pre-conference WORKSHOPS

Offering top-notch professional development opportunities for all EXPERIENCE levelS:

Co-founders Dusty, Lindsay, and Ryan combined their diverse backgrounds to create Ink Factory in 2011. Since then, Ink Factory has helped a vast array of organizations (from Fortune 100 companies to non-profits) bring their ideas to life with the help of visual note-taking.

2-DAY WORKSHOPS

  • Level: Foundational to Intermediate

    Dates: January 15-16 2026

    Facilitators: Ink Factory Team

    Jumpstart your visual note-taking journey at Confapolooza with this two-day hands-on workshop led by artists from Ink Factory. Perfect for newcomers and early-career practitioners!

    Learn the fundamentals of listening, drawing, and visual storytelling with world-class guidance. This is your chance to level up from day one.

    Ticket includes morning & afternoon tea & lunch each day.

  • Level: GRA Professional members & Advanced/Experienced practitioners

    Dates: January 15-16 2026

    Facilitators: Ink Factory Team

    Designed for seasoned visual practitioners, this advanced workshop at Confrapolooza offers space for deep dives, tough questions, and real growth. Bring your experience and your curiosity.

    If you're a Pro member of GRA, have done 50+ gigs or have 3+ years professional experience under your belt, this two-day intensive with Ink Factory is your next big leap. Let’s push the field forward – together.

    Ticket includes morning & afternoon tea & lunch each day.

    Early bird price from 2nd June: 1450AUD (after 31 August 1600AUD)

LOCAL LEGENDS: MORNING WORKSHOPS

Workshop 1 (and back by popular demand!)

CHARACTER STYLISATION

When: Saturday 17th Jan, 9am - 12.00pm

Where: Kensington Town Hall

Host: Jimmy Patch

Level: Beginner - Advanced

  • Learn how to leverage the people you draw to enhance your storytelling. Through an understanding of gesture, diversity of character and unique stylisation you can enhance the way you illustrate to grow your capability and audience engagement.

    Topics Covered:

    • Character design

    • Creating dynamic and diverse characters

    • Using modern and on-trend styles

    • Experimenting with shape, gesture and colour

  • Jimmy is an internationally renowned and industry-leading creative, developing unique artwork for a wide range of projects and clients. With more than 14 years of industry experience, Jimmy has travelled the world working with a range of organisations and being featured in publications and exhibitions from the UAE to the USA. Jimmy continually finds new ways to tell engaging visual stories through illustration, animation, graphic recording and installations. He finds passion in seeing the end product come to life in both his solo creative practice and in collaboration with like-minded and talented creatives. His award winning work is driven by bright colours, bold designs and complex detail that is unique and imaginative.

Workshop 2

Develop Your Signature Style

When: Saturday 17th Jan, 9am - 12.00pm

Where: Kensington Town Hall

Host: Jessamy Gee

Level: Beginner - Advanced

  • We all love the power of visual storytelling in our graphic recording, illustrations and sketchnoting, but sometimes it gets hard to move beyond the regular icons and visual metaphors, and extend our visual creativity. If this is you, then join Ben as he shows you some visual thinking formulas you can apply to just about anything you draw, to upgrade your regular icons to 'mini visual stories', for more intrigue and meaning.

    In this workshop, you'll learn:

    • How to pack more storytelling power into just about any simple icon drawing 

    • How to use the FLARE method to generate more imaginative ideas to draw

    • How to apply mini visual storytelling to strategic illustrations

    • How to apply mini visual storytelling in the heat of the moment when you're doing real-time sketchnoting or graphic recording

  • As one of Australia’s leading Graphic Recorders, Melbourne-based Jessamy Gee has developed a unique skill set in listening, synthesising, capturing and communicating information visually.

    She is the Founder and Director of Think in Colour, Founder and former President of Graphic Recorders Australia, author of ‘GR’s Best Mate’ and co-author of ‘The World of Visual Practice’. In 2018, Jessamy was the keynote speaker at the inaugural VizConf Conference in Melbourne. In 2020, she became the first Australian Director to serve on the Board of the International Forum of Visual Practitioners (IFVP).

Workshop 3

ProCREATE MASTERCLASS

When: Saturday 17th Jan, 9am - 12.00pm

Where: Kensington Town Hall

Host: Kate Baxter

Level: Beginner - Intermediate users of ProCreate

  • Level up your digital graphic recordings and illustration work. Let’s go beyond the very basics and explore some of the more advanced aspects of Procreate.

    With time to get creative and use the new skills you’re learning, we’ll start with how to set your canvas up for success, create and edit new brushes, elevate your hand lettering skills and explore the small details that make a big difference. We'll also dive into the magical motion-filled possibilities of GIFS and animation.

  • Kate is a recognised expert within the global community of visual practitioners, with a specialism and passion for digital mediums of capture. With over 20 years of experience in the commercial arts and over 14 years globally as a graphic facilitator, scribing sessions across Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, New York, Houston, Delhi, Toronto, Barcelona and London.

    Using her illustration and design capability to build rich pictures which communicate highly complex concepts on a single page, Kate also has skills in video editing and animation, building large-scale murals and art installations to bring ideas to life and amplify important messages to wider audiences.

    Kate is also a fine artist based in her Macedon Ranges studio where she works to commission and develops her personal practice as a professional artist, printmaker and typographer.