Erik is an author, speaker, and consultant from Denver, Colorado.  His work history includes trading on the floor of a Chicago commodity exchange and managing an office for a prominent Chicago commodity brokerage firm (honor: national sales leader); and teaching in one of Colorado’s premier school districts (honor: teacher of the year). In his current career, he focuses on improving oral communication, whether one-to-one, small group, large group, informal or formal, in-person or digital. Palmer shares practical, understandable ideas that enable all adults to design effective presentations and deliver those presentations with dynamic speaking skills. He is a frequent presenter at conferences, and he has given keynotes and led workshops for adults across the United States and around the world.

Erik’s book focusing on speaking skills for trainers (and anyone who would like to be a better speaker) is Own Any Occasion: Mastering the Art of Speaking and Presenting (ATD Press, 2017). Previous books include Well-Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students (Stenhouse Publishers, 2011), Digitally Speaking: How to Improve Student Presentations with Technology (Stenhouse Publishers, 2012), Teaching the Core Skills of Listening & Speaking (ASCD, 2014), Researching in a Digital World (ASCD, 2015), and Good Thinking: Teaching Argument, Persuasion, and Reasoning (Stenhouse, 2016).

His educational background includes Oberlin College, University of Denver Law School, and the University of Colorado.

Palmer’s work has been described as practical, enlightening, energetic, eye-opening, creative, and fun. He brings a unique perspective into his consulting work as well as a passion for improving speaking skills for all.