Speaking · Keynote · Workshop · Virtual
What’s Left Is You
A Writer Who Lost Her Industry to AI on the Human Advantage
Most companies are asking how many jobs AI can replace. James Beard-nominated journalist Allison Robicelli thinks that’s the wrong question, and she has the scars to prove it: her industry collapsed, and her own writing was used to train AI without her consent or pay. In What’s Left Is You, she brings humor, hard truths, and a New Yorker’s impatience for hand-wringing to show leaders how to rebuild teams around the work machines can’t touch, including curiosity, judgment, taste, storytelling, and real human connection. The payoff is a workforce capable of bigger, braver work than ever before.
Your audience walks away with
- 01How to spot the cog work AI should take off your team’s plate, and the human talent it’s been burying
- 02How to lead people through their fear of AI with honesty, skipping both the cheerleading and the panic
- 03The journalist’s toolkit: how asking better questions gets better work out of people and machines alike
- 04How to bring wonder and imagination back into workplaces that trained it out of everyone
Formats
Keynote
45 to 60 minutes, in person
Virtual keynote
The same talk, delivered remotely
Write Like a Human
Hands-on workshop, an hour to a half day
Keynote + workshop bundle
Keynote in the morning, workshop in the afternoon, one trip
More talks
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02
The Story Only You Can Tell
How Brands and Places Get People to Pay Attention
Everyone is shouting, and AI just handed everyone a bigger megaphone. Journalist, critic, and former TV chef Allison Robicelli knows what cuts through, because she’s spent her career deciding what’s worth covering and getting herself covered in press on six continents without a publicist. She shows audiences how to find the story only they can tell, the one no competitor or chatbot can copy, and how to tell it so people stop scrolling.
Who it’s for
Marketing, PR, and comms teams; brand leaders; tourism and destination marketers. -
03
The City Whisperer
Why the Weird, Overlooked Stuff Is Your Best Marketing
Every destination says it has great food, friendly people, and something for everyone, so none of them stand out. Food historian and author Allison Robicelli, who wrote 111 Places in Baltimore That You Must Not Miss and helped make the case for one of America’s most underrated cities, shows destination leaders how to dig up the strange history, local obsessions, and overlooked corners that make travelers book the trip. Hint: it’s probably the stuff your board wants you to hide.
Who it’s for
Tourism boards and DMOs, convention and visitors bureaus, economic development groups, and hospitality associations. -
04
Ask Better Questions
What Journalists Can Teach Students About Thinking in the Age of AI
Journalists don’t start with answers. They start with questions, and that habit is exactly what students need when AI can hand them a finished paragraph in seconds. Allison Robicelli, James Beard-nominated journalist and founder of The Onesta Agency, shares the reporter’s interview method her coaches use with students, showing educators how good questions unlock original thinking, real voice, and writing no chatbot could have produced.
Who it’s for
Universities and graduate schools, faculty development programs, college counselors, independent schools, and parent audiences.
About Allison
Allison Robicelli has been a TV chef, a Washington Post columnist, a James Beard-nominated essayist, and the bestselling author of four books. Then AI helped collapse the industry she’d built her career in. Instead of waiting it out, she founded The Onesta Agency, putting out-of-work journalists to work teaching students to think, question, and write like humans. Her work has been featured on NPR, Food Network, and in press on six continents. She lives in Baltimore and will never stop being a New Yorker.
Book Allison.
All talks available in person or virtually. Tell me about your event and your audience.