Speaking · Briefings · Learning Experiences · Institutional Dialogue

Bring the work into the room.

Daron L. Davis is available for featured addresses, executive and board briefings, governance intensives, retreats, learning experiences, structured institutional dialogues and multi-session institutional engagements.

Start with what you need to accomplish. If your organization needs evidence-based findings about how authority, practical control, accountability or corrective capacity actually operates, BlackGuard can route the inquiry into the appropriate governance analysis instead.

Find the right engagement Request an engagement

Start with the outcome

What needs to happen?

You do not need to know the product name. Choose the outcome that is closest to what your institution needs.

Learn

Bring an important idea, framework or institutional question to an audience through a featured address, briefing or substantive learning experience.

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Engage

Work through a consequential issue together through a retreat, intensive, working session, roundtable, dialogue or applied learning experience.

Explore institutional engagement →

Determine

Establish what is actually happening inside an institution through evidence-based governance analysis rather than a presentation or facilitated session.

Explore governance analysis →

For audiences that need to learn

Speaking, briefings and applied learning.

These engagements translate governance research, institutional analysis and public scholarship into clear, audience-appropriate programs without requiring the audience to learn the underlying research architecture.

Board & Executive Governance

For leaders carrying institutional responsibility.

Best for: leadership transition, board development, role ambiguity, governance complexity, strategic change and board–executive alignment.

Executive Governance Briefing A concise 60–90 minute briefing for leadership teams that need a shared framework for authority, control, accountability and governability. $2,500
Board & Executive Governance Intensive A half-day applied engagement for deeper discussion of governance roles, decision authority, accountability and corrective capacity. $5,000
Governance Retreat A half- or full-day structured leadership engagement for governance issues that require more protected time than a normal meeting allows. $5,000 half day · $7,500 full day

Human Authority & AI Governance

When technological capability is moving faster than governance.

Best for: boards, executive teams, institutional AI governance groups, associations and leaders confronting questions of authorization, delegation, accountability and human responsibility.

Tracing AI Action Back to Human Authority A featured address or executive briefing on the human authority and accountability that must remain visible as AI enters institutional action. $2,500 briefing · $3,500 featured address
Human Authority in an AI-Enabled Institution A half-day leadership intensive on delegation, authorization, accountability, correction and the governance questions that should accompany AI adoption. $5,000
AI Authority & Accountability Roundtable A structured 60–90 minute leadership conversation around one defined AI governance question. $2,000

Conferences, Associations & Higher Education

Substantive programming built for participation, not passive attendance.

Best for: annual meetings, leadership programs, universities, institutes, professional associations, faculty/student audiences and institutional learning programs.

Featured Address A research-informed presentation built around a clear institutional, governance, policy or public-scholarship question. $3,500
Interactive Learning Lab A 90-minute to half-day applied learning experience that moves participants from conceptual understanding into structured discussion or application. $3,500–$5,000
Institutional Residency A full-day or multi-day engagement combining agreed components such as a featured address, leadership briefing, classroom or member session, roundtable or public program. $7,500+ per day

Public Scholarship & Humanities

Rigorous public programs connecting history, memory and institutional power.

Best for: museums, libraries, humanities centers, universities, historical organizations and civic institutions seeking serious public-facing scholarship.

Academic and public-scholarship programs are scoped according to the nature of the engagement and do not automatically constitute BlackGuard™ governance analysis.

Public Humanities Address A public-facing lecture connecting historical or political material to larger questions of institutional power, memory, legitimacy and civic life. $2,500–$3,500
Scholar-Led Public Dialogue A structured conversation that moves beyond lecture format and creates space for guided public engagement with a defined question. $2,000
Public Scholarship Residency A half-day, full-day or multi-day combination of lecture, student engagement, dialogue, community program or related public scholarship. $5,000 half day · $7,500+ full day

For institutions that need to engage

Work through the problem together.

These formats are for institutions that need more than a presentation but do not yet require an evidence-based BlackGuard™ determination of how the institution actually operates.

Institutional Authority & Corrective Capacity

When responsibility is visible but authority and correction are not.

Best for: recurring implementation failure, fragmented responsibility, unclear decision pathways, institutional reactivity and situations where leaders know the problem but struggle to correct it.

Authority & Accountability Working Session A half-day working session that helps participants distinguish formal authority, practical control, responsibility and accountability around a defined institutional issue. $5,000
Corrective Capacity Intensive A half- or full-day session organized around a difficult question: why can an institution identify a problem yet remain unable to correct it? $5,000 half day · $7,500 full day
From Reactivity to Governability A briefing or applied session that helps leadership distinguish repeated operational reaction from governable institutional correction. $2,500 briefing · $5,000 half day

Strategic Institutional Dialogues

For consequential conversations that need structure and substance.

Best for: competing assumptions, unresolved institutional questions, cross-functional disagreement, stakeholder complexity and conversations ordinary meeting structures are not advancing.

Structured Institutional Dialogue A bounded dialogue in which the problem, key distinctions and consequential questions are framed and worked through with participants. $2,000–$5,000 depending on length
Strategic Problem-Framing Session A half-day session for organizations that are debating solutions before they have a sufficiently clear understanding of the problem. $5,000
Executive Roundtable A focused 60–90 minute exchange among decision-makers organized around one consequential institutional question. $2,000

When programming is not enough

Need to know what is actually happening inside the institution?

A presentation, retreat or working session can help people understand and discuss governance questions. If you need BlackGuard™ to review institutional evidence and determine where authority, practical control, accountability, boundaries or corrective capacity actually reside, you need governance analysis rather than programming alone.

Institution-specific evidence review, analytical findings and recommendations are not included simply because a program is interactive or conducted onsite. Analysis requires a separate engagement and evidence boundary. A leadership presentation, retreat or facilitated session may be added after or alongside an analysis when the institution needs both findings and structured discussion.

Governability Assessment

For the authority-bearing executive, board or institution that needs an evidence-based view of whether responsibility, authority, practical control, visibility and corrective capacity are aligned.

Standard bounded engagement: $7,500.

Explore Executive Governability →

Independent Governance Analysis

For commissioning parties not acting with authority on behalf of the subject institution, or for matters intentionally bounded to independent reconstruction from public and lawfully requester-provided evidence.

Standard bounded engagement: $7,500.

Explore Independent Analysis →

Analysis + Leadership Session

For institutions that need evidence-based findings and a separate board, executive or stakeholder session to present, discuss or work through those findings.

Applicable analysis fee + the separately priced briefing, half-day or full-day program fee.

Request a combined scope →

Engagement structure

The need determines the program. The format determines the fee.

Standard pricing keeps the engagement architecture understandable while allowing the program itself to be built around the institution's actual need.

60–90 minBriefing, featured address, roundtable or structured dialogue.

Half dayUp to four consecutive program hours for an intensive, working session, retreat or combined engagement.

Full dayUp to seven program hours for a full-day institutional engagement.

Multi-dayResidency or multi-session institutional programming, separately scoped by day.

$1,500

Expert / Panel Participation

Up to 90 minutes.

$2,000

Dialogue / Roundtable / Moderation

Structured 60–90 minute engagement.

$2,500

Executive Briefing / Virtual Program

Focused presentation with discussion or Q&A.

$3,500

Featured Address

Up to 60 minutes plus Q&A.

$5,000

Half-Day Engagement

Up to four consecutive program hours.

$7,500

Full-Day Engagement

Up to seven program hours.

$7,500+

Institutional Residency

Per-day baseline for multi-day engagements.

$1,500+

Custom Program Design

For substantial original curriculum or program development beyond normal audience tailoring.

Travel, lodging, ground transportation, parking/tolls and approved travel-related expenses are additional for onsite work. Recording, livestream, redistribution, course incorporation and other reuse rights are not automatically included. When governance analysis and a separate leadership session are both requested, each component is scoped and priced according to its applicable structure.

Selected proof

Speaking, facilitation and public engagement with a documented record.

The work spans invited speaking, structured facilitation, scholarly presentation, policy engagement, public scholarship and governance-focused analysis.

Global Youth Action Fellowship

Invited Distinguished Guest and Opening Speaker for an international fellowship cohort.

Community Needs Analysis Facilitation

Designed and delivered an international workshop using original presentation material, participant tools, stakeholder mapping, prioritization and action planning.

ASALH 111th Annual Meeting

Completed scholarly conference presentation; 2026 ASALH Freedom School Workshop Scholarship recipient and participant.

AI Governance Intervention

Research-informed submission to Microsoft's Humanist AI Code consultation focused on tracing AI action back to human authority.

Public Policy Engagement

Federal and state governance-policy applications, including written and oral public comment.

Public Scholarship & Media

Sustained public writing, institutional commentary and external media recognition, including Scotsman Guide coverage.

These records demonstrate speaking, facilitation, scholarly-development, policy-application and knowledge-transfer activity. They do not imply institutional endorsement, empirical validation or a client relationship beyond the documented engagement.

Request an engagement

Start with the problem, audience and outcome.

You do not need to select the perfect service before contacting BlackGuard. Describe what is happening, who will be in the room and what you need to accomplish. If the request crosses into institution-specific evidence and findings, it will be routed to the appropriate governance-analysis path.

Request a speaking or institutional engagement Request governance analysis

Helpful information to include

Organization and your role
What is happening and why it matters now
Audience and approximate size
What you want participants to understand, discuss or leave with
Preferred date, location and program length
Whether institution-specific documents, policies, contracts, records or other evidence need to be reviewed

Do not send confidential records through an initial inquiry. A written engagement and appropriate evidence-intake process are required before substantive client analysis begins.