Milo Shapiro

Milo Shapiro walked away from his B.S. in Computer Science and fifteen years in Information Technology to pursue his passion:  applying his 30+ years of improvisation to events like teambuilding and motivational speeches, creating a fun way of learning business practices, communication skills, and personal development.  On his last day, a co-worker asked, "Who's going to make it fun for us to work here now?" 

Milo began studying improvisation in 1990, joined his first troupe in 1992, and began teaching in 1993.  He has traveled in the US and Canada to continue his own improvisation education and teaching skills, performing weekly for 14 years with the comedy troupe San Diego TheatreSports and managing them for 6 years. 

The former Toastmaster and nearly 20 year National Speakers Association member's most popular program is his solo motivation presentation, "We Gotta Fail...To Succeed!" (on risk-taking and coping with failure in our ever-changing world and jobs).  In it, Milo speaks for about half the time and the other half is spent leading the crowd in interactive games, livening the energy of the event, getting people to mix and socialize, and ultimately, to learn valuable lessons on risk and communication from the games.  As one of the most interactive keynotes bookable, it has been a hit with the likes of Minolta, Southwest Airlines, Qualcomm, the San Diego Housing Commission, and the American Society of Training and Development.  Companies like the lessons; associations love that it gets everyone playing with and talking to each other.  The games work well in breakout rooms for virtual programs.

After requests from attendees for trainings and/or coaching in public speaking, Milo launched the coaching side of his business "Public Dynamics", helping individuals become more prepared, polished and powerful upon the platform. In conjunction with his teaching beliefs, he published his first book in February of 2008: "Public Speaking: Get A's, Not Zzzzzz's!" and a sequel for teens in 2015. He is available for his keynote speech/webinar on presentation skills which goes by the same title.

In "Whose Line Manager Is It Anyway?", his duo presentation, he creates a top-ten list on a opic of interest to the client, like "management and team values", "sales", etc.. The duo performs an improvisation show that supports the points being made -- demonstrating that while there are important lessons to learn, the process of making one's point can be done innovatively rather than solemnly.  Kodak, Pfizer, and HNC-Software are among those who have praised his creative methods.

Wrapping up his platform offerings is Simon Sez for Adults.  This classic game is even more fun as adults, who THINK they're good listeners.  Milo has reduced audiences of up to 800 down to a winner in 15 minutes.  The whole audience plays and when we get it down to a reasonable number, they join him on the stage for the finals.  Can be a stand-alone burst of energy or as part of a keynote program.

His self-created training program, "TEAMprovising", has created a team connectedness, improved communication, and boosted innovation in diverse groups - ranging from I.T. engineers at Sempra Energy to processing clerks at Computer Science Corporation to customer service operators at San Diego Gas & Electric (an urgent call that made a huge operational difference during the California energy crisis of 2000) to staff at the U.S. Department of Defense (whose jobs he still cannot discuss).

His next book "The Worst Days Make The BEST Stories" (in paperback and audio) is a series of short, funny true stories from which a lesson can always be learned.  It has been described as "...what Chicken Soup for the Soul would have sounded like if Jerry Seinfeld had written it". 

Sample Client List for Milo Shapiro's keynotes and trainings programs

Southwest Airlines

Qualcomm

The US Navy

Wellpoint/BlueCross

Minolta

Pfizer

Kodak - national conference

General Dynamics

Sempra Energy (San Diego's energy utility)

The US Marine Corps

Fair Isaac (formerly HNC Software)

International Special Events Society

KaiserPermanente Health Care Organization

Southwest Airlines

U.S. Department of Defense

Computer Sciences Corporation

San Diego Educational Consortium

Union Bank of California

The U.S. Marine Corps

Sharp Health Care (California's 6th largest provider)

...plus dozens of profession associations