals for this internship, right? So we wanted to modernize the badge template Um wanted to give it, you know, keep the same feel but update the look a little bit We wanted to update the style guide because things had changed. It was like 10 years or nine years since we had Last made a version of the style guide And then also over the years there were things that kind of slipped through the cracks like We had files exported at the wrong size or maybe we just needed to push A piece of artwork through because we needed it for an event or something else And maybe those didn't fit all of the guidelines that we had in place so Here's an example of A revamp, you know adding the new logo in Using the new template, which I'll show a little bit more in a moment Um And just making sure that it's kind of following these up-to-date style guides So this is what I was talking about here Basically, we move from this design to this design. So this is a bit more focused on the graphic. It's simpler It's dark mode compatible um, and it also in the original design there was some Um, if you get real close in there on the nitty-gritty, there's a little bit going on with the vectors They're not entirely smooth. So we clean those up And it's visually balanced. So Along with that we created new templates. So we have template files To create badges so That kind of just was six templates you get an event template. There's nothing in there You're just kind of starting from scratch, right? So now what we have is instructions in the template We have type B samples in the template. We also have patterns sample graphics And basically a clip so that the artwork is just staying in that badge area instead of kind of Wandering off because we do have you know newcomers and people are new to inkscape Working on this. So we wanted to make it As easy and simple for them to get into designing badges so we also went with An update of the style guides. We wanted to modernize the style guide. This is the one I Created in 2013 2014 and here is the one that Nikita has updated Just this past summer So it kind of has a slicker look updated colors for the new fedora Logo color we have some more recommendations for how to pair the colors together And this is like a 30 page Style guide so this is just one page of it. I wasn't going to go through The entire thing but very excited to use that so If you go to fedora badges right now, you'll probably notice that the new style guide isn't there And there's a couple reasons for that So fedora badges is in the process of getting it overhaul. There was just a meeting yesterday for The redo of fedora badges. I forget what the name of the meeting is called but it's a group of us from the community platform engineering team People from the community people from the fedora design team coming together to Redo the badges site. I mentioned a little bit of that technology that was behind fedora badges And the truth is it's out of date and some of it is no longer maintained So it's been kind of a question for a while of you know, how can we keep this up to date? How can we keep this modern in a way that people want to contribute to the back end and front end of the fedora badges website? So what's going on right now is Exploration development and implementation of a new back end and front end of fedora badges We want to implement that new badge template on 600 plus badges. You'll see I put like a shocked face here because it's going to be a lot of work We want to apply the style guide to all the current artwork. So making improvements And we also along with that kind of need to know the requirements of what that new website will look like, right? So We built our template based on the specifications for this current website So it has like a certain amount of padding in it and for the new website We don't know exactly what those will be. So the reason that we don't have that new template Implemented is because we're you know working with the developers to make sure that we're doing it right the first time We don't want to have to Reduce 600 badges and then reduce 600 badges again And we are looking for people to contribute, you know people Who are already in the fedora community newcomers? And we need all different types of people With different skills and you can be a complete newbie In any of these areas to to contribute to this, right? So We need back end developers front end ui and ux designers slash developers. We need illustrators. We really need illustrators We need people who can do communications and want to do communication So making sure we're getting input from the community Talking about the work that we're doing And we also need project managers so people who can make sure we are on track and we are Adapting to the changes as things happen and maybe we bring new people on where do they fit into the picture So we really need all different types of people to make this implementation Of the new site and the new artwork And over here is the master badge artist. This is if you've designed over 100 badges, I think I also just want to say thanks to the many fedora designers We've had so many people contribute to fedora badges over the years Way more than this list, but it's kind of hard to keep track of everybody So I I got I went to the artwork log and I found, you know, the people who had Contributed at least a handful So thank you so much for your work on fedora badge design over the years And making something really awesome That's At the heart of the fedora community So cool. Thanks for attending. I'm going to stop sharing my screen And so then I can actually take a look at the chat too Yeah, we've got I think two questions for you guys So the first question is In some cases choosing between inkscape and pen pop for a certain graphic design project could be difficult as both Maybe suitable. How do you decide which one you work with per project? Do you have a standard? For this and are there any decisive factors you follow when choosing either one or the other I have a quick answer for this, but i'm i'm also curious jess and madeline what you think about this um I am primarily like an illustrator like Design logo designer, so i'm not doing a lot of like, you know front end development I haven't done a ton with pen pot so far me too is like my home like my bread and butter um And You know a piece of software that i've been using for so long. It's like, you know second nature to me, so My first instinct is usually to go to inkscape, but I think that there's a lot of tools and pen pot that um Are important for other use cases, so I think it depends on what what you're trying to accomplish. That's my input I agree and the the question asker kind of said like they Worthing an example like a presentation could be both design an inkscape and pen pot um And that a digital brand book might be a bit easier to design maintain in pen pod than inkscape um, and I think it Um a big part for me is also just like i'm more comfortable in inkscape um, and you can usually bring think that Most of the time any vector work that you're doing in Inkscape you can bring into pen pot And then vice versa So It like doesn't matter all the time But like pen pot has libraries, so it's great. I don't know you go Jess Yeah, I think Marie and Madeline you both said what was on my mind as well and like pen pot is really great I think for more so the front end as well and user testing and like wash um Wash um emma and um Ashlyn yes Like what they were talking about yesterday about using um pen pot to create the fedora websites like I I think it's it's a much better tool for that like personally and design wise for me It's it's it's inkscape all the way and what's nice about inkscape as well the the way you can transfer a project From inkscape into a pen pot no problem because it takes svg format as well like I've used pen pot as well for like the libraries to and updating the libraries but like the different um the different characters and logos and stuff like that so I suppose like How I use pen pot is more so maintaining it for others to use it if that makes sense so I have a question Jess because I think I remember this coming up, but is there um An issue with pen pot ingredients Yeah, so if you Import the s the svg so like say take calore for example Like when we were trying to import him into it as an svg um The gradient mesh on his belly wouldn't import So we have to import it as a png. We haven't figured out why that is I suppose it's the same as well if you just click on an svg and open it in an image viewer as well It doesn't display the gradient mesh. So I don't know if it's The s the svg format or if it's 10 parts out. So we're still trying to say When pablo was talking on I guess that was Tuesday that we brought that up So maybe that'll be a soon soon to be feature. Yeah fingers crossed The next question is when is the next badge workshop? So When we were first planning this creative freedom summit, it was I think I was calling it the fedora design week and like we were Considering like just trying to work on fedora design for a week and then we said like No, actually it would be better to share with others our knowledge instead of trying to make this internally focused So one of the things that I wanted that I was thinking about for that like previous idea was to do a badges sprint so I think one potential time could be flock or nest or whatever is happening for fedora's conference contributor conference in 2023 So, you know, whatever Whenever wherever that is I'd love to see a fedora badges design workshop, but you know Life is life. I don't know if If it's in person, I'm not sure if I'll make it to be honest, you know, like the world is kind of a crazy place right now. So I'd like to participate and be hands-on for Implementing that new template. So I'm also considering doing a sprint a virtual sprint where We all kind of work on badge designs for maybe a week or something like that I'm also talking with Smera who I mentioned earlier about mentoring another badge intern For this upcoming summer to do all the work Not all but a lot of the work of moving that the artwork from that old template into the new template So there's a couple of things we have That we're looking at for 2023 But you know, maybe one of those things that the intern could work on was, you know Coordinating a sprint, right? And we could kind of put that and put them in charge of that and they would get A taste of you know community building and community organization alongside, you know, the design work Brilliant I think that's really something to look forward to And the last question we have is I tried to do a badge like forever ago. What does happen? What happens on those cases? Do they get reassigned or just lost in time? I think aside from the design part that part of the flow could be improved too Absolutely, um, I'm gonna take partial credit or flame for this, um I think I mentioned it a couple times now, but Uh COVID made life pretty hard There for a while. I had a new job. That was a challenge, you know Working as fedora's community action impact coordinator Um, and that was my first job in community management. So I was learning a lot doing a lot. So I wasn't able to put as much time and energy into badges basically since 2019 so um I think what needs to happen is a triage of that repo and to kind of go back in and make sure Um, you know, people are getting responses. I have stopped filtering the badges emails at my inbox because uh as fk your inbox is a little bit wild um So I'm seeing those notifications. I'm Uh very involved now in this overhaul. I'm gonna co-captain the design part with Emma kidney So I plan to be much more involved in the badge design stuff, you know being in a new role I now have Some more space and of course it's demanding but now working on fedora can kind of be my hobby again um, whereas before it was my full-time plus Paid job day job. So you know with all the other needs that I was fulfilling for fedora. It was a bit hard to Also do badges at the same time Well, I'm glad that it is not going to be as overwhelming anymore for you and for other people who want to contribute Um, and that is it. I don't think there's any more questions. You guys gave such a great presentation It was so great to see all those tips and the history of the badges laid out Bye


Anyone can become a great facilitator if they have the right tools, practices, and skills in place. In this video, you're going to learn the eight essential skills that every facilitator needs to have. But first off, to make sure we're on the same page, let's cover who a facilitator actually is and what makes a good one. A good facilitator's goal is to encourage the team to think critically, arrive at solutions, ask vital questions, and arrive to outcomes, not to solve the team challenges for them. A skilled facilitator can eliminate the friction of the teamwork by providing a process for the team to follow and thereby allowing the team to arrive at the conclusion much, much faster. As you watch the video, we're super curious to hear from you what is your biggest challenge when it comes to facilitation. What do you struggle with the most? Leave the comment in the comment box below if you want us to address this in our future videos. Starting with facilitation skill number one, which is most important to master, which is be the guide, not the hero. We say it often on all of our social channels, and we honestly can say it often enough because this is the fallacy number one when it comes to facilitating. Remember, you don't need to show off how good you are. You are there to lead the group to their best outcomes. What acceptance mindset will do to your work is that it will allow you to become a more active listener. This will allow you to learn how to pose just the right questions, and it will generally just take off a lot of weight off your shoulders because you won't need to come up with the best idea or the best solution. Remember, you are there to uncover the group's best ideas, not to overpower them with your own skill. Number two is time management. I've already mentioned that it's crucial that the facilitator knows how to move the group along and keep the momentum. But what's also important is that you have the skill of planning out your workshop day so that it's not overwhelming to you or to the participants. Something that we noticed at Agent Smart back when we were starting out with workshops is that, yeah, we cramped the day pretty full with all sorts of exercises and activities, but what ended up happening is the participants were overwhelmed, we were overwhelmed, we ended up going over time and the workshop was just messy. Especially if you're a freelance workshopper, it's easy to fall into the fallacy where you feel like you have to work the exact amount of hours that you were hired for and you have to prove to the company that hired you that you work, let's say eight or 10 or 12, however many hours. But the thing is your work does not end with the workshop. You have the preparation phase, you have the handover phase, and that counts as well. So to make it generally more enjoyable for the team and yourself, don't cram your day with too many exercises. Less is really more in this case. Skill number three that you need to have down is being able to shortcut circular discussions. Now, circular discussions are one of the main reasons that the conventional meetings are such a drag to be in.  Now, it's your job as a facilitator in a room to nip those circular discussions in the bud to allow the group to move along faster. And here's exactly how you can do that. You can use a parking lot. So what a parking lot is, is a physical space somewhere in the room, be it a whiteboard or a blank wall or just a space on your desk where you will park all of the ideas that are just not relevant to the current discussion. So if you notice someone getting off topic, you can gently interrupt them and say, hey, it's a great idea, but it's outside of the scope of the challenge we're currently working on. Can you jot this down in a post-it and we'll come back to it later. What this will do is it will allow people to feel hurt and they will be more willing to let go of their ideas and move on. There's just one caveat to this strategy. You have to come back to the things that you parked in the parking lot, because if you don't, your participants won't trust you the next time you will try to do it. Or you could also use the note and vote method. And this comes in handy if the discussion is relevant to the scope of your workshop. If you notice the participants go off topic, gently stop the discussion and let them know that now is a perfect time to do note and vote. And this is how you do it. Simply set a timer for a few minutes and then give the participants some sticky notes, like this, and ask them to silently note down their ideas on the sticky note. After the time is up, ask them to stick up the sticky notes on a wall and then give them some voting dots and ask them to vote on the dots. And just like that, you have a decision that was made the majority without the circular discussion and you can move on happily. Another thing you can do to avoid discussions spiraling out of control is to just start writing. And this sounds super simple, but it's also super effective. So just grab a marker and as people are discussing, start jotting things down on a whiteboard or on a flip chart, wherever. And the reason this works so well is because it's easier for people to disagree with ideas than to flesh out fresh ideas themselves. Now the fourth facilitation skill that you really have to get down is the ability to keep the energy levels consistently high in a workshop. Energy is a key component in facilitation, making sure that your participants are activated and engaged and switched on really ensures that they bring their A game to the workshop. Put yourself in the shoes of your participants. They will be in a workshop in a completely new setting, doing collaborative work the way they've never done it before, taking in a lot of information. It is really hard to stay engaged for the whole duration of the workshop. So it's your job as a facilitator to take care of that. And this is how you can do it. Go for a 10 minute walk. Now this sounds super simple, but it's super effective to get people's heads clear and get them into the right headspace one more time. You cannot really control this in a remote workshop, but you can encourage your participants to go on a walk when you have a break and sometimes the right call to action is all it takes. Another great energy booster is just a simple high five after you've finished an exercise. This might sound super simple, but try it out and you'll see how excited for disciplines will get. This will also give them the feeling of accomplishment after they completed a milestone or an exercise. Another way to keep energy levels consistent is to do a little energizer exercise. Now they're similar to icebreakers. They're not directly related to the content of your workshop. They just allow people to break out of the activity they normally do in a workshop and break the pattern. One example would be something that we use at AGM Smart, which is called touch blue. And the way you do it is you simply tell your participants to find something blue in their surroundings and touch it. I would touch the sticky notes. For example, the last person to find the blue object selects the next attribute and you can keep the exercise rolling until you feel that the whole group is energized and ready to dive right back in into the workshop exercises. Another energizer we're left to use in AGM Smart workshops is Fun Fact. And it's exactly what it sounds like. You ask the participants to write a Fun Fact about themselves on a post-it, whether in person or remote setting doesn't matter.  Now it's a fun and quick and easy activity and usually gets the room laughing and gets the energy up again. Skill number five is effectively curbing team politics and group sync. Now team politics and group sync are also one of the main reasons why collaboration can feel messy and not productive and just generally not enjoyable. It doesn't matter which size of the team you have. It doesn't matter whether you're in a startup or in a corporate or an NGO. Team politics are always there. That's just human nature. So instead of hoping they don't spark up, just learn the ways to curb them and to take control of them. Our two favorite tools that allow us to do this quite easily is the known and vote method which we already discussed and the together alone method. So what together alone means is that the team is collaborating on the same challenge in real time, whether they're in the same physical space together or working on the same digital whiteboard together, but they aren't discussing the exercise as they complete them. So for example, if you were to run a brainstorm exercise, you would set the timer to let's say 10 or 15 minutes, let the people jot their ideas down on a sticky note without communicating or talking to each other and later present them one by one. What that allows you to do is forego all of the circular discussions, people being afraid to speak up, people being afraid to propose ideas that might differ from the ideas of their seniors. And it really allows everyone to have an equal voice in the discussion. Crucial skill number six is knowing how to deal with troublemakers. Frankly, it's not a question of if you will meet a troublemaker in your workshop. It's a question of when there will always be a person that is a little bit skeptical about the workshop, about the method of working, maybe about the challenge itself. And you need to know how to deal with them because all it takes is just one person who's skeptic or causing trouble in a workshop to completely derail it. The good thing is, you can completely turn the troublemakers energy around if you have the right tools. And often troublemakers end up being your biggest fans. Here's how you turn their energy around. One way to deal with troublemakers is to give them tasks. Now this might seem a little bit counterintuitive, but the worst thing you can do with a troublemaker is ignore them because this will make them feel like they're not getting heard, like the workshop is the waste of their time, and this will not make them like you more trust us. So what you want to do if you spot a troublemaker in a workshop is to say something like, hey, would you mind helping me out with jotting their ideas down on the post-its? Or, hey, would you mind helping me with ordering lunch, for example? Give them easy tasks that will keep them occupied and that will make them feel part of the workshop. This will make them your ally, not your opponent. Another way you can deal with troublemakers is by asking probing questions. So for example, let's say someone is asking you really tricky questions that you know don't have any substance except for undermining you or the workshop. What do you do? Well, a great way to deal with that is to ask probing questions like, what do you mean by that? Or could you tell me where you're coming from? Or are you thinking of a specific situation? So the main idea behind these questions is to really get down to the root cause of why they're asking these questions. And this will help you because, first of all, it buys you think time to think while they're answering about how you can respond. But second of all, in the process of answering these probing questions, the troublemaker might actually answer their own question. Women. Now, another way you can deal with troublemakers is by using the parking lot method that we already mentioned in the previous sections, because when people cannot let go of the subject and they keep on talking about the same thing, it means it's important to them. And the worst thing you can do is just tell them straight out that it's not important and you won't be talking about this. This will just make the troublemaker feel even more unheard and even less part of a workshop. So instead jot their idea down on a post-it note, place it in the parking lot and come back to it later after the workshop's done. And the final nuclear option, which you shouldn't really be using unless you've tried everything we mentioned previously, is to take the troublemaker aside and have a little chat with them and say to them, Hey, I'm seeing that you have a little bit of trouble in the workshop. Is there something I can help you with? Or how can I make this workshop more enjoyable for you? Now, the key here is to really listen. Don't be passive-aggressive or smirky. Really try to get down at the bottom of what bothers them. Rarely will someone try to sabotage a workshop just because they feel like it. A lot of times there's an actual reason behind it and it will serve you good to learn that reason. If that doesn't work, ask them to leave the workshop. But a side note, in all of our years of facilitating here at Agent Smart, we have never actually had to resort to the leaving option and implementing all of the tips that we mentioned before. Save the workshop and really turn the troublemaker's energy around. Skill number seven is the ability to give clear instructions. Sounds simple, yet you'd be surprised how much trouble people have with explaining concepts clearly. The thing is, you probably know how all of the exercises in your workshop work, why you need to do them, how you need to do them, and what will be the outcome. But your participants don't. And a lot of times when you explain a concept that's familiar to you, you fall prey to the curse of knowledge.  And let me tell you, nothing takes the wind out of your sails, quite like having three, four, five, 10 people interrupt you mid-sentence and ask you questions about the exercise and how to complete it. But there's an easy way to avoid this. For example, you can use the what, why, how framework. So start by introducing the exercise, and then tell the group the reason behind doing the exercise, what will be the ultimate outcome, why bother in the first place, and then proceed to tell them step by step and as much detail as needed, what they will need to do to complete the exercise. And explain how you would do the exercise. So for how might we, you would jot down HMW at the top of your post-it, and as you listen to your teammates describe their challenges and problems, reframe them on your post-it. For instance, someone says, it takes me a long time to get to work in the morning. You could rephrase it as, how might we improve the morning commute to work. And just like that, you've covered all of the bases, explained the exercises and your participants are crystal clear on what they need to do next. Skill number eight is being ready to adapt. Now, this is one of the most crucial skills of a facilitator because a workshop is really unpredictable. Regardless of whether you run a remote workshop or an in-person workshop, there are always things that can go wrong. There are always things that you cannot foresee. That also means that you need to be able to go with the flow and keep your cool, even if things don't go your way.  Well, we have a bonus skill for you and a skill that's becoming increasingly more important in the current landscape. Now, can you guess what it is? And if you can, write it in the comment box below. I'm actually curious what you think it is. But of course, remote facilitation. Remote work isn't a hypothetical future of work anymore. It's here. It's here to stay. More and more companies vow to go fuller remote. More and more companies book remote workshops. So if you want to be a really excellent facilitator, you have got to learn how to effectively facilitate remotely. Now, onto the things that you've probably wondered to yourself, what if you don't take all of those boxes just yet? Are you forever doomed to stay in the facilitation mediocrity? No, facilitation, just like any other skill, can be trained and improved and honed. And there are three simple ways you can improve your facilitation skills starting right now. Number one, sick opportunities to facilitate. Practice makes perfect and facilitation is no exception. So however uncomfortable you might feel, this is honestly the only way you're ever going to get better at it. So volunteer to facilitate your next meeting or volunteer to kick off a project or to facilitate a strategy session. And even though it might feel uncomfortable in the beginning, this will really allow you to get better at facilitating. Number two, double down on your strengths. So what is the one thing you're really good at? Is it activating the group? Is it bringing the energy in? Is it making people comfortable so they're comfortable to share their ideas? Or is it time management and planning? Whatever your strengths may be, concentrate on that instead of pouring over the weaknesses or the lacks you have. And number three, be proactive about your learning.  Learn as much as you can about facilitation and don't be afraid to work on your skills. And if you want to dive even deeper than this video, we have a free facilitation guidebook that is going to teach you even more ways to become great at facilitation. The link is in the description box below. If you have more questions about facilitation, facilitation skills and how you could improve them, make sure to drop them in the comments below. We get a lot of our content ideas from reading your comments. So if you want us to address some of your worries, comment. Don't forget. Do it right now. I'll wait. Did you do it? Okay. Thanks. And there you have it. Those are the skills you really need to nail down if you want to become an excellent facilitator. Implement them one by one and we can guarantee that you will be acing the facilitation game in no time. That's it from us. I'll see you in the next video. Bye.