AI can draft a brief in seconds and synthesize data faster than any team. Within two years, every competitor will have roughly the same AI tools. So what’s the competitive advantage that remains? It’s the human in the room. Read More >

In this talk, Penny introduces The Presence Premium: the strategic framework for the capabilities AI cannot replicate: reading a room in real time, building trust through physical co-presence, and changing what’s possible through influence and human connection.

Drawing on research showing that physical presence is the single strongest predictor of resistance to AI displacement, and on her own career navigating the highest-stakes diplomatic environments on the planet, Penny gives audiences a new way to understand their own value and a practical playbook for making themselves irreplaceable.

This talk is data-driven and optimistic without being naive. It’s the counter narrative to the AI doom conversation: not a denial that disruption is real, but a framework for what to do about it.

Penny customizes this keynote for corporate leadership teams, professional services firms, technology companies, associations, and any audience navigating the intersection of AI and human talent strategy. Read Less ^

Based on her forthcoming book from Penguin Random House, this keynote introduces Penny’s Smart Power framework: the practical application of diplomatic soft power to everyday work and life. Penny shows how even, and especially, in situations where we feel powerless, we have access to surprising and effective strategies for change. Read More >

Drawing on behavioral science, global campaigns, and her own experience leading organizations from the Clinton Global Initiative to New York City government to the United Nations, Penny delivers three takeaways audiences remember long after the event. This talk resonates with anyone who has ever felt overlooked or underestimated in their work, and especially with working women, young professionals, and leaders navigating complex institutional environments where being right is not the same as being effective.

Penny tailors this keynote for corporations, nonprofits, universities, and associations across industries. Read Less ^

For decades, we called certain skills “soft” which was our way of saying less important. Trust-building. Reading a room. Persuading without authority. Relational intelligence. The people who developed these skills most deeply, for example women navigating systems not built for them, immigrants reading rooms in languages they were still learning, young people without titles figuring out how to make things happen through sheer human connection did so because they had no other option. Read More >

Now, in the most profound economic shift of our lifetimes, it turns out those are capabilities that matter. AI automates everything else. The people we overlooked were training for this moment without knowing it.

In this talk built from the framework of her forthcoming book, Penny tells her own story of growing up undocumented, calling 911 at age eleven, and building a career of influence with no institutional power to start from. She reframes the AI conversation from fear to agency, and gives audiences a new understanding of what makes them irreplaceable.

This talk is ideal for women’s leadership events, diversity and inclusion programs, university convocations, and any audience interested in the intersection of technology, equity, and human potential. Read Less ^

Companies are cutting entry-level positions, automating mid-level management, and celebrating the efficiency gains. Nobody on the board is asking: who leads this company in 2035? Read More >

In this talk, Penny names what she calls the “human capital bubble”, where institutions consuming their leadership pipeline for short-term AI savings, with costs that are invisible until they’re catastrophic. She presents data showing that Gen Z is the generation least interested in fully remote work and the most hungry for in-person connection and development, and argues that the apprenticeship model that produced leaders for generations is being dismantled not by malice but by efficiency.

This talk is designed for boards, C-suites, chief people officers, and talent strategy leaders who need to think beyond next quarter about where their next generation of leaders is coming from and what happens when nobody’s investing in developing them.

Penny tailors this keynote for corporate boards, HR/talent summits, professional services firms, and executive education programs. Read Less ^

Courts and legislatures get the credit, but the real work of social change, from the acceptance of gay marriage to the decline of smoking to the global movement for reproductive rights, happens through culture, not policy. Institutions follow these changes more than they drive them. Read More >

In this talk, Penny draws on examples from her career spanning the Clinton Global Initiative, New York City government, and the United Nations, as well as global case studies from Colombia’s Causa Just a movement to the designated driver campaign, to show how soft power creates the conditions for systemic change. She offers audiences a framework for understanding where influence actually lives in their own environments: and how to use it, especially when formal power is out of reach.

This talk is particularly relevant for audiences navigating polarized environments, institutional gridlock, or moments of political uncertainty. Read Less ^