Excellence in Public Speaking and AI
A celebration of technical talks with heart and soul
One of the greatest sources of joy in my professional life is giving transformational workshops on AI and decision strategy, since that’s where my data expertise gets to play with my lifelong love of theatre.
First and foremost, I love being useful — especially to leaders and aspiring leaders, since their decisions have the biggest impact on the world — but that’s not enough for me. I always challenge myself to be as amusing as possible while I do it. (Scroll for photos.)
Useful + Amusing = Amuseful
Those of you who’ve seen my bio might have noticed that by the time I became Google’s Chief Decision Scientist, I had personally trained over 20,000 Googlers in AI, data science, and decision intelligence… in person! What I love most about that factoid is that attendance was never mandatory. It was the opposite: we had to hold lotteries to manage demand as folks from all over the company (and in almost every job role) flocked to attend.
Because learning, leadership, and laughter are all compatible when a speaker pours their heart and soul into their talk. That’s the standard I hold myself to. Come for the fun, leave with the knowledge nuggets.
In celebration of public speaking, I have two sets of resources for you: for those who listen and for those who speak.
For those who listen
If you or your colleagues are looking for an amuseful speaker for your event, let me volunteer myself as tribute. 👋 There is a lot of confusion in the AI space and I’m here to help shine some light where it’s needed most.
My team will be planning my travel and speaking schedule for the next season soon and you can connect with them here:
(If that doesn’t work in your browser, try this link. )
P.S. If you’ve heard me speak and you’d like to drop a comment for those who haven’t yet, I appreciate you immensely for sharing your thoughts here.
For those who speak
If you share my philosophy on speaking — that you owe it to your audience to hone your gift and to be unboring and inspiring — I’ve made a series of guides and resources for you below. Enjoy!
- Public squeaking: A complete guide
- How to deal with tricky questions
- Why I avoid equations in my talks
- Public speaking masterclass: Panels
- Public speaking masterclass: Everything in moderation
- How to organize a panel
- Top 10 panel disasters and how to avoid them
- How to ace the toughest public speaking challenges
Photos
I like the big rooms…
…and the little rooms.
I enjoy the solo talk format…
…and the group sessions.
I’m delighted by the usual requests…
…and the unusual requests.
I love both the keynote format and the longer workshop format, but if you’ve got something else entirely, the thespian in me loves a challenge. Most oddball performance I’ve done? Emceeing at Burning Man.
Invite Cassie Kozyrkov to speak at your event
Where’s that event request form again? Oh, here!
(“We have ways of making you talk.”)
