By Fraser P. Seitel
If you’re Barack Obama or Sarah Palin or Dominique Strauss-Kahn or Charley Sheen, you probably have no trouble finding a speaking forum that might earn you publicity.
But for the rest of us -- including, even though he won’t admit it, your CEO -- locating a speaking gig that actually pays off in positive publicity (Forget money!) is no easy task.
In the first place, most of the time, alas, CEOs don’t say much that translates into newsworthiness. Second, it’s tough to convince today’s lemming-like journalists that CEO speeches are worth covering. (I mean if they’re not on television, how important can they be?!?) And third, what speaking platforms are really worth covering?
While we can’t provide your CEO with nourishing things to say (unless you pay us!), and we can’t educate reporters that some speeches might actually be meaningful – we can point to the nation’s most prestigious speaking venues.
These are the forums around the nation that are invitation only, attract top corporate and political speakers, and are frequently the subject of media coverage. Most have been around for many years, have thousands of members, and sponsor weekly or even bi-weekly speaking engagements.
So if you’ve got an executive with something to say, you might consider soliciting interest from these superior venues (listed in alphabetical order) for organization speeches.
This “citadel of free speech,” has been holding weekly forums for 100 years. As with most other major speaking forums, the City Club sponsors its own radio broadcast of its speeches on a number of stations.
City Club of Cleveland has entertained most of the major speakers of the 20th and 21st centuries, from Jimmy Carter and George Bush to Dick Cheney and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
In a typically-eclectic week for the Cleveland staple, City Club members hear from the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, the inventor of the hydride battery, and the CEO of the Cleveland School District.
- Commonwealth Club of California
Founded in 1903, the Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. The Club sponsors weekly speeches in its San Francisco and San Jose locations.
Even though it’s located in the cradle of liberal thinking, the Commonwealth Club is decidedly “nondenominational,” entertaining speeches from everyone from Nancy Pelosi and Alec Baldwin to Christopher Hitchens and the president of Kaiser Permanente healthcare.
Martin Luther King, Jr. , Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates have all given landmark speeches at the Commonwealth. And it is a willing venue for corporate CEOs.
The nation’s premier business-oriented speaking forum, the Detroit Economic Club was primarily associated with airing the prevailing wisdom of the auto industry. In recent years, where “prevailing wisdom” in the auto industry was difficult to identify, the Detroit venue has increasingly aired the views of other industry CEOs.
Upcoming speakers include the CEOs of Union Pacific Corporation, UPS, Amway, NYSE Euronext, Huntington Bank, and Goodwill Industries. Why in November, the Detroit Economic Club will even here from the chairman and CEO of a little, local firm, General Motors.
- Economic Club of New York
New York City’s most influential speaking forum, the Economic Club of New York observes a more irregular schedule than its fellow speaking forums. In the past six months, it has scheduled only two events, one a speech by former Secretary of State George Schultz, the other a speech by Speaker of the House John Boehner.
The forum’s selectivity and limited schedule add to its prominence as a coveted venue.
Foreign leaders, from Winston Churchill to Mikhail Gorbachev to Margaret Thatcher all chose the Economic Club of New York to make major U.S. pronouncements.
The National Press Club is a Washington, D.C. private club for journalists and communications professionals. Since the National Press Club is nestled in the heart of the nation’s capitol and is home to reporters, the speakers who appear at its 75 annual lunches often receive publicity.
Accordingly, politicians dominate the speaking schedule, but so do all variety of authors, corporate executives, sports stars and celebrity spokespeople. In recent months, the National Press Club has hosted speeches by the Haitian ambassador, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Venus Williams, and Will. i. am.
Another legendary forum, Town Hall is the perhaps the only serious speaking venue in Los Angeles (maybe even the only serious thing in Los Angeles!).
Its unique location enables Town Hall to attract speakers that other business-oriented forums do not. Civil rights attornies, police chiefs, mayors, environmental experts, and even public relations professionals appear as speakers. |