Event Type
Facilitation Lab Summit 2026
8th Annual Facilitator Summit
Austin, TX
Austin, TX 78701
In 2026, we’re heading to the edge—of comfort zones, ideas, group dynamics, and systems.
This year’s theme, Edges, invites us to explore the boundaries that define, challenge, and transform us. Together, we’ll ask:
- Where are we stretching, resisting, or growing
- What happens at the edge of our understanding?
- How do facilitators help others navigate thresholds with skill and care?
Over two immersive days, you’ll engage in hands-on sessions designed to help you not just understand the edge—but work with it. Whether you’re stepping into uncertainty, navigating complexity, or holding space for others to grow, the edge is where change begins.
Why “Edges”?
Because this is where the magic happens.
Edges are where discomfort meets growth. Where resistance meets possibility. Where innovation begins. Whether you’re leading change, navigating complexity, or evolving your own practice, this summit will help you see the edge not as a stopping point—but as an invitation.
Let’s explore it together.
*All sales for summits are final. The registered participant may invite another person to substitute their place at any time at no charge.
**Prices increase on October 31st — Register now and save!
Austin, TX
Austin, TX 78701
Spread the word
Join us February 16th from 10-5 CT for the the Alumni Salon, a dedicated space for our certification program alums to reconnect, reflect, and renew. Dive deeper into the inner work of facilitation and collaborative leadership to nurture and sharpen your practice.
See Previous Summits
Facilitators
To Be Announced...
Facilitators
Robin Neidorf
Senior Consultant at Tangelo Tree Consulting
VC Master Certified
Dan Walker
Founder and CEO of Collective Imagination Consulting Inc. (Former Arc'teryx & MEC)
VC Certified
Brian Buck
Consultant, Digital Workplace at Progressive Insurance
VC Certified
Shannon Hart
Senior Performance Consultant at Shell
VC Master Certified
Chris Lunney
Director of Collaboration Designers (Former Product & Program Manager at Mural)
VC Master Certified
Trudy Towsend
Training & Facilitation Manager at PacificSource Community Solutions
VC Master Certified
Renita Smith
Founder of Leap Forward Coaching and Consulting
VC Master Certified
Joe Randel
Senior Program Officer at the Walton Family Foundation
VC Master Certified
Hosted by:
Erik Skogsberg
VP of Learning Experience at Voltage Control
Schedule
DAY ONE
9:10-10:40 am
Dan Walker
Unlocking Your Impact
For many, the current systems in which we live are broken and in need of re-design. This work falls to each of us: to use our brilliance to shape the systems within which we live in ways that ever better serve us all.
But when all systems appear broken, overwhelm is real. As is the question, where do I begin…Join us as together we work to identify the meaningful impact you might advance in the world.
11:00-12:30 pm
Renita Smith
The Edge of the Room Is the New Center
We’re drowning in frameworks for psychological safety, yet our rooms often feel more managed than ever. Why? Because we’re trying to engineer trust with checklists while ignoring the most powerful variable in the space: our own presence. This session challenges the core paradigm of facilitation.
We will treat trust not as something you build, but as something you reveal. We’ll explore a potent hypothesis: the more a facilitator courageously occupies the edge of their own authenticity, the more permission everyone else has to be human.
Forget adding more tools to your belt.This is a deep dive into sharpening the one instrument that can’t be replicated: you. We will move beyond the performance of facilitation and into the practice of presence. You will learn to see your unfiltered self as the primary architectural tool for creating containers of trust and true connection.
Ready to stop performing and start connecting?
1:15-2:45
Chris Lunney
Navigating the Unknown with Whole Intelligence
What should we do? What do we want, really? How do our actions support our individual and shared needs?
To answer these questions, we often spend a lot of time thinking, analyzing, and talking. Yet even when we find a way forward, we usually sense something is missing; things just don’t work out as planned. The challenge is that we’ve consulted only our thinking mind. We’ve left out our “whole intelligence”—the wisdom networked across our analytical and creative minds, our heart and body, our subconscious and intuition. It is in this deeper realm of personal knowledge that our authentic needs and desires lie. When we rely solely on analytical thinking, we overlook these essential truths, making it impossible to align our conscious actions with what truly matters to us.
In this 90-minute workshop, you’ll get to experience what it feels like to consult the deepest parts of yourself when navigating the unknown, and learn how to bring this wisdom into the realm of thought and turn it into action. You’ll also learn several methods for accessing Whole Intelligence and how to integrate them into your workshops. By the end, you’ll have both a sense of what this feels like for yourself and practical tools for your own offerings—helping your groups access their whole intelligence to navigate challenges in ways that fit their needs.
3:05-4:35 pm
Shannon Hart
Innovation: Stepping off the Edge and Leaving the Agenda Behind
Innovation isn’t linear and doesn’t fit into a rigid agenda —it flourishes in spaces that welcome uncertainty, diversity, and emergence. This hands-on workshop invites facilitators, leaders, and changemakers to explore how to create just enough structure to support creativity without stifling it. Together, we’ll practice “holding the container”: designing environments that foster psychological safety, invite nonlinear thinking, and allow ideas to unfold organically. You’ll gain tools to guide groups through ambiguity, co-create outcomes that are shared and meaningful, and lead with both clarity and openness.
DAY TWO
9:10-10:40 am
Joe Randel
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The Power of Music in Facilitation
What do great DJs and great facilitators have in common? The ability to read the room, shape the energy, and create unforgettable moments. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore how music can be a powerful tool and metaphor for facilitation, giving you fresh ways to design sessions, adapt in the moment, and craft experiences that truly resonate.
11-12:30pm
Brian Buck
At the Edges of Belonging: How Facilitator Neutrality Fosters Inclusion as a Practice
In this interactive session, Brian L. Buck explores how facilitator neutrality can be a powerful lever for inclusion, belonging, and better group outcomes. Drawing on Voltage Control’s concept of “edges” as spaces of growth, resistance, and transformation, Brian invites participants to examine how neutrality—when practiced intentionally—can unlock collective intelligence and foster psychological safety. Through hands-on exercises, role-playing, and guided self-reflection, attendees will experience the subtle yet profound impact of neutrality in action. This session offers practical tools and insights to help facilitators shift old habits, deepen their presence, and lead with greater awareness and inclusivity.
1:15-2:45 pm
Robin Neidorf
At the Edge of Knowing: Embodied Practice for Whole-Self Facilitation
The best facilitation happens at the edge, where intellect meets intuition, where words fall short and the body speaks. Yet many of us have learned to lead from the neck up, sidelining the body’s quiet, potent wisdom.
In this session, we’ll explore embodied facilitation — a way of working that integrates body and mind, dissolving the sharp edges that divide them. Through movement, stillness, reflection, and connection, we’ll practice how to sense more, interpret less, and stay present to what’s emerging.
Together we’ll learn how to:
- Tap into body-based awareness to navigate complexity and group dynamics
- Create safety and inclusion when bringing embodiment into facilitated spaces
- Build trust, surface the unsaid, and deepen group insight using somatic cues
This session is experiential, invitational, and grounded in accessibility. Come prepared to move, notice, and explore the edges of your facilitation practice.
3:05-4:35 pm
Trudy Towsend
Facilitating at the Edge: Building Trauma-Informed Spaces
Facilitation often takes us to the edges—of comfort, conflict, and possibility. In those spaces, past traumatic experiences can shape how participants show up, learn, and engage. This interactive 90-minute workshop invites facilitators of all experience levels to deepen their understanding of trauma’s impact and strengthen the safety practices they already use. Together, we will explore the science of trauma, learn to recognize signs of dysregulation, and practice strategies for restoring safety when individuals or groups become activated. Through small-group dialogue and experiential activities, participants will identify the trauma-informed strategies already present in their practice, expand their toolkit with approaches to balancing power and cultivating different forms of safety. By the end, you will feel more confident in creating spaces where participants—no matter where they are on their journey—can show up as their best selves.
Wait, What's Facilitation?
Whether you know it or not, you are probably using facilitation in your work. The act of facilitating is to make an operation or process easier. Facilitation skills are crucial to exercise when planning and running meetings to make them as participative and productive as possible. It’s imperative to company profit and culture to conduct successful meetings. Perfecting the art of facilitation is one of the most important and beneficial skill sets that make a successful leader.
A skilled facilitator can supercharge a team’s performance by functioning as a process guide for navigating complicated business challenges. Facilitators are experts at leading groups through key meetings and gatherings. Facilitators exist to enable better gatherings between teams, stakeholders, or collaborators of any kind.
Who Should Attend?
Facilitation Lab Summit is designed for professionals at all levels seeking to elevate their leadership and team collaboration skills, including:
Executives & Team Leaders
Chiefs of Staff
Product Managers
Program & Project Managers
Program & Project Managers
Teachers & Trainers
Consultants & Coaches
Scrum Masters
UX Designers & Researchers
A key part of our mission is to support diverse facilitators from different methodologies, backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, and ages. If you are a part of, or serve, a traditionally underrepresented group and feel that this scholarship would allow you to amplify this mission, please apply now.
What People are Saying
It's an opportunity for facilitators to really deeply connect one-on-one in small groups. And get to practice, put into practice a lot of new methods that maybe are emerging and learn from one another in a in-person format.
I think that the interactions with the people who come to the summit are really important because we have a room full of experts, but we have an infinite combination of experience and to tap into that is absolutely amazing. I've learned so much and I'll remember what I've learned forever.
Yeah. If you're a facilitator, you probably are used to being in the background and giving out great space for others. Think of this as giving yourself permission to lean back, watch other people do it, learn, interact.
I have been sitting here for the last couple of days thinking, "I am so glad I trusted my gut to come to this." It's exceeding my expectations. And I really feel like I found my people. And so if you're looking for a tribe of people that you need to connect with, this is really the place.
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.
All sales for the summit are final. The registered participant may invite another person to substitute their place at any time at no charge.
Voltage Control is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.
Any form of written, social media, or verbal communication that can be offensive or harassing to any attendee, speaker or staff is not allowed at Control the Room Summits. Please inform a Voltage Control volunteer or staff member if you feel a violation has taken place and the conference leadership team will address the situation.
Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion; sexual images in public spaces; deliberate intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; sustained disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; and unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
Partners are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, exhibitors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes or otherwise create a sexualized environment.
If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff immediately. Conference staff can be identified by t-shirts or located at the registration desk.
Conference staff will be happy to help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance.
We expect participants to follow these rules at all conference venues and conference-related social events.
What to do when you witness a Code of Conduct violation?
All reports of incidents are confidential! We will not publish the name of the reporter in any way.
Speak up
Of course, we do not want you do get into a more uncomfortable position as you maybe already are. You do not need to interact with the person(s) who presumably violated the Code of Conduct.
Please let someone of the organizing team know
At all times, you will find someone at the registration desk or the conference host (the person introducing the speakers). All people who are working at a Control the Room Summit are very aware of the Code of Conduct. Approach them and let them know. In most cases they will bring you to one of the organizers, so we can write an incident report.
Important questions:
Who? Could you see the names of the people involved? Was it a speaker, attendee, service person, organizer, crew?
Where? In a session hall? In the foyer? At a partner booth? …
When? The approximate time of the behavior.
What?
- What were the circumstances that led to the incident?
- Verbal violation (“bad jokes”, discrediting, …)
- Visual violation (slide in the talk, T-Shirt with an inappropriate print…)
- Inappropriate physical interaction (violence of any kind)
Everyone working at the Summit is informed on how to deal with an incident. If everyone involved is physically safe, we will only ask for security help or law enforcement at the victim’s request.
Report a Violation
Please reach out to Douglas Ferguson directly:
Email: douglas@voltagecontrol.com
Phone: 512.293.7279
The Purpose of the Code of Conduct
Our Code of Conduct does not exist because we expect to deal with any such problems.
