Are Well Known Orators Worth The Investment?
Today a celebrity speaker is akin to specialists on pro sports teams such as relief pitchers. At the end of the game, with the game on the line, the team hands the ball, or the microphone, to the lone figure whose job is to close it out successfully. After the speaker makes the crowd laugh, or get inspired, or feel the presence of stardom, he or she can start counting the money.
Fees have become so large that potential celebrity speakers sign themselves to agencies that specialize in providing someone who come to your gathering and expound. You visit these agencies' sites and the speakers' photos will be laid out for you like used cars. Beneath them will be their various accomplishments or quirks.
The fees such speakers command isn't pocket change. A starlet on a new television comedy that isn't a hit yet, but about which great things are expected, could cost between $5,000 and $10,000, or more if she is the survivor of a meth addiction and can be packaged as an "inspirational speaker". A solid professional football player might also fall into that pay range, as might a NASA astronaut who flew on the Space Shuttle.
It might cost $30,000 or $50,0000 for the iconic star of 1970s blaxploitation movies, or for a successful inventor. At the top of this pile is former American President who has commanded over $500,000 for an appearance, though usually slumming at around $200,000.
One must wonder whether it's worth such expense. This is easier o determine if the event is expected to turn a profit. Having spent $20,000 on the daughter of a Vice Presidential candidate, your fundraiser will know at the end of the night whether it yielded $20,000 more than it might otherwise have expected.
Whenever the event is meant to turn a profit, it is capable of such a judgement. If you're holding a baseball collectibles convention, it's easy to determine if it was worth it to pay $100,000 to a three-time MVP when you might've landed last year's batting champ for half that amount. By contrast, it's hard to determine value if the event doesn't have a goal that can be measured in income. That should be a concern, because speakers expect payment in something a lot more fungible than prestige.
A college or university graduation, for example, always features a celebrity speech. One of the staples of these speeches is that in six months no one will remember the speech about to be given. Maybe it's time to takes that to heart, relieve the students of some small amount of their debt, and simply have a successful alumnus from years gone by give the speech. It might in fact mean more to the students.
If it's a business conference, instead of the famous auto company CEO, consider the unknown person who designed the SUV that actually put that company over the top. Times are difficult. It might be time to replace ego with value. It's still possible to find a fine celebrity speaker without breaking the bank.
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