Mapping event participation

A few weeks ago I created the concept map shown below to help people find some of the articles I've posted about network building, network analysis, social capital, and community building.  

I included it in this March 2025 article titled, "Mapping ideas, information and networks".  

I follow the KUMU.IO account on LinkedIn and see regular updates where they share new projects. 

This week I saw one that really resonated with me.  It was a map showing participation in the February 2025 SOWTH conference.  The image below of one slide, shows how participation in the event expanded the network for many attendees. 

The SOWTH conference was a gathering in Atlanta, Georgia of more than 1,200 regional producers and food actors.  Over three days, the group "recommitted themselves to sowing a stronger, more sustainable agricultural movement across the U.S. South".  Visit this page and read Kumu's description of the project and find the link to the full Kumu Presentation. 

Another example of mapping participation is this KUMU map created for a Neighborhood Economics Conference held in Chicago in late September 2025. 

Since the mid 2000s I've been trying to develop tools that would visualize and map participation in Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted every six months from May 1994 to May 2015, to demonstrate that they should receive financial support, and to convince others to use the same network analysis process in their own events.

In 2010 a graduate of DePaul University created some maps and blog-articles showing participation in 2008 and 2009 conferences. You can see her articles here.

In 2015 a team of students from different parts of the country adopted the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC as their client in an Information Visualization MOOC (#IVMOOC) hosted by Indiana University. Here's the final report from the work they were able to do in such a short period of time. On this page you can see how goals for this project were communicated.

I shared the data for the all 42 conferences with the IVMOOC team while at the same time inviting students/faculty from universities anywhere in the world to also work with this data. As the analysis of the 2008-09 conferences shows, you can look at this information in many different ways and create quite a few articles making sense of the visualizations.

The IVMOOC team looked at this data from a spatial perspective, using GIS mapping applications, as well as from a social network analysis perspective. This demonstrates a wide range of opportunities for future researchers and writers.

My goal is that as you do this you will convince others who host conferences and large gatherings that focus on poverty, race, inequality, workforce development, health disparities, etc. to apply these tools for their own events. Furthermore, instead of looking for organizers in Chicago, look for organizers in your own city.

Imagine a web site where maps like these from New York, London, LA, Houston, Paris and many other cities who struggle with these same issues are aggregated, so that people who attend different events in each city can easily connect with each other, or can connect with people and ideas from different cities.

While I've not made any progress since 2015 on mapping the events I hosted I've continued to share this idea via several blog articles which you can find here, here and here. You'll find many more in the network building, network analysis and networking collections. 

One idea I want to emphasize is that we need to use this data to not only know who participated, but who was missing.  The concept map below is included in this article.  

Planners need to use maps like this to determine what talents and networks need to be included in their events and conversations.  For instance, talking about building a new playground is good, but if donors and/or policy-makers are not in the conversation, it may be more difficult to find the money needed to pay for the project.  If participation maps don't show these people involved, then an effort needs to be targeted to enlist them.    I'm not sure if I've seen any examples of maps used this way. 

If you visit the resource section of the Tutor/Mentor library you'll find links to more than 2000 organizations and individuals.  Imagine having all of these people connected in active, on-going, learning and innovation networks aimed at helping kids from every high poverty area in the world move safely through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers where they can raise their own kids free of poverty and systemic racism. 

Read this article and see the eLearning goals that I first posted in the early 2000s.  While I've not held the conferences since 2015 this is still my goal.

Now, Kumu and others are beginning to introduce me to a new generation of technologists, who are spending time collecting information and creating maps that share what they are learning.  I point to their work for the same reason I point to lists of Chicago and national youth serving organizations.  They can learn from each other. They can help each other.  And, they can share the work each is doing so more people find it and use it.

I encourage you to follow the Kumu "Project of the Week" posts on LinkedIn.  Visit their website and view the Gallery of Kumu projects.   And visit this section and this section of the Tutor/Mentor library where I point to many articles about concept mapping and visualization. 

My work with mapping was highlighted in this October 2015 Chicago Tribune article.   

I'd love to see dozens of future articles writing about how mapping event participation led to stronger, on-going networks, learning from each other and innovating solutions to the complex problems facing the U.S. and the world in 2025.

Thanks for reading. Please share this with your networks and connect with me on social media (see links here). 

And, if you're able, visit this page and make a contribution to my "Fund T/MI" campaign.