civic & participant Engagement
Whether the setting is board meetings, community meetings, or professional conferences, David's skill as a meeting strategist and facilitator equip him to turn typical convening into something more memorable, and often extraordinary.
Board meetings
When a board of directors is over 10 people, maintaining board member engagement can be a challenge. One of David's primary skills is in designing and executing group processes that productively elicit the perspective of each members in a group in service of better overall decision making.
Innovative Community town Halls
Since the early part of the century, David has been at the center of innovative town hall meetings where scores, hundreds, or thousands of people gather in a process where every person has a coherent small group conversation that is connected to large group results through the savvy use of technology. Such meetings are vital when a community wants to clarify the problems facing it as well as discern the solutions that will be the most effective and sustainable. The video below, produced by a now defunct organization called AmericaSpeaks, explains the key elements of an innovative participatory town hall meeting.
A panel on entreprenuership at the National Medical Association annual conference.
Panels, Convenings, and Conferences
Unless high levels of skill are brought to bear, panels and conferences can be deathly boring, even if the topics are important. David works with conveners of meetings to clarify their objectives of gatherings and find ways to keep panels and conferences more engaging, dynamic, and memorable. One tool he has used multiple times is the People's Plenary, which is a 15 - 25 minute experience where each participant at a conference uses audience polling technology to learn about ho their background and perspective compares to everyone else present. The People's Plenary is a great way to create a sense of community at a conference, and to excite participants about the upcoming conference content. Below are video highlights of a People's Plenary at a conference for Princeton University alumni.