SPEAKING

Maria Konnikova is an award-winning author, champion poker player, and writer for The New Yorker.

Maria Konnikova speaks about a range of subjects involving decision making, creativity, learning, and the psychology behind everyday life. She has given dozens of keynotes around the world; been a featured speaker at conferences like the World Economic Forum at Davos, TEDNYC and TEDx, and SXSW; led corporate retreats and annual meetings; and taught the key skills of optimal decision making to groups of all ages. Before any talk, Maria will work closely with the event organizers to determine what approach would be best for their target audience. She will customize her presentation, messaging, interactive components, and relevant examples to suit the needs of every audience. No two talks are ever the same, though all do draw on a combination of psychological research (much of it Maria’s own), real life examples, Maria’s personal experiences at the poker table and in the world of confidence artists, and Maria’s extensive background in journalism.

In addition to giving talks, Maria can supplement her appearance with personalized workshops for your audience. Over the last several years, Maria has developed interactive decision making workshops that use poker as a tool to explore the mind and help participants emerge with a roadmap for improving their thought processes going forward. (All, hopefully, while having some fun and learning some poker strategy!) She has successfully run these workshops everywhere from corporate retreats in Colorado to school classrooms to neuroscience meetings and investment conferences in New York City. Each workshop is customized.

You can view selections from Maria’s past talks here. If you have more time, listen to her entire keynote at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, or dive into her WEF conversation with Nobel-winning economist Robert Shiller on risk perception.

Some speech topics include:

• PERSUASION, TRUST, CONFIDENCE: WHAT YOUR BUSINESS CAN LEARN FROM CON ARTISTS

 

• BETTER DECISION MAKING THROUGH POKER

 

• SELF-CONTROL AND EMOTION MANAGEMENT: LESSONS FROM PSYCHOLOGY AND POKER

 

• HOW THE MIND LEARNS: LESSONS FROM PSYCHOLOGY AND POKER

 

• MASTERING THE ART OF PROBABILISTIC THINKING

 

• THE POWER OF STORYTELLING

 

• HOW TO THINK LIKE SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF THE MIND

 

• MINDFULNESS FOR DAILY DECISION MAKING

 

• HOW TO ENHANCE YOUR CREATIVITY IN ANY ENVIRONMENT

 

• HOW WE CAN LEARN TO BECOME MORE RESILIENT

 

• HOW TO BE BORED: BOREDOM AS AN ANTIDOTE IN THE AGE OF DISTRACTION

 

Interested in booking Maria for your next event? Reach out! speaking@mariakonnikova.com (speaking inquiries only, please; all other email will not receive a reply)