Right now I'm at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City with about two thousand other members of the National Speakers Association. This is our annual convention for this four thousand member association and as you can see about half the members spend the time and money to attend the five day annual meeting. You really ought to see this.
There are authors, motivators, trainers, coaches, consultants, subject experts, media personalities, speakers bureau owners, celebrities and staff members who support them. The convention agenda itself is 40 pages long!
All of this was started in 1973 when professional speaker Cavett Robert gathered a few of his colleagues and suggested that they work together to create a larger market for speakers, a "bigger pie" he called it. Well folks, it worked. Today the market for adult education, motivation and corporate performances is in the hundreds of millions. The meetings industry comprises numerous organizations that chose to join hands with NSA as each built their piece of the industry.
As a past national NSA president and a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame I have a dozen official events to attend or preside over during this week, all the while surrounded by my "classmates" whom I've known for years and whose names have become household words. On Tuesday, August 5th I will be speaking at the United Nations for the first time.
I'm one two US delegates to the International Federation For Professional Speakers and will be attending their convention and board meeting before and after the NSA events. Watch this site for more news on these programs.
And if you are in NYC on Sunday night at 8pm, I'll be performing in the Astor Ballroom, 7th floor (guitar & singing) with a number of my fellow speakers.
Rock on!
Jim
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