Praise For The Meeting Guy
“David facilitated 12 weeks of online deliberation for Unify America’s pilot Citizen Assembly. This deliberation focused on developing solutions for a local community problem in Montrose, Colorado, and involved working through information, potential actions, estimated budgets, suggested improvements, and finally, preparing to vote on a plan of action.
These weekly two-hour sessions involved a variety of facilitation modes, with mixed participant groups. David consistently created a comfortable and productive space for collaborative problem-solving. He brings energy, relational connection, and depth of content to small group facilitation. David also was a valuable member of our facilitation team, collaborating with Unify America’s staff and with other facilitators on the project. He engaged in weekly meetings to help give feedback on process design, resulting in several changes to better address the needs of our participants in weekly meetups. His enthusiasm and commitment is appreciated by everyone on the Unify America staff.”
Sara D.
Executive Vice President, Deliberation
Unify America
“I had the pleasure of experiencing David’s work at a retreat with our leadership team – a first ever endeavor for us. David guided our time with warmth, kindness and clear-minded reflection. His ability to create a space of belonging and connection was just what our team needed. His gift of encouraging a big vision while working through tactical measures and goals was priceless. I enjoyed every moment of this productive and FUN retreat.”
Amy G.
Director of Wildlife Conservation
Oakland Zoo
“During 2020, Covid-19 wreaked havoc on our community and overseeing LLC. Years old cracks were broken open, and the crevasse was surprisingly vast. A friend recommended David to navigate the conflict towards resolution. When he told me that he had worked with Burning Man org, I was aware of the conflict that he had helped them through and felt confidently hopeful that he could do the same for us.
In preparation, he connected with each individual and created a sense of respect and honor within each of those relationships. In our facilitated meeting he developed clear boundaries, as well as consequences to overstepping those boundaries, which created a safe container to stay focused on the necessary work.
I felt trust in his process, and by the end of the day we had a clear decision of how to move forward with our company. Four years of clunky waves of conflict, including associated lawyer fees and only partially successful mediations, was wrapped up in an afternoon with David’s guidance.
David’s knowledge and experience of communities and alternative cultures was particularly helpful to us. David not only was able to connect to a variety of strong and quirky personalities in our intentional community, but he also had a professional way about him that would be effective in business settings. His process was fluid and conversational, although clearly well structured in its path to success.
Miranda C.
Board Member
Trillium Wilderness Community and Retreat Center
“David delivered impact and value to our 130+ staff during our 2020 Retreat.
His program was a lot of fun!”
John Emmaneel,
SVP General Manager, Chicago
Invision Communications
“Tasked with our company’s first corporate strategy session, our COO and myself were incredibly lucky to find David to guide us through the process. His expertise was critical in gathering important data from our executive team, setting expectations for our attendees, and delivering a powerful one-day session that left participants feeling heard and inspired. The praise from our attendees for David’s excellent facilitation skills was overwhelming!
What started as a seed of an idea turned into a positive, memorable session that solidly delivered on it’s goals.
We’re looking forward to our next work together!
Gina Nowicki, Director of Communications, Crossroads Trading Company
“David Ferrera (The Meeting Guy) delivered significant value on two projects for us this year.
David is a skillful, sensitive meeting facilitator who designed our meetings to meet the distinctive needs of our staff. Our team was pleasantly surprised at a set of results which went beyond our expectations.
The Meeting Guy approached these projects as a passionate, dedicated collaborator. Working together, we co-created content, processes, and found creative ways to weave productivity and authenticity into what has become a refreshed sense of momentum towards our big year-end goals.
He is quite masterful at holding space for people to connect with each other, including those who are more reticent, while facilitating activities and monitoring group dynamics. The Meeting Guy kept our overarching goals present for the team.
These are not simple skills to utilize all at once, and David’s abilities to handle multiple roles are quite evident. We were impressed by his calm, centered approach to group facilitation, his capacity to remain caring and attentive to details, and his great capacity to summarize a lot of information succinctly.
We’re also impressed by David’s warmth and sense of humor.
Overall, we hope to have the opportunity to keep working with him for future retreats and other meetings..”
Mark Kelleher, Associate Vice President of Development, San Francisco State University
“I’ve witnessed literally hundreds of meeting and retreat/event facilitators over the past 20 years all over the country, and David Ferrera is among the top 5 facilitators I’ve ever seen.
He does this partly via his long experience, but his sincere and contagious passion and his deep ability to drive value in the direction that the producers have requested is extraordinary. Because he holds such strength in this area, he will only work on those projects that inspire him.
I believe his facilitation of [our upcoming] event will be incredible for everyone.”
David Rose, Advisory Board – Public Banking Institute and Founder – Unified Field Corporation, Nutritive Dehydration Centers
“Our business interactions had come to an impasse and we realized to get through the challenges we would need an outside mediator. By chance, one of our LLC partners knew of David and his past success at helping clients navigate obstacles, and rifts in communication. In one day, David was able to help us make progress that had previously stalled us for months. The way he set ground rules was very effective. The session went well beyond our expectations. We’re still riding the wave of good communication and solution oriented action. THANK YOU!”
Douglas C.
Founder & Partner: Mindshare
Founder: Synn Labs, Tuxedo Tyrants
I want to express my gratitude for the excellent work by David Ferrera and what a pleasure it has been to work with him. I recommend his professional skills as an instructional designer and his highly pro-active and resourceful style. David is very creative and resourceful, with the business savvy to work with management and team members.
Laurie P, Owner,
Manager, Human Resources
Gap, Inc.
The Meeting Guy’s unique knack for helping a team inquire and find what is most important and impactful, and then bring their own solutions forward and into focus is astounding. David’s incredible facility with deeply understanding all perspectives equally, paired with his excellent communication skills, as well as an uncanny ability to stay grounded in the midst of what others think of as battle, creates win-win revolutions out of what have seemed to me as irreconcilable differences. I’ve worked with a lot of incredible coaches and facilitators and I’ve never seen anything like it. David is second to none!
– David Schlussel, Owner, YogiLifeCoach
“The Meeting Guy challenged us to identify the core of our team’s communication issues When things got tough, he helped us leverage emotions and move back to productivity.I’m impressed with the results.”
M. E.
– President, Birkenstock USA
“David Ferrera facilitated the Williamson-Dickie Mfg Co. annual off-site, multi-day Licensee Sales & Marketing meeting in October 2011. David added significant value to the operating structure and helped our team achieve the intended results. We were able to utilize David as an independent, third-party individual to keep the participants focused and engaged. He added a new level of professionalism to the structure of the meeting and invested himself personally in our meeting’s success.
David was actively involved in the pre-meeting process of developing theme, content and flow. His presence and many contributions made an impact on the results from the meeting. He kept a very diverse group, with multiple agendas and points of view, on-task by setting and maintaining the meeting pace and agenda. David held space for people to connect with each other and facilitated activities while monitoring group dynamics and keeping the overarching goals of the meeting at the top line.
These are not simple skills to utilize all at once, and David’s abilities to handle multiple roles were quite evident. We were impressed by his patience during group facilitation and attentive manner. David kept a sense of humor during the meeting to help the participants feel comfortable and added to their willingness to participate. David’s meeting facilitation skills, especially during the lengthy and arduous pre-meeting planning sessions, is an asset to any organization looking for improved collaboration and meeting flow. Overall, we are very pleased with the results and look forward to the opportunity of working with
him again in the future.”
Dickies Licensing Team
Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company
“David’s meeting planning was excellent. We had participants from many different stake holder groups. At times the meeting became heated, but David kept his cool. He helped us relax and get back to productivity.
The Meeting Guy.. That’s the perfect name for him!”
J.R. – District Ranger
USDA Forest Service
“David Ferrera, aka “The Meeting Guy”, blessed us with his presence and skills as a Master of Ceremonies for Art of Community 2011, a 3-day immersion conference produced by the Fellowship for Intentional Community.
As the event coordinator, I feel very lucky to have had David on our team. While a good speaker could fill that role without much personal investment, David went above and beyond, approaching this project as a passionate, dedicated collaborator. He was not only a caring and energetic host during the event, but was actively involved in the process of developing the event theme and found creative ways to weave that theme into several aspects of our event.
David’s presence and many contributions were absolutely vital to the overall success of Art of Community. Holding space for people to connect with each other and facilitating activities while monitoring group dynamics and keeping in mind the overarching goals of the event are not simple skills to utilize all at once, and David’s abilities to handle multiple roles are quite evident.
We were impressed by his calm, centered approach to group facilitation, his manner of being so caring and attentive, as well as his warmth and sense of humor. Overall, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to keep working with him on our future events.
It was a delightful experience to work with such a consistently supportive, professional and creative individual. David is an asset to any organization that desires to have the process of group interactions well facilitated and space created for inspired collaboration.”
Susan Frank
– Executive Coordinator, The Art of Community and Fellowship for Intentional Community
“It is with great pleasure that I write a testimonial about my work with a man with a strong core, David Ferrera. David Ferrera is a man of his word and I salute him for that. He is a bright individual who thinks outside the box and yet always listens to make sure his clients’ unique thoughts are being received and valued.
Today I ‘m more focused and determined because of the sessions I have completed with him, both in the way of career as well as with personal endeavors. David Ferrera would be an invaluable asset to anyone he chooses to work with.”
Elias Magoulas, BA, RAS
– Sonoma County Mental Health Specialist
“I have enjoyed working with David Ferrera as my business coach. He’s very easy to talk to and has given me several useful ideas and different perspectives. On top of this, I feel that he genuinely cares about my professional success and the growth of my organization.
I lead an economic research center at my university. When we created a budget and new planning documents, David kept me focused on the importance of developing a core message about the benefits that my organization provides to our clients, our university, and our community. He calls this the “irresistible offer” about our value that I can use when talking with potential clients and university administrators.
I highly recommend David as a business and professional coach!”
Bill Kinsey, Director
– Economic Research, University of Virginia Center for Urban Development
“David did an amazing job facilitating our recent Village Builders retreat. As a new organization that is still clarifying our vision and determining roles and responsibilities, there was much work to accomplish during this retreat. David played an instrumental role in moving our group forward a in strengthening our capacity to work together as an effective team. I was impressed with David’s preparation for the retreat, which included a pre-survey and working with the participants to get clear on our goals and desired outcomes for the retreat. He came to the retreat equipped with a broad toolkit of activities and resources to engage participants, and proved to be a highly skilled facilitator. One particular strength that stood out was his ability to reflect insights that emerged during the retreat back to our group. I enthusiastically recommend David’s facilitation services to other organizations and businesses.”
Maggie Flemingy, Co-Director
– Transition, US
“We are pleased to recommend David Ferrera. 
David recently facilitated an annual one day workshop at our community center at New Brighton Cohousing. With David’s guidance, we enjoyed the day connectin with each other more deeply. We also tackled some ongoing issues and took first steps with them, using tools that David taught us. We benefitted from his discernment and expertise, as well as his demeanor of attentiveness, patience and respect.
Prior to the retreat, David met with our leadership team from the community. We had the goal of increasing the community’s overall morale. David also took the time to meet with each ndividual and get information from them, so he knew what each of us wanted to accomplish for the day as related to our overall goal.
In the brief amount of time we were together, it was amazing how much we accomplished. We are impressed with David’s skill in planning the meeting with meaningful activities at all times, activities which developed our listening, self-expression, deep reflection, and hopefullness about our community.
We came away with a renewed spirit in our community. We are taking steps to keep practicing the valuable tools to help us with knowing each other more deeply, open-hearted communication, and respect for differences – while we make practical decisions amidst differing levels of agreement and disagreement ”
Nancy Rene, Leadership Team
New Brighton Cohousing
“David did a great job engaging the students. My initial curiosity was about whether or not they would find him relatable. However, his touching stories created a bond of trust, and the fun interactive excercises really brought it home for them. I liked the hands-on aspect of it as well. Well done!”
Andrew Leonard, Vice President of Programs, LIME Foundation
David Ferrera was able to provide us with exactly this, effectively allowing us to build much-needed capacity within our small organization.
Alignment within an organization is a tricky thing — it has more to do with inspiration and motivation than it does with planning and project management. In other words, it’s certainly not something that can be mandated. David provided our organization with opportunities to achieve pervasive alignment by forming a partnership with the retreat planners, encouraging and supporting all participants, and otherwise taking measures to ensuring our individual and collective success.
I look forward to working with David in other retreats because he’s a trustworthy and capable professional. I wholeheartedly endorse his work and recommend him to other organizations making strategic internal changes.”
Marc Armstrong
– President – Commonomics
(former) – Executive Director – Public Banking Institute
Dr. Charlotte Massey, ND,
Montana Integrative Medicine
Mathias Polias,
Owner, WEBofONE
Julia Bystrova
Ash Weiss- Core Team Lead
– Sebastopol Village Building Convergence
About a year ago, David Ferrera facilitated our annual all-day meeting at our cohousing community.
I am very pleased to recommend David to you.
We on the planning committee knew what we wanted the meeting to achieve: “Improved morale” – but we had not ideas about how to do it! David formulated an effective approach which was successful in accomplishing what we requested. Even though individuals in our community had different needs, the agenda David created gave space for us to improve connections with each other, as well as helping us come away from the day with planned strategies for next steps in dealing with practical issues that had created conflice and a feeling of stagnation.
Some of the things that impressed us the most about David include:
- David is a good questioner and listener during planning, which led him to produce an agenda that met our needs rather than using a cookie cutter format.
- David was flexible and listened well during the meeting itself. He raised good questions about what directions we wanted to take, and listened to how the group was feeling.
- David really modeled the type of interactions during the meeting that welcomed authenticity and made individuals feel heard by him and the rest of the group.
- David worked wiht us for only one day, yet left us with tools, strategies, and inspiration to move forward with actions that have been healing for our community.
- David is a really nice guy! You would like him as a colleague, neighbor or family member.
To summarize, David helped us connect emotionally and to bring back some of the generous spirit towards each other that we had lost in our community over the years. The workshop has improved our community morale. We also have moved forward with actions on practical challenges, and these strategies have really paid off.
Fern Selzer,
Steering Committee Team member, Co-housing community.
“Our business interactions had come to an impasse and we realized to get through the challenges we would need an outside mediator. By chance, one of our LLC partners knew of David and his past success at helping clients navigate obstacles, and rifts in communication. In one day, David was able to help us make progress that had previously stalled us for months. The way he set ground rules was very effective. The session went well beyond our expectations. We’re still riding the wave of good communication and solution oriented action. THANK YOU!”
Douglas C.
Founder & Partner: Mindshare
Founder: Synn Labs, Tuxedo Tyrants
“David’s meeting planning was excellent. We had participants from many different stake holder groups. At times the meeting became heated, but David kept his cool. He helped us relax and get back to productivity.
The Meeting Guy.. That’s the perfect name for him!”
J.R. – District Ranger
USDA Forest Service
“David Ferrera, aka “The Meeting Guy”, blessed us with his presence and skills as a Master of Ceremonies for Art of Community 2011, a 3-day immersion conference produced by the Fellowship for Intentional Community.
As the event coordinator, I feel very lucky to have had David on our team. While a good speaker could fill that role without much personal investment, David went above and beyond, approaching this project as a passionate, dedicated collaborator. He was not only a caring and energetic host during the event, but was actively involved in the process of developing the event theme and found creative ways to weave that theme into several aspects of our event.
David’s presence and many contributions were absolutely vital to the overall success of Art of Community. Holding space for people to connect with each other and facilitating activities while monitoring group dynamics and keeping in mind the overarching goals of the event are not simple skills to utilize all at once, and David’s abilities to handle multiple roles are quite evident.
We were impressed by his calm, centered approach to group facilitation, his manner of being so caring and attentive, as well as his warmth and sense of humor. Overall, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to keep working with him on our future events.
It was a delightful experience to work with such a consistently supportive, professional and creative individual. David is an asset to any organization that desires to have the process of group interactions well facilitated and space created for inspired collaboration.”
Susan Frank
– Executive Coordinator, The Art of Community and Fellowship for Intentional Community
“It is with great pleasure that I write a testimonial about my work with a man with a strong core, David Ferrera. David Ferrera is a man of his word and I salute him for that. He is a bright individual who thinks outside the box and yet always listens to make sure his clients’ unique thoughts are being received and valued.
Today I ‘m more focused and determined because of the sessions I have completed with him, both in the way of career as well as with personal endeavors. David Ferrera would be an invaluable asset to anyone he chooses to work with.”
Elias Magoulas, BA, RAS
– Sonoma County Mental Health Specialist
“I have enjoyed working with David Ferrera as my business coach. He’s very easy to talk to and has given me several useful ideas and different perspectives. On top of this, I feel that he genuinely cares about my professional success and the growth of my organization.
I lead an economic research center at my university. When we created a budget and new planning documents, David kept me focused on the importance of developing a core message about the benefits that my organization provides to our clients, our university, and our community. He calls this the “irresistible offer” about our value that I can use when talking with potential clients and university administrators.
I highly recommend David as a business and professional coach!”
Bill Kinsey, Director
– Economic Research, University of Virginia Center for Urban Development
“David did an amazing job facilitating our recent Village Builders retreat. As a new organization that is still clarifying our vision and determining roles and responsibilities, there was much work to accomplish during this retreat. David played an instrumental role in moving our group forward a in strengthening our capacity to work together as an effective team. I was impressed with David’s preparation for the retreat, which included a pre-survey and working with the participants to get clear on our goals and desired outcomes for the retreat. He came to the retreat equipped with a broad toolkit of activities and resources to engage participants, and proved to be a highly skilled facilitator. One particular strength that stood out was his ability to reflect insights that emerged during the retreat back to our group. I enthusiastically recommend David’s facilitation services to other organizations and businesses.”
Maggie Flemingy, Co-Director
– Transition, US
“We are pleased to recommend David Ferrera.
David recently facilitated an annual one day workshop at our community center at New Brighton Cohousing. With David’s guidance, we enjoyed the day connectin with each other more deeply. We also tackled some ongoing issues and took first steps with them, using tools that David taught us. We benefitted from his discernment and expertise, as well as his demeanor of attentiveness, patience and respect.
Prior to the retreat, David met with our leadership team from the community. We had the goal of increasing the community’s overall morale. David also took the time to meet with each ndividual and get information from them, so he knew what each of us wanted to accomplish for the day as related to our overall goal.
In the brief amount of time we were together, it was amazing how much we accomplished. We are impressed with David’s skill in planning the meeting with meaningful activities at all times, activities which developed our listening, self-expression, deep reflection, and hopefullness about our community.
We came away with a renewed spirit in our community. We are taking steps to keep practicing the valuable tools to help us with knowing each other more deeply, open-hearted communication, and respect for differences – while we make practical decisions amidst differing levels of agreement and disagreement ”
Nancy Rene, Leadership Team
New Brighton Cohousing
“David did a great job engaging the students. My initial curiosity was about whether or not they would find him relatable. However, his touching stories created a bond of trust, and the fun interactive excercises really brought it home for them. I liked the hands-on aspect of it as well. Well done!”
Andrew Leonard, Vice President of Programs, LIME Foundation
David Ferrera was able to provide us with exactly this, effectively allowing us to build much-needed capacity within our small organization.
Alignment within an organization is a tricky thing — it has more to do with inspiration and motivation than it does with planning and project management. In other words, it’s certainly not something that can be mandated. David provided our organization with opportunities to achieve pervasive alignment by forming a partnership with the retreat planners, encouraging and supporting all participants, and otherwise taking measures to ensuring our individual and collective success.
I look forward to working with David in other retreats because he’s a trustworthy and capable professional. I wholeheartedly endorse his work and recommend him to other organizations making strategic internal changes.”
Marc Armstrong
– President – Commonomics
(former) – Executive Director – Public Banking Institute
Dr. Charlotte Massey, ND,
Montana Integrative Medicine
Mathias Polias,
Owner, WEBofONE
Julia Bystrova
Ash Weiss- Core Team Lead
– Sebastopol Village Building Convergence
I am very pleased to recommend David to you.
We on the planning committee knew what we wanted the meeting to achieve: “Improved morale” – but we had not ideas about how to do it! David formulated an effective approach which was successful in accomplishing what we requested. Even though individuals in our community had different needs, the agenda David created gave space for us to improve connections with each other, as well as helping us come away from the day with planned strategies for next steps in dealing with practical issues that had created conflice and a feeling of stagnation.
Some of the things that impressed us the most about David include:
- David is a good questioner and listener during planning, which led him to produce an agenda that met our needs rather than using a cookie cutter format.
- David was flexible and listened well during the meeting itself. He raised good questions about what directions we wanted to take, and listened to how the group was feeling.
- David really modeled the type of interactions during the meeting that welcomed authenticity and made individuals feel heard by him and the rest of the group.
- David worked wiht us for only one day, yet left us with tools, strategies, and inspiration to move forward with actions that have been healing for our community.
- David is a really nice guy! You would like him as a colleague, neighbor or family member.
To summarize, David helped us connect emotionally and to bring back some of the generous spirit towards each other that we had lost in our community over the years. The workshop has improved our community morale. We also have moved forward with actions on practical challenges, and these strategies have really paid off.
Fern Selzer,
Steering Committee Team member, Co-housing community.
“Our business interactions had come to an impasse and we realized to get through the challenges we would need an outside mediator. By chance, one of our LLC partners knew of David and his past success at helping clients navigate obstacles, and rifts in communication. In one day, David was able to help us make progress that had previously stalled us for months. The way he set ground rules was very effective. The session went well beyond our expectations. We’re still riding the wave of good communication and solution oriented action. THANK YOU!”
Douglas C.
Founder & Partner: Mindshare
Founder: Synn Labs, Tuxedo Tyrants
“David delivered impact and value to our 130+ staff during our 2020 Retreat.
His program was a lot of fun!”
John Emmaneel,
SVP General Manager, Chicago
Invision Communications
“Tasked with our company’s first corporate strategy session, our COO and myself were incredibly lucky to find David to guide us through the process. His expertise was critical in gathering important data from our executive team, setting expectations for our attendees, and delivering a powerful one-day session that left participants feeling heard and inspired. The praise from our attendees for David’s excellent facilitation skills was overwhelming!
What started as a seed of an idea turned into a positive, memorable session that solidly delivered on it’s goals.
We’re looking forward to our next work together!
Gina Nowicki, Director of Communications, Crossroads Trading Company
“David Ferrera (The Meeting Guy) delivered significant value on two projects for us this year.
David is a skillful, sensitive meeting facilitator who designed our meetings to meet the distinctive needs of our staff. Our team was pleasantly surprised at a set of results which went beyond our expectations.
The Meeting Guy approached these projects as a passionate, dedicated collaborator. Working together, we co-created content, processes, and found creative ways to weave productivity and authenticity into what has become a refreshed sense of momentum towards our big year-end goals.
He is quite masterful at holding space for people to connect with each other, including those who are more reticent, while facilitating activities and monitoring group dynamics. The Meeting Guy kept our overarching goals present for the team.
These are not simple skills to utilize all at once, and David’s abilities to handle multiple roles are quite evident. We were impressed by his calm, centered approach to group facilitation, his capacity to remain caring and attentive to details, and his great capacity to summarize a lot of information succinctly.
We’re also impressed by David’s warmth and sense of humor.
Overall, we hope to have the opportunity to keep working with him for future retreats and other meetings..”
Mark Kelleher, Associate Vice President of Development, San Francisco State University
“I’ve witnessed literally hundreds of meeting and retreat/event facilitators over the past 20 years all over the country, and David Ferrera is among the top 5 facilitators I’ve ever seen.
He does this partly via his long experience, but his sincere and contagious passion and his deep ability to drive value in the direction that the producers have requested is extraordinary. Because he holds such strength in this area, he will only work on those projects that inspire him.
I believe his facilitation of [our upcoming] event will be incredible for everyone.”
David Rose, Advisory Board – Public Banking Institute and Founder – Unified Field Corporation, Nutritive Dehydration Centers
The Meeting Guy’s unique knack for helping a team inquire and find what is most important and impactful, and then bring their own solutions forward and into focus is astounding. David’s incredible facility with deeply understanding all perspectives equally, paired with his excellent communication skills, as well as an uncanny ability to stay grounded in the midst of what others think of as battle, creates win-win revolutions out of what have seemed to me as irreconcilable differences. I’ve worked with a lot of incredible coaches and facilitators and I’ve never seen anything like it. David is second to none!
– David Schlussel, Owner, YogiLifeCoach
“The Meeting Guy challenged us to identify the core of our team’s communication issues When things got tough, he helped us leverage emotions and move back to productivity.I’m impressed with the results.”
M. E.
– President, Birkenstock USA
“David Ferrera facilitated the Williamson-Dickie Mfg Co. annual off-site, multi-day Licensee Sales & Marketing meeting in October 2011. David added significant value to the operating structure and helped our team achieve the intended results. We were able to utilize David as an independent, third-party individual to keep the participants focused and engaged. He added a new level of professionalism to the structure of the meeting and invested himself personally in our meeting’s success.
David was actively involved in the pre-meeting process of developing theme, content and flow. His presence and many contributions made an impact on the results from the meeting. He kept a very diverse group, with multiple agendas and points of view, on-task by setting and maintaining the meeting pace and agenda. David held space for people to connect with each other and facilitated activities while monitoring group dynamics and keeping the overarching goals of the meeting at the top line.
These are not simple skills to utilize all at once, and David’s abilities to handle multiple roles were quite evident. We were impressed by his patience during group facilitation and attentive manner. David kept a sense of humor during the meeting to help the participants feel comfortable and added to their willingness to participate. David’s meeting facilitation skills, especially during the lengthy and arduous pre-meeting planning sessions, is an asset to any organization looking for improved collaboration and meeting flow. Overall, we are very pleased with the results and look forward to the opportunity of working with
him again in the future.”
Dickies Licensing Team
Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company
“We are pleased to recommend David Ferrera.
David recently facilitated an annual one day workshop at our community center at New Brighton Cohousing. With David’s guidance, we enjoyed the day connectin with each other more deeply. We also tackled some ongoing issues and took first steps with them, using tools that David taught us. We benefitted from his discernment and expertise, as well as his demeanor of attentiveness, patience and respect.
Prior to the retreat, David met with our leadership team from the community. We had the goal of increasing the community’s overall morale. David also took the time to meet with each ndividual and get information from them, so he knew what each of us wanted to accomplish for the day as related to our overall goal.
In the brief amount of time we were together, it was amazing how much we accomplished. We are impressed with David’s skill in planning the meeting with meaningful activities at all times, activities which developed our listening, self-expression, deep reflection, and hopefullness about our community.
We came away with a renewed spirit in our community. We are taking steps to keep practicing the valuable tools to help us with knowing each other more deeply, open-hearted communication, and respect for differences – while we make practical decisions amidst differing levels of agreement and disagreement ”
Nancy Rene, Leadership Team
New Brighton Cohousing
“David did a great job engaging the students. My initial curiosity was about whether or not they would find him relatable. However, his touching stories created a bond of trust, and the fun interactive excercises really brought it home for them. I liked the hands-on aspect of it as well. Well done!”
Andrew Leonard, Vice President of Programs, LIME Foundation
David Ferrera was able to provide us with exactly this, effectively allowing us to build much-needed capacity within our small organization.
Alignment within an organization is a tricky thing — it has more to do with inspiration and motivation than it does with planning and project management. In other words, it’s certainly not something that can be mandated. David provided our organization with opportunities to achieve pervasive alignment by forming a partnership with the retreat planners, encouraging and supporting all participants, and otherwise taking measures to ensuring our individual and collective success.
I look forward to working with David in other retreats because he’s a trustworthy and capable professional. I wholeheartedly endorse his work and recommend him to other organizations making strategic internal changes.”
Marc Armstrong
– President – Commonomics
(former) – Executive Director – Public Banking Institute
Dr. Charlotte Massey, ND,
Montana Integrative Medicine
Mathias Polias,
Owner, WEBofONE