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COLIN BEAVAN, PhD

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Coming Events


We all have incredible opportunities to do things that matter to the world and to live with meaning and purpose.


We all have incredible opportunities to do things that matter to the world and to live with meaning and purpose.


Appearances and Coming Events

I’ve given literally hundreds of keynote addresses, run workshops, facilitated conversations and led retreats and trainings for companies and professional, religious, and educational organizations around the world. I’ve spoken to audiences as large as 10,000 and as small as 10. I work in collaboration with those who commission me to tailor my talks to the needs and interests to each audience. Scroll down to find out more.

Many of my in-person and online events are open to the public.
You are invited!

Thursday, December 1, 2022, 7:30 PM ET
Questions and Answers about Zen at Cambridge Zen Center
199 Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA
Or join by Zoom

Saturday, December 3, 2022, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM ET
Zen Meditation Retreat at Chogye Zen Center
Including individual consultations with Colin
Open to new meditators but please arrive by 8:45 AM for instruction
Advance registration preferred
Apt 4D/E, 400 East 14th St, New York, NY
Or join by Zoom

Saturday, January 7 to Saturday, January 14, 2023
One-week Zen retreat with sitting, chanting, bowing and walking meditation
Including Dharma talk and individual consultations with Colin
Meditation experience required
More information and registration form here
Providence Zen Center, Cumberland, Rhode Island

Saturday, February 11 to Saturday, January 18, 2023
One-week Zen retreat with sitting, chanting, bowing and walking meditation
Including Dharma talk and individual consultations with Colin
Meditation experience required
More information and registration form here
Providence Zen Center, Cumberland, Rhode Island

March, 2023
Learning to Listen: A Method of Negotiation That Gets You To Win/Win
An hour-long talk in Manhattan
Details to come

To start a conversation about my speaking to your group or organization, click the button below.

Start a conversation

At TEDx, I spoke about how we if we really wanted progress, we first had to decide what values human beings really want to progress towards. But you should watch this version of the same talk. I like it better.

Systems thinking as a PhD engineering, training in humanist psychology, and years as a Zen student and teacher have taught me how the magic of transformation and accomplishment begins by perceiving and responding to the whole picture. When you perceive your self, team, organization, or world clearly, you respond clearly. When you define a problem well, you solve it well.

Therefore, most of my talks include some elements of understanding relationships and how to respond well in them, whether we are talking are about your relationship to your self, your team, your community or your planet and world.

I give a talk about improved team leadership by concentrating on self-leadership. I give a talk about better negotiation by better listening. I have given talks at at NGOs like the UN, UNICEF, and the Inter-American Development Bank, where I inspired workers to begin living the values of their professional work in their own personal lives.

I’ve spoken at companies like IDEO and eBay to inspire designers and managers to think about what products and services actually makes people’s lives better. I’ve spoken at conferences like TEDx and said “to hell with sustainability” because it is not aspirational enough while inspiring people instead to move towards a more regenerative vision for our future.

I’ve given university convocation speeches to inspire students towards lives of service. I’ve spoken at Harvard Divinity School and conferences of Buddhists and spiritual leaders to talk about how to get congregations engaged in helping their communities thrive. I’ve spoken to sustainability professionals about communicating in ways that connect to people’s values. And I’ve spoken to activist groups and non-profits about self-care.


The Secret Recipe For Success Is Not What You Think—A talk I gave to a conference of marketing professionals on the science that shows that having a robust community is the biggest predictor of success in everything from longevity to happiness to professional success.

How do we we move past our own fears and blocks so that we can clearly see what support our teams and stakeholders need? What do we learn to be less frightened so we can be generous and synthesize our needs with those around us to create win/wins? How can we reflect our concern for big, worldly issues in our own lives? How do we hold the tension between the need to prosper and have impact? How does an organization harness the need to matter in its employees?

When it comes down to it, my talks inspire people to see their relationships clearly and thus to wake up to their power to change things, their ability to be agents in their own lives, and their opportunities to transform their teams, organization and world.

To talk to me about how these kinds of questions might be addressed in ways that inspire your audience, customers, stakeholders or executives, please write to me here.


How To Be Alive: a talk at a future trends conference about how finding your true, authentic passions and using them to help with things you care about in the world is the path to happiness.

Some places I’ve spoken

Harvard Divinity School, The Commonwealth Club, San Francisco Museum of Science, Design Futures Conference,  Nexus Global Youth Summit, ClifBar, EBay, North Face, Patagonia, TEDxPotomac, PSFK, United States Green Building Council, Union Theological Seminary and many, many universities (longer list here).

Some places I’ve taught

New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Massachusetts, Tecnológico de Monterrey, The Omega Institute, Garrison Institute

To start a conversation about my speaking to your group or organization, click the button below.

SEND COLIN A MESSAGE

A talk I gave at a conference of Buddhist leaders about how a spiritual community can work to bring about changes in the world.
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