Word to the wise, from this London Telegraph report: When you get paid a half-million bucks to give a speech somewhere, the local reporters expect you to say something worth repeating in the newspaper.
After former British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke in China, the press ripped him for sounding ... like any Chinese bureaucrat:
"Frankly, we are very familiar with all this—it's just like listening to any county or city official's reports,” Deng Qingbo wrote in the China Youth Daily.
"If so, why pay such a high price to hear the same thing? Is it worth the money? Do these thoughts multiply in value because they come from the mouth of a retired prime minister?”
Of course Blair was probably advised not to say anything that would ruffle political feathers.
But what might the old chap have said that would have justified a half-million dollar speaking fee—especially in a country where millions of people still live in caves?
Comments (3)
1) I wouldn't pay Tony Blair half a buck to speak, but that's just me.
2) Why did he care that he was told not to ruffle feathers? Does he actually expect them to invite him back for lots more speeches at that fee? I'd have said whatever I wanted, but, again, that's me (and nobody's banging down my door offering me millions to talk, sigh, only in my dreams!)
3) Hey, the fact that the "leaders" running China ALLOWED such "inflammatory" press reports of the speech is something, isn't it?
Posted by Kristen | November 13, 2007 7:38 AM
Posted on November 13, 2007 07:38
When we do our annual customer conference each year we are always on a tight budget for a speaker. Finding a notable name can be a challenge to say the least.
However, we've found that even the lower tier speakers can be effective if they have a good schpiel and schtick (why I'm invoking my Jersey yiddish I don't know).
So would I blow 500k for some pablum to be spewed by a notable name? No sir. It may have some initial draw for promotional materials, but if the actual speech falls flat you may never recover a good pperception from your audience base.
People want to be entertained. We realized that this year when we did a spoof of SNL's celebrity jeopardy to give an update about our company. I played the Sean Connery role, took some shots at the CEO (who was the voice of reason as Alex Trebek) and we had two charachters from Universal play Betty Boop and Popeye. The audience LOVED it. They laughed and they got the information we were trying to get across. Now that's a win-win speech and the whole cost less than 5K...not 500K
Posted by Rob Patey | November 13, 2007 8:05 AM
Posted on November 13, 2007 08:05
I think this is far more ominous than Blair being a bore. This looks more like China showing off in the same way Rome would parade conquered rulers before its senate. We can buy Tony Blair and make him say whatever we want.
Posted by Michael Sebastian | November 13, 2007 1:36 PM
Posted on November 13, 2007 13:36