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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Misha Glouberman

Virtual environments aren’t the end of human connection—as long as we communicate effectively.

Negotiations Expert | Co-Author of The Chairs Are Where the People Go

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Abandon the Battle Mindset

Lavin Exclusive Speaker

How we talk to people is so fundamental, we often forget it’s a skill. But it’s essential for leaders, teams, and everyday people—especially in this new era of remote and hybrid work environments, driven by virtual communication. As a professional facilitator of meetings and conferences, MISHA GLOUBERMAN is a skilled communicator and an expert in maximizing human connection. He’s been called a brilliant moderator, a natural teacher, and a gifted negotiator—even running a negotiations course that’s been described as “life-changing.” In his intelligent, funny talks, Glouberman shows us how we can communicate more effectively with each other—even when emotions are fraught, stakes are high, or when we’re separated by physical distance.

“Glouberman will win you over with a simple and good-spirited reasonableness that leaves you feeling uplifted by the power a voice of common sense can still have in the world.”— Jonathan Goldstein, This American Life contributing editor

Misha Glouberman is passionate about how people connect with each other—at work, at conferences, in cities, anywhere they meet. As a speaker, facilitator, and designer of participatory events, Glouberman helps groups of people have vital conversations with each other. His classes are a mix of relatable anecdotes, practical lessons, and hands-on, experiential learning that has earned him praise from participants and media alike. Engaging, effective, and surprisingly fun, Glouberman’s work has been described as “humanizing relationships—one event at a time,” (One+) and “reinventing the way stakeholders collaborate with decision-makers” (The Harvard Business Review).

Glouberman’s expertise in negotiations, communications, and putting together participatory events, also make him a highly skilled host and moderator for the virtual age. Beyond the content of his message, which is itself invaluable, Glouberman focuses on encouraging and fortifying audience-to-audience engagement using digital tools and platforms. It’s precisely this hands-on quality that makes every event he leads feel not only fascinating, but completely absorbing. That, and his presence, which is nothing short of transformative. Glouberman has been likened by The Globe and Mail as a mix of “Peter Mansbridge’s smarts and Conan O’Brien’s wit”—a man who can “turn a Q&A session into a surprisingly sincere collaboration.” In everything he does, Glouberman combines a creative people-centered approach (he has a philosophy degree from Harvard) with analytic rigour (he previously worked as a software developer).

Glouberman is also the co-founder and host of the wildly popular Trampoline Hall, a lecture series that has sold out every show in its home city of Toronto since its inception, as well as toured North America. His book The Chairs Are Where the People Go, co-authored with Sheila Heti, is a collection of inventive, philosophical, often humorous essays that was promptly named one of the best non-fiction books of the year by The New Yorker.

Testimonials

Misha was fabulous! The lecture theatre was packed and people really, really loved the presentation. We got an awful lot of positive feedback and Misha made the event a great success. The next day’s seminar was much smaller, but again productive and informative. There were a couple of people from Maxwell who organize a conference in the Middle East in conjunction with the State Department, and they found his ways of engaging the problem of bringing together in a conference setting people who don't know one another very informative.

Syracuse University

Lavin Exclusive Speakers

Angela Duckworth

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Daron Acemoglu

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Nikole Hannah-Jones

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Creator of The 1619 Project | Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-Winning 1619 Project Hulu Docuseries | MacArthur Genius

Greg Hoffman

Nike's Former Chief Marketing Officer | Author of Emotion by Design

Nicholas Thompson

CEO of The Atlantic | Former Editor-in-Chief of WIRED

Speech Topics

Team Building

Building Connection in the Virtual WorldMaximizing Technology for a Human Experience

Connecting virtually is here to stay. The technologies that arose out of dire need can no longer be considered “temporary measures”; they are now permanent tools that offer us both opportunities and challenges. They can either be a source of increased connection or a path to isolation, depending on how we use them. Crucially, the choices we make now will affect us for years to come.

Enter Misha Glouberman: an expert in creating authentic connections online. In this exciting presentation, audiences will learn how to avoid the mistakes that can make online interactions feel lifeless and boring, and instead, discover effective strategies for designing highly engaging online events, from small meetings to huge conferences. Those who are interested in fostering genuine connection in the virtual world will benefit greatly from this dynamic and highly participatory talk, which showcases Glouberman’s best strategies in action.

Workshops & Interactive

How to Meet Authentically OnlineHave Better Virtual Meetings, Conferences, and Events

Tired of Zoom fatigue? Worried that people are watching Netflix in another tab during your meeting? Then you’ve come to the right place — Misha Glouberman will help make your online events fun, engaging, and a place for participants to make meaningful connections. Misha is an expert on hosting, facilitating, and designing events. His tips and guidance will help you make any event a transformative experience.

He draws upon a number of tried and true organizational principles, such as Unconferences and Open Space Technologies, that grant participants the opportunity to self-direct, act with autonomy, and direct the flow of the event. What this means is that your participants will be constantly engaged, all the while guided by Misha’s steady hand and the goals central to your event, conference, party, or meeting. Misha takes these principles and deftly applies them to online gatherings, to help you and your participants learn, connect, and talk about what really matters.

Team Building

How to Talk to People About ThingsCommunication Secrets from Expert Negotiators

Negotiation is all about reaching decisions with people who want something different than you, which is to say: pretty much everyone. It’s more than a skill, negotiation is about developing a new perspective on relationships with other people. We can all learn how to become better at forging agreements, creating mutual gain, and resolving conflicts, in all areas of our lives. But how?

Misha Glouberman will help you transform the way you view negotiation, and the reasons people disagree in the first place. His talk will help you get past the roadblocks that prevent agreement, and recognize the traps and misunderstandings that people fall into, especially when emotions run high. By understanding someone else’s perspective, yours will grow. Glouberman draws on research from many sources, including Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, and uses storytelling and humour to illustrate how to talk to people when it seems like you are speaking in two different languages. These are life-changing skills that can transform how you see the world and the people around you.

Workshops & Interactive

Make This Conference BetterGetting the Most Out of Organized Events

A lot of energy, effort, and expense goes into planning and attending a conference. Conferences can be a great opportunity to learn, to meet new people, to have interesting and valuable conversations. Yet, they seldom live up to this promise. In this participatory event, Misha Glouberman sets about to change this. Because people come to events knowing very few people, or knowing only the people in their small world or silo, Glouberman initiates a series of conversations where every participant meets a dozen new people. These groups then talk in ways that are genuine and human in a non-intimidating context. (Shy attendees, especially, love this exercise!) People get to share ideas about the event, its themes, and what they are hoping to get out of it. By the end, literally thousands of new connections can be formed within a group, dramatically changing the social dynamic and network map of the event. Conference goers leave Glouberman’s unique session feeling energized, connected, and focused.

Civic Engagement

The Modern CityLearning How to Coexist in Dense Urban Centers

Misha Glouberman looks at multiple issues about living in cities: etiquette on public transit, dealing with noisy neighbors, bikes and cars, gentrification, and many other topics. With candor, counterintuitive provocations, and a lucid reasonableness, Glouberman challenges many of the clichés about living in cities, while explaining that the most important way to understand a city is as a place full of people who coexist, while wanting different things from each other.