Laura Packer - storyteller, speaker, coach

Expect a welcoming performance or workshop experience, one that invites you and your guests into the experience.

Expect to be amused, amazed, moved and transformed.

Expect a professional who respects your time, your budget and your event.

Expect a performance crafted for your needs, appropriate for your audience.

Expect your guests to be wowed.

Expect the best.

Laura Packer has been telling stories for more than 20 years that always lead listeners down unexpected avenues. She knows the best way to the truth is through a good story.

A finalist on the 2009 and 2010 Boston Story Slam series, presenter at the 2012 Ciudad de las Ideas Festival, winner of the 2010 National Storytelling Network Oracle Award and 2012 League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling Brother Blue Award, Laura has told in venues as wide ranging as Exchange Place Stage at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee; The Art of Storytelling Festival in Miami; London’s Hyde Park; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; NASA; Three Apples Storytelling Festival; Sharing the Fire Storytelling Conference; 2006 and 07 Usability Professionals Association; Cape Breton Storytelling Symposium; Boston and Kansas City Fringe Festivals; and at theaters, festivals, schools, assisted living facilities, libraries, hospices and more. She is a past Chair of Sharing the Fire, the oldest, largest regional storytelling conference in the US, past board member of both the League for Advancement of New England Storytelling and the National Storytelling Network. Laura has also hosted several Boston and Kansas City area storytelling venues.

Laura’s unusual and enchanting stories are influenced by the oldest myths and everyday occurrences. Her style of storytelling welcomes audiences into the narrative and encourages them to be part of the creative experience. Internationally known storyteller Brother Blue has described Laura’s performances and recordings as “pure storytelling, pure wonder.”

Laura has taught storytelling, writing and public speaking across the United States and in selected European venues. Students have ranged from librarians to elders to young students to mental health professionals to artists to IT leaders and more.

Laura’s keynotes and talks are interactive and engaging. She strives to leave her audiences with new skills and new stories. Her coaching is supportive and full of curiosity.

Laura helps both for- and non-profit organizations communicate more effectively through coaching and storytelling techniques. Through listening and speaking exercises as well as story gathering and telling experiences, organizations come to a clearer understanding of their vision, needs and possibilities. Her one-day storytelling workshop, Stand Up and Speak Out: Tools for Effective Self Promotion, presented at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center was endorsed as “more useful than you could possibly imagine.” You can learn more about her organizational storytelling work at (link hidden) and (link hidden). Her previous work at iRobot, the nation’s leading mobile robotics firm, was seminal in shaping the company’s view of its own history and future mission. She also helps individual artists improve their work through one-on-one coaching.

The 2014 death of her husband from pancreatic cancer has led Laura to write and speak about grief and the stories we tell about our lives.

Laura holds a degree in Folklore and Mythology from Boston University.

I prefer either a wireless or a stand mic with amplification appropriate for the venue.