Language & Logistics

I enjoy collecting skills, and wear many hats at work.  The range of these hats can largely be summed up as "Language and Logistics" and I have worn them for academic, corporate, private, non-profit, and arts communities...  Title and vocabulary may vary from place to place, but the skillset is essentially the same:  Listen and analyze so you can hold an environment in your mind and turn it around, formulate a plan to make things work and to track progress, communicate well, and be ready to adjust for the unexpected.  In the same day you might wield a clipboard, a wrench, and a laptop, and you might speak with a CEO, a diplomat, a vendor, and a volunteer.

Language                   Writer - Editor - Communications Manager - Designer - Calligrapher

I have written or edited everything from newspaper editorials to press releases to grant applications, from travel essays to web sites, from official correspondance to articles on the psychological aspects of millennialism.  As a Calligrapher I have created simple documents, fancy cards, and large and ornate invitations and ketubot.

Samples of my writing and calligraphy are available elsewhere on this site.  Further samples, stories, and references are available on request.

I am fascinated by the look and sounds of words - how they combine, and how their display moves the viewer's eyes;  The editor's desire to make a sentence more balanced, grammatical, and communicative isn't so different from the calligrapher's desire to construct a beautiful & meaningful document.   Both disciplines need to be simultaneously aware of the big and the small - of the whole page and the smallest line or dot - and to make each serve the other.  These are both art and science.

Logistics                   Producer - Event Planner - Stage Manager - Program/Project Coordinator - Idea Facilitator

I have planned, organized, or managed everything from a single-evening concert and full-day symposium to a weekend wedding, a week-long international conference, and a full-season theatre festival.

At MIT, I advise graduate students how to plan major conferences and competitions.  I train and connect the organizers to available school resources, and help the school take advantage of the publicity, development, alumni, and recruiting opportunities involved.

I have a passion for making logistical puzzles work: give me a plate full of presenters, audiences, stages, media, hotels, and other vendors, and I'll find a way to make these people and elements work together.  Sometimes I am hired for a specific aspect of an event, but more often I'm the general hand who helps plan for problems, train staff, assemble details, and find and repair loose ends before they can unravel.  I have negotiated with hotels, sat with police to plan for potential protests, designed lighting, programs, agenda, and event swag, built sets and props, created theatrical blood and pyrotechnic effects...      A Harvard opera director once introduced me in this way:

"This is David, he makes operas happen."

Information on some of my theatrical work is available elsewhere on this site, and references are, of course available.  Among the people and organizations who have used my skills are: Boston University, Harvard University, Blue Cross Blue Shield, King Richard's Renaissance Faire, the Chinese Wushu Research Insitute, Behind The Mask Theatre, MIT, The IgNobel Prizes, and The Boston Folk Festival.

Contact me about your project or ideas.