Coaches Conference 2022

Wednesday, November 9 - Friday, November 11
Berkeley Faculty Club

“The conference was such a great opportunity for connection. I truly enjoyed the great mix of the keynote, the learning sessions hosted by alums, time for connection during breaks and lunch. All the connections were essential.”
— 2021 Attendee

Creativity & Community

Our annual Coaches Conference is an opportunity for our amazing family of ECI Alumni to reconnect with the heart and meaning at the core of our practice as coaches. Perhaps, dare we say, the conference is a “booster shot” of the connection you felt with each other during your program, and an opportunity to meet new future collaborators and friends. This year, the program will include Master Classes by BECI faculty and experiential sessions by our alumni, as well as plenty of opportunity for community connection.

Wednesday, November 9

Dinner will be celebrated on the San Francisco Bay at the waterfront in Berkeley. “Warm and personal. A celebration of now, looking forward, and creating a shared sense of purpose.”

Thursday, November 10

Master class by the master himself, our founder Dr. Mark Rittenberg, plus alumni-led interactive sessions, and even a ‘hangout room’ with table topics for informal connection.

Friday, November 11

“When did you decide to be boring?” Not at the Coaches Conference, especially when you make the magic happen.

Conference Schedule

Time Wednesday, November 9
6:30 PM Dinner at Skates on the Bay - Berkeley Marina, Berkeley
Time Thursday, November 10
8:30 AM BREAKFAST
9:00 AM Welcome & Community Connection
9:30 AM The Road Less Traveled: Becoming a Coach for All Seasons
Master Class with Mark Rittenberg and Don Borges
11:00 AM BREAK
11:10 AM So You Want to Write a Book?
Featuring Vish Chatterji, Amy Lynn Durham, Becky Morrison, Phyllis Sarkaria
12:30 PM LUNCH
1:45 PM Improve Your Coaching Through Using People Data
Featuring Craig Lloyd
2:45 PM BREAK
3:15 PM Insights on Coaching for Inclusion
Featuring Ingrid Gavshon & Mark Rittenberg
4:00 PM Building Bridges Story Salon
Featuring Benjamin Mertz
5:30 PM BREAK
6:00 PM Celebratory Dinner at Berkeley Faculty Club
   
Time Friday, November 11
8:30 AM BREAKFAST
9:00 AM Your Story. Your Power: A conversation about harnessing the power of your story for transformational leadership
Keynote featuring Karesha McGee in conversation with Doy Charnsupharindr
10:00 AM BREAK
10:15 AM Coaching Stories for Business Building
Featuring Casey Field
11:15 AM BREAK
11:30 AM Lines of Difference
Featuring Kwaii Bell
12:30 PM LUNCH
1:45 PM Building Your Business Brass Tacks
Featuring Kelly Brown
3:00 PM BREAK
3:30 PM Framework Swap Meet
Featuring Anja Lee and Michelle Florendo
4:45 PM What is the Story You’ll Tell
Honorable Closure with Doy Charnsupharindr

Session Descriptions

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: BECOMING A COACH FOR ALL SEASONS

By Dr. Mark Rittenberg with Don Borges

At UC Berkeley, we value developing the heart and mind of the coach. This suggests the many hats that a coach can wear in any given coaching relationship. The coach may step in as a presentation skills coach, job interview coach, negotiation coach, and even as a constructive contention coach with big doses of tough love.

In this Master Class, I will demonstrate dynamic coaching tools and techniques that help you address the needs of the client. Participants will have the opportunity to explore and observe what it means to be a coach for all seasons. In small groups, we will put these techniques into practice.

What does it mean to bring magic into the coaching session? We will look at film and video as ways of creating a new kind of "vertical takeoff" — a way of motivating the coachee to think outside the box and embrace their artistry and creativity.

So you want to write a book: Publishing, speaking, and other alternative income streams for coaches

As BECI coaches, we bring humanity to work one person, or team, at a time. While coaching is our raison d'être, perhaps you have wondered how you might reach new audiences, diversify your practice, or create alternative income streams. What steps should you take? What pitfalls can you avoid?

Whether you are thinking about writing a book or have an interest in exploring thought leadership opportunities such as podcasting and speaking, bring your ideas and questions to this interactive discussion on different approaches to expand your coaching practice.

Featuring: Vish Chatterji, Amy Lynn Durham, Becky Morrison, Phyllis Sarkaria

Coaching Stories for Business Building

Several years ago, I was sitting behind my laptop figuratively beating my head against the wall. I had an MBA, joined countless business building workshops, and diligently followed best business practices. For my efforts, I got barely a trickle of clients, and worst of all, I was BORED! I seriously questioned if coaching was something I could do with my life, and that hurt to consider.

It wasn’t until I met with other coaches who were trying to sell their services that I realized something. They didn’t excite me. There was no passion. I didn’t know why they were doing what they were doing, or how they could help me.

In service of simply trying to ‘get clients’ they lost their story. Much like I had. I discovered that my Coaching Story was the most powerful marketing tool I had, and I began to tell it to more and more people. To my surprise I got more clients just by word of mouth—and no website—than I had by following traditional methods.

In our session together, I am going to teach you how to create your own Coaching Story. Once you have that, you’ll find that everything becomes easier. Talking about coaching, your marketing, Instagram posts (if that's your thing), and most importantly your own inspiration. Join me and make client creation something you enjoy doing instead of something you feel like you have to do.

Featuring Casey Field

Framework Swap Meet

Frameworks are a powerful modality for supporting clients in clarifying what's important, understanding a challenge, and brainstorming possibilities. Every coach can benefit from having a diverse toolkit of frameworks in their back pocket.

Join in a "framework swap meet," where you can bring your favorite frameworks to share with others and learn what frameworks other coaches have used to support their coachees. Michelle Florendo will use a version of open space technology (often used in "unconferences") to organize and facilitate multiple rounds of small group sessions to support peer-to-peer learning and deeper connections with fellow alumni.

Don't think you have frameworks to bring? No problem! Anja Lee will facilitate a mini-session in the first round on how to generate your own frameworks based on common shapes and scenarios.

Come play with us!

Featuring Michelle Florendo and Anja Lee

What is the Story You’ll Tell
Honorable Closure with Doy

Building on our storytelling theme of the conference, we’ll help you integrate your learnings. Together, we’ll take a moment to reflect on what we’ve learned and discovered from these two days of community. Everyone will have a chance to put into practice what we’ve collectively captured, and share with others in a deep and brief way.

Featuring Doy Charnsupharindr

YOUR STORY. YOUR POWER.

A conversation about harnessing the power of your story for transformational leadership

Keynote featuring Karesha McGee in conversation with Doy Charnsupharindr

LINES of Difference

LINES of Difference is an JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) method session designed to not only improve understanding of identity difference and coaching people of color but also to provide meaningful learning that can be applied across identity groups. Centering Black, LGBTQ, Neuro-diverse, and LatinX identities this session leverages difference(s) as a foothold for deeper understanding and connection. Your ability, as a coach, to comfortably hold equitable and inclusive conversations with people different than yourself helps all you interact with - feel seen, heard and understood.

Featuring Kwaii Bell

Improve Your Coaching Through Using People Data

All business problems are people problems. As we strive to help our clients solve some of their most pressing issues, it is vital we understand the key contributing factors to those problems. Pre-coaching modalities are common when engaging with new clients to get down to those core issues. While 360s and peer interviews are useful, using behavioral assessments to better understand the drives and needs of your client as they pertain to the requirements of the job is critical to helping your clients resolve some of their most pressing professional challenges. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to take the Predictive Index, a scientifically validated behavioral assessment, to discover how this tool (among others) helps resolve challenges through building self-awareness of our impact on others.

Featuring Craig Lloyd

Building Your Business Brass Tacks

How do we create and launch a coaching business? What do we need to think about, imagine and articulate before we move forward? What have you already done to put yourself out there? Regardless of where you are on the journey of building your coaching practice, let's explore what is possible and share what has worked.

Your Facilitator will guide you in exploring three key elements of developing a coaching business: your business vision and design; your mindset and commitment; your decisions re: logistics and tactics for running a coaching practice. It IS possible to create a coaching business, and there are many ways to manifest your own vision. Come ready to share ideas and resources and walk away with an accountability partner.

Featuring Kelly Brown

BECI team & coaches at a client site for a Coaching for Inclusion program

Insights on Coaching for Inclusion

Speak your truth in our Coaching for Inclusion program! Launched in 2021, this program is all about nurturing our powers of storytelling, asking open-ended questions, and telling the truth without blame or judgement. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is an imperative, yet challenging space to make progress, especially in companies that normalize hyper-competitiveness, cultures of silence, patriarchy, and other narrow-minded practices. Sometimes the mountain to inclusion is steep to climb. We must question the status quo and be prepared to break down silos, facilitate difficult conversations and help companies create a true culture of justice and belonging.

Take your first step with Mark Rittenberg, Ingrid Gavshon and Benjamin Mertz, as they guide you on a journey through what we have discovered so far in our Coaching for Inclusion program! Together we'll explore best practices, common challenges, and how to hold ourselves and our clients accountable to creating healthier and more diverse cultures. It's time to explore how to be an Inclusion Coach.

Featuring Dr. Mark Rittenberg, Ingrid Gavshon and Benjamin Mertz

Building Bridges: Story Salon

"You are never going to kill storytelling, because it is built into the human plan. We come with it." - Margaret Atwood

How do we understand each other across cultures and identities? How do we become the best versions of ourselves, in relationship to one another? How do we show up as allies and accomplices for one another, in the search for our most liberated and authentic selves?

These are the questions Benjamin Mertz has been asking in this year's "Building Bridges" series, which he is bringing to our Coaches Conference this year! Join Benjamin for a session of music, poetry, and storytelling. With the help of some BECI alums and some courageous volunteers, we will explore the power of storytelling to better understand ourselves and one another. As one of Benjamin's first choir teachers said, "choral singing is 80% listening and only 20% singing." WIth that in mind, we stretch ourselves to truly listen with the intent of understanding. We allow people with completely different life experiences, religious and philosophical backgrounds, and even political views, to speak what is true for them. And in the spirit of telling the truth without blame or judgment, we recount our own life experiences in return.

We are going to need each other in order to reach our goals and achieve our dreams. Storytelling is a good way to understand the companions who are traveling the road beside us. So let's tell our stories, listen with empathy, and build bridges together.

Speaker Bios

Featured
Karesha McGee
Karesha McGee

Karesha McGee is an award-winning global communications leader, with more than 20 years experience in the high-tech industry. She has advised C-level and senior executives at large multinationals, high-growth start-ups and venture capital firms including: Slack (NYSE: WORK; now Salesforce: NYSE: CRM); Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO); Oracle (NYSE: ORCL); Uber (NYSE: UBER); Hello Tractor; BEA Systems (now Oracle) and VestedWorld.

Karesha currently serves as VP, Communications at Slack, overseeing Corporate, Executive & Internal Communications. She joined the company to build the first Global Corporate Communications function, recruiting and managing a team responsible for financial, crisis and executive communications, as well as PR and media activities in support of policy, security, diversity and corporate social responsibility. She helped lead communications for multiple funding rounds, board appointments, executive hires, the company’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: WORK), a debt raise and the acquisition of Slack by Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).

Prior to Slack, Karesha was a Partner at the Pramana Collective where she developed PR, executive and crisis communications strategies for clients including Cisco, Pivotal, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT). Previously, she led Executive Communications at Uber focused on building thought-leadership programs for several members of the executive team. Prior to that, Karesha spent six and a half years as a member of the Executive Communications team for John Chambers, former Chairman & CEO of Cisco. Part chief-of-staff, part speechwriter, she supported Mr. Chambers in numerous high-profile business opportunities including the World Economic Forum (WEF/Davos) and the Clinton Global Initiative, as well as engagements with global heads of state.

In addition to her professional pursuits, Karesha is an Associate Board Member of MindsMatter SF , an education non-profit serving low income high school students of color in the Bay Area. She is also a member of The Links, Inc . , an African-American women’s service organization, an alumna of the Rotary International Group Study Program in Brazil and a sought-after public speaker. Karesha graduated cum laude from Cornell University with a B.A. in Anthropology, and received an executive MBA from the joint UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and Columbia Graduate School of Business program. She has traveled extensively to countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. She speaks Spanish, has a working knowledge of Portuguese, and enjoys Cuban salsa dancing in the rueda style.

Kwaii Bell
Kwaii Bell

Hey there! I’m Kwaii Bell, a multidisciplinary coach drawing on my experience working across industries, coaching across career levels, and mediating difficult conversations with people from all walks of life. I've graduated from Dartmouth College and recently completed the BECI program to further build my coaching ability.

I’ve had the pleasure and luck to build my early career across a number of disciplines as I’ve worked to pursue my passions. I started in non profits, then started doing design & consulting contracts while I tried to get my footing in NYC. After a few more lessons I moved to MI and worked in Higher ED with University of MI as a coach and educator to mid-BA students. In my work transforming the program, I fell into a job at X the moonshot factory - Google’s innovation lab. I spent a lot of my time there designing experiences to help people build past limiting beliefs, designing strategies and programs for Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity, and coaching.

At my core, I’m an intersectional creative, a culture worker, and equity developer. I believe my purpose is to help folks to navigate difficult conversations, create opportunities for learning that inspire transformation and shifts in perspective, and for that work to be accessible to as many people as possible. My hope is that through coaching, being authentic, listening for what's most meaningful, and supporting others in my life I’ll be able to help folks transform in the ways they aspire.

Kelly Brown
Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an Executive and Well-being Coach and the founder of two coaching practices: Kelly Brown Coaching, LLC, and Real Food House. Kelly believes career, life, and well-being are integrated and works with entrepreneurs, parents, and executives to create a life full of purpose and joy.

Kelly brings firsthand corporate experience to her practice working previously as an Account Executive at Google and as an Executive Education Program Manager at Duke Corporate Education.

Kelly holds coaching certifications from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and from the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. She is also a certified Be Body Positive Facilitator and is dedicated to providing a safe coaching space to all.

Kelly’s also a graduate of Duke University with degrees in Psychology, Business, and Spanish and although she’s a Chicago native (who will forever prefer Chicago pizza), she currently lives in San Rafael, California with her husband, their three children, and their dog.

Kelly considers her top values to be learning, authenticity, and creativity, and enjoys reading, cooking without recipes, and going on camping adventures with her family in their Airstream travel trailer.

Vish Chatterji
Vish Chatterji

Vish Chatterji is an accomplished executive-turned-coach with a spiritual twist, and author of The Business Casual Yogi.

In parallel to his twenty-year leadership career spanning the automotive, technology and startup industries, he has studied and practiced yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda (mind-body medicine). He coaches and advises corporate leaders, blending Western management thinking with Eastern wisdom traditions and speaks on a variety of topics at the intersection of business and personal development.

Vish holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University, an MBA from University of Michigan and is certified as an Executive Coach through UC Berkeley. He is author of “The Business Casual Yogi: Take Charge of Your Body, Mind & Career”, and has held public office as an elected Board Director of the Beach Cities District in Southern California. A married father of three, he loves to garden, bicycle, and fix things around the house.

Amy Lynn Durham
Amy Lynn Durham

Her clients call her the “Corporate Mystic”.

Amy Lynn Durham is the Founder of Create Magic At Work®, where she uses her knowledge as an Executive Coach and Certified Spiritual Intelligence Coach (SQ21, a faith-neutral system) to uniquely blend spirituality and business to assist clients in their personal, professional, and spiritual development. Amy is the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, and the author of the book by the same name. She is an Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine and has been a guest on over 60 podcasts sharing her insights on how leaders in the workplace can become empowered and embrace their full potential.

Amy draws on her past experiences as a successful Corporate Executive and shares win-win ways people can get results by connecting authentically and seeing the humanity in each other.

Through her unique ability to help you ignite your own magical gifts, you will get immediate results in your business and life.

Degrees, Certifications & Credentials:

• U.C. Berkeley Certified Executive Coach

• Certified Spiritual Intelligence Coach utilizing the SQ21

• Certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner

• Former Corporate Executive & Recovering Workaholic

Casey Field is a professional coach, entrepreneur, educator, and speaker who challenges people to change their story to change their life. For the past six years, he has been partnering with entrepreneurs, coaches, executives, and teams to uncover s

Casey Field is a professional coach, entrepreneur, educator, and speaker who challenges people to change their story to change their life. For the past six years, he has been partnering with entrepreneurs, coaches, executives, and teams to uncover strategies for them to thrive in life and business. Since 2015, he has been travelling the globe inspiring professionals, and collaborating with organizations whose core business is to have a massive positive impact on our global community.

He holds multiple coaching designations including: Certified Executive Coach from Berkeley ECI, Certified Work and Life Coach from UC Davis, Professional Certified Coach from International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is a certified NLP practitioner.

After graduating from business school, Casey felt the pull to do something that would have exponential positive impact in the world. So, he founded Trident Coaching Group, a coaching practice that helps people find purpose and meaning at work and in their life. He strongly believes that purpose is the key ingredient that transforms professionals who are surviving to change makers who are thriving. Additionally, he is an ICF certified mentor coach that helps coaches develop greater coaching skills so they can serve clients more powerfully.

Currently, Casey is helping solve social challenges at a global scale as a creative consultant with DSIL Global, sits on the Board of Directors for the Sacramento Chapter of the International Coaching Federation, co-facilitates MBA level courses for UC Davis and UC Berkeley, and co-creates exponential results with his clients at Trident Coaching Group.

Michelle Florendo
Michelle Florendo

Michelle Florendo is a decision engineer and executive coach for Type-A professionals. Over the past decade Michelle has helped hundreds of professionals make decisions with intention, from the small consistent microdecisions over time that govern how you show up as a leader, to the big macrodecisions you make about what direction to take next in business or life.

Michelle teaches decision-making for Stanford Continuing Studies and redesigned the decision-making curriculum for Stanford's famous Designing Your Life course. She served on the inaugural coaching team for Seth Godin's altMBA, was a founding member of the Forbes Coaches Council, spent years a Senior Coach for Management Leadership for Tomorrow, coaches for Startup Parent, and is an adjunct faculty member at New Ventures West.

Michelle is based in Oakland, CA, with her partner and two young children. She enjoys hip-hop dance, growing food with her kids, making costumes, and eating delicious food.

Anja Lee
Anja Lee

Anja is a Data Technology Product Manager and a Leadership Coach for Women in Technology. She has over 20 years building data software and teams, with titles that span from product manager, engineering manager, and program manager. Anja is an active member of the Tortora Brayda Institute, a non-profit org, focusing on topics of AI in Innovation and AI for Democracy. She also spends her evenings teaching Data Visualization and Machine Learning at Stanford University and runs Coach Support and Development meetups. Anja’s secret (but not so secret) hope is that she can get Reed Hoffman to agree to be her mentor or a coachee.

Craig Lloyd
Craig Lloyd

Craig is a Talent Strategy Coach with Wiseman Strategies, a small consulting firm based in Salt Lake City, UT. He leverages his experience in Learning & Development, along with his certification through BECI to help small to medium businesses achieve their long term strategies through optimizing their talent.

Becky Morrison
Becky Morrison

What do you do when you’ve achieved your goals yet you still don’t feel happy?

Well, even though Rebecca Morrison was a happily married mom and lawyer with a two-decade career in BigLaw and Finance, she felt something was missing. That feeling led her on a quest to figure out whether it was possible to be both successful and happy. Now a Happiness Coach and Author of The Happiness Recipe: A Powerful Guide to Living What matters, Rebecca helps successful but unsatisfied high achievers find their happiness recipe so they can live happier, lead happier and build happy businesses.

Rebecca is a graduate of Wellesley College and Georgetown Law. She is also a UC Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute Certified Executive Coach.

Phyllis Sarkaria
Phyllis Sarkaria

With more than 30 years of leadership experience, Phyllis Sarkaria is a master certified executive coach, facilitator, and trusted adviser. She has held corporate executive roles in government affairs and human resources and has had responsibility for functions as diverse as strategic planning, merger integration, and team effectiveness. Six years ago, Phyllis started a management consulting practice. As clients began to request coaching services as well, she decided additional tools would be useful and was fortunate to be part of BECI’s amazing October 2018 cohort in Berkeley. Through her coaching work since then, Phyllis has recognized consistent themes around self-awareness (or lack thereof), the desire for tools to improve dialogue and collaboration, and issues arising from common workplace challenges. This led to development of a leadership GPS model and publication earlier this year of Courageous Clarity: Navigating the Way Forward on Your Leadership Journey. In addition to adventures with the grandkids and travel with her husband, Phyllis currently divides her time between coaching individual leaders and teams and delivering workshops and keynote addresses. She enjoys the robust discussions and sharing of ideas that emerge from these sessions.

Registration

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can present or attend?

The coaches conference is primarily designed for those that have gone through our 10-day program. You do not need to have attended or be certified to submit a proposal to present, however the lead speaker on each proposal should be an ECI alum (final certification not required). Friends and colleagues are welcome to purchase tickets to attend the event as well.

Will there be an online option?

We will not be offering a hybrid event or recordings of the sessions this year. We are not planning any ‘concurrent’ breakouts - the schedule will have just one session at a time. We will have a free Alumni Roundtable after the conference that will include opportunity to discuss the event and share learnings.

What is your COVID policy?

Before entering the conference, you will need to show either your paper COVID-19 vaccine card or digital record. The California Department of Public Health guidance strongly recommends that all individuals use a mask when in indoor public settings and businesses. We will be following the UC Berkeley mask requirements.

Do you have any recommendations for lodging for the conference?

We highly recommend the Residence Inn by Marriott - just at the edge of the campus, a 15 minute walk to the Faculty Club - brand new all-suite hotel. For a more intimate boutique experience, the Bancroft Hotel is at the edge of campus - small historic rooms but very cute!

Where is the dinner on Wednesday night?

Ticket holders will receive email before the event with the exact address of the dinner on Wednesday night. The home is located in downtown Berkeley, about a 5 - 10 min drive from campus.