Facilitation Lab
Facilitation Lab HQ
Practice Playground
Live Online
With Douglas Ferguson
Foster a vibrant community where facilitators can connect, pose questions, and share stories; all about facilitation.
Open Connections brings together facilitators from diverse backgrounds and levels of experience. This space is dedicated to nurturing meaningful exchanges and fostering deep connections among community members and new visitors alike.
Whether you are a seasoned expert or just beginning your facilitation journey, Open Connections offers an inclusive environment to engage with peers, exchange ideas, and build professional networks.
Open Connections brings together facilitators from diverse backgrounds and levels of experience. This space is dedicated to nurturing meaningful exchanges and fostering deep connections among community members and new visitors alike.
Whether you are a seasoned expert or just beginning your facilitation journey, Open Connections offers an inclusive environment to engage with peers, exchange ideas, and build professional networks.
Live Online
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About Facilitation Lab HQ
Facilitation Lab HQ is a monthly virtual meetup for changemakers, collaborative leaders, and facilitators across North America. Our purpose is to foster learning by doing in a psychologically safe environment, building a strong and supportive community of peers across the region.
As Regional Lead, Douglas cultivates a space for experimentation and collaborative leadership development, with a focus on people-powered organisational change.
Facilitation Lab HQ is a global network of regions, including other virtual meetups organized by continent and in-person meetups organized by cities. See the region list for a full list of all active meetups.
You can also join us in the Facilitation Lab Community Hub to stay connected with the facilitation community and get reminders of all upcoming events.
Agenda
Impromptu Networking
Engage with everyone in the community during a quick round of introductions to network and begin our time together
Guest Facilitator Session
Experience the lead facilitator's activity & method to engage together as a community.
Rose, Thorn, Bud Critique
Share your feedback as a community and offer expressions of tangible takeaways to our lead facilitator.
After Hours
Stay awhile & chat post-session about your experience in the Lab.
Who Should Attend
Experienced & New Facilitators
Who want to level up their facilitation skills and enhance their facilitation tool belt
Chiefs of Staff
Who want to align and support initiatives across departments
Product & Project Managers
Who want to steer stakeholders to the best outcomes
Teachers & Trainers
Who want to design the most impactful learning
Key Takeaways
Discover what withholds are getting in the way of your life, career, and intimacy
Learn how to transform a Raw Withhold into a Skilled Withhold
Get a peek into the most advanced conscious communication skills training available
Practice a facilitation skill to have a room of crickets speak up
Featured Facilitators
Douglas Ferguson
Douglas is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 26 years of experience. He is president of Voltage Control, a facilitation academy that develops leaders through certifications, workshops, and organizational coaching focused on facilitation mastery, innovation, and play. He has helped transform leaders, innovators, and creatives from Nike, U.S. SOCOM, Google, the Air Force, Gap, Tesla, MSU, Church & Dwight, Apple, Adobe, Dropbox, Fidelity, Vrbo, Liberty Mutual, Humana, and SAIC.
Prior to Voltage Control, Douglas held CTO positions at numerous Austin startups, where he led product and engineering teams using agile, lean, and human-centered design principles. While CTO at Twyla, Douglas worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints, and now brings this experience and process to companies everywhere.
Douglas is currently active in the Austin startup community, where he serves on the board of several non-profits, mentors startups, and advises early-stage ventures.
Douglas is a thought leader and often writes and talks about facilitation, leadership, collaboration, innovation, culture, meetings, and Design Sprints. He is also the author of four books: Magical Meetings, Beyond the Prototype, How to Remix Anything, and Start Within, He has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Innovation Leader, and is a regular contributor to The Future Shapers. He publishes a weekly podcast called Facilitation Lab.
When not facilitating or coaching facilitators, you might find Douglas patching up his Modular Synth, boxing, doing pilates, and taking photographs. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Douglas is a thought leader and master facilitator of Design Sprints, Innovation Acceleration, Team Alignment, Meeting Systems, Culture Transitions, and Change Transformations. He is also the author of four books: Magical Meetings, Beyond the Prototype, How to Remix Anything, and Start Within, He has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Innovation Leader, and is a regular contributor to The Future Shapers. He publishes a weekly podcast called Control the Room.
When not facilitating or coaching facilitators you might find Douglas patching up his Modular Synth, boxing, doing pilates, and taking photographs. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Prior to Voltage Control, Douglas held CTO positions at numerous Austin startups, where he led product and engineering teams using agile, lean, and human-centered design principles. While CTO at Twyla, Douglas worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints, and now brings this experience and process to companies everywhere.
Douglas is currently active in the Austin startup community, where he serves on the board of several non-profits, mentors startups, and advises early-stage ventures.
Douglas is a thought leader and often writes and talks about facilitation, leadership, collaboration, innovation, culture, meetings, and Design Sprints. He is also the author of four books: Magical Meetings, Beyond the Prototype, How to Remix Anything, and Start Within, He has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Innovation Leader, and is a regular contributor to The Future Shapers. He publishes a weekly podcast called Facilitation Lab.
When not facilitating or coaching facilitators, you might find Douglas patching up his Modular Synth, boxing, doing pilates, and taking photographs. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Douglas is a thought leader and master facilitator of Design Sprints, Innovation Acceleration, Team Alignment, Meeting Systems, Culture Transitions, and Change Transformations. He is also the author of four books: Magical Meetings, Beyond the Prototype, How to Remix Anything, and Start Within, He has been published in Forbes, Fast Company, Innovation Leader, and is a regular contributor to The Future Shapers. He publishes a weekly podcast called Control the Room.
When not facilitating or coaching facilitators you might find Douglas patching up his Modular Synth, boxing, doing pilates, and taking photographs. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
What People Are Saying
“I will be more intentional about anchoring around purpose before any event I host thanks to my experience in the Facilitation Lab. I loved the realization behind letting participants know we will be more effective if we are fully present."
Anonymous
Facilitation Lab Attendee
"I always enjoy the opportunity to network with other facilitators in the Facilitation Lab. I've gained so much knowledge from other attendees' insights & experiences each and every week in our community."
Anonymous
Facilitation Lab Attendee
Photo Disclaimer
Please note that photographs, video & audio recordings will be taken throughout this event. These will be used by Voltage Control for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media, or in any third party publication. Please contact our events manager if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.