Final bikablo meetup 2025
in December 2025, we came together for an international meetup with a simple but joyful idea: to draw together.
We offered four different group sessions, each one just as popular as the next. Thanks to four talented trainers from four different countries, every session was guided with its own unique perspective, making the experience as diverse as it was inspiring.
In this blog article, every trainer shares their experience.
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Xiaoli – xmas in chinese
It’s soooo great to have an international spirit in the room (well, breakout room in this case). A lot of people wanted to know how xmas is being celebrated in China. Some already had experience with Chinese traditions. Unfortunately the meetup was so late in the Chinese evening, that we did not have any other Chinese participants.
We drew different easy to follow christmas trees and horses for 2026, the year of the horse☺️
Once again, I experienced, with the pen/marker in the hands:
it’s easier to bring people with different cultures together, and with more joy, interest and inspiration.
Francesco – a gift to someone
In our session we decided to have a moment of deep soul filling thoughtfulness and gift the entirety of the time to create a visual token of gratitude for someone that we would have liked to thank but for whatever reason we could not reach. That person could have been ourselves.
We started with one minute of mindful silence after which everyone could have decided whether to keep their videos or off, depending on how they preferred to live the process.
There was no additional guidance nor suggestions on what styles to use. I was the session host here and decided to leverage a variety of techniques to create a mood board in homage to the mentor who introduced me to my current career as visual practitioner years ago, sure that he would have appreciated the playfulness of mixing markers with chalks, covering mistakes with actual post-its and using different alphabets as decorative elements in addition to bikablo and free-flow icons.
One participant decided to think about a place they love and let their emotions and memories flow together with the smooth flow of watercolors. Delicate and soothing, creating a house in the middle of a natural green landscape.
Another participant went almost the opposite way, choosing a digital device and typographic techniques to write a love letter around a big central heart to thank the person who many years ago donated her organs to her husband, allowing him to live until that day.
No tears were shed but a lot of hearts resonated aloud when the story was revealed. Another color of the magic of visualization.
Jill – holiday cards
Oh my gosh, we had fun! After we checked in, I offered a few thoughts about using visuals to finish up the “old” year and welcome in the “new” one, and shared examples from my own collection. In our time together, we talked, brainstormed, dove into questions about techniques, and drew. Our wide-ranging experience included how to:
- hold the marker for different effects
- work with specific iconography (making symmetrical Christmas trees, simple menorahs, candles, and suns)
- convey concepts (celebration, gratitude, transition, challenge, and more)
- develop different lettering styles
- create new border patterns.
And, I highlighted some of the signature aspects of the bikablo method— working in 2D, how we draw our figures, and minding the gap. It was a delightful whirlwind of activity!
Frank – looking back, looking forward
Our group focused on visual approaches to look back at 2025 or to look forward to 2026. As there are so many different approaches, we just gave several a try 🙂 We went where the energy led us and spent more time on some approaches than others.
I sampled three to give you an idea.
It has been a great experience to work in this international environment, being brought together by visualization. We are aiming for more meetups like this! You can find many recorded meetup sessions in the meetup-kit inside the bikablo app.
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