Networking is one of the likliest reasons. A Clinton dinner at 10k per head will attract a certain kind of audience. The speech itself may not carry as much importance as the presence of other dignitaries, industrialists, upcomers, lobbyists and so forth.
Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
21–30 of 161 posts
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#22Has anybody here ever had her/his mind changed by a great overpaid speaker? I've seen a lot of speeches in my professional life, and the ones that stuck the most were usually from non-famous low-paid speakers. The more famous and accomplished (and American, actually) the speaker is, the more the speech would steer toward a self-eulogy of the person's work achievements. And it's boring. It's a bit sad that most of the…
> Has anybody here ever had her/his mind changed by a great overpaid speaker?
Overpaid speakers aren't there to change your mind, they're there to signal to you the high status of the institution that burnt a pile of cash to pay for them
(Is this the sentiment expressed in the original post? About to read it now)
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#23It's a legal way to baksheesh them! Nicolas Sarkozy then a random french president got payed over 200000 euros to give a 15mn speech at a Qatar based event. Qatar did really well in Business with the french since then. That's how it works!
Well this is exactly what fta is about. People also give this kind of money to famous non politicians.
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#24Has anybody here ever had her/his mind changed by a great overpaid speaker? I've seen a lot of speeches in my professional life, and the ones that stuck the most were usually from non-famous low-paid speakers. The more famous and accomplished (and American, actually) the speaker is, the more the speech would steer toward a self-eulogy of the person's work achievements. And it's boring. It's a bit sad that most of the…
You just reminded me of when I went to a conference and watched Daniel Libeskind talk about a work in progress. I get that famous individuals enjoy talking about their work but this was the first time I nearly suffocated from such an overbearing ego. Which I guess would've been fine if the specific work he was showing was profoundly influential or of high excellence? Instead it seemed like a certain distinct aesthetic that was persistent in different environments regardless of whether it fit the context.
To answer your original question, Helen Marriage (Artichoke) convinced me through her work the power that art can have in bringing together communities and fostering wonderment.
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#25Has anybody here ever had her/his mind changed by a great overpaid speaker? I've seen a lot of speeches in my professional life, and the ones that stuck the most were usually from non-famous low-paid speakers. The more famous and accomplished (and American, actually) the speaker is, the more the speech would steer toward a self-eulogy of the person's work achievements. And it's boring. It's a bit sad that most of the…
A bit different, but I do find many college commencement speeches to be both humorous and enlightening. I'm particularly a fan of DFW's and Ben Bernanke's.
Indifferent about Steve Jobs', but plenty of people would purport to have their lives changed by this.
Each of them "could" be an overpaid speaker so I figured it's worth mentioning.
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#26This is how RMS has made a living for 2 decades. One advantage to attending these is being able to briefly talk to the speaker afterwards if they stick around, like asking RMS about his papers in the 1970s about propagation, dependencies and backtracking for building large-scale symbolic systems.
Don't people basically see this as a willing donation to RMS / FSF? (which reminds me that I need to make my FSF donation for the year)
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#27[deleted]
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#28Has anybody here ever had her/his mind changed by a great overpaid speaker? I've seen a lot of speeches in my professional life, and the ones that stuck the most were usually from non-famous low-paid speakers. The more famous and accomplished (and American, actually) the speaker is, the more the speech would steer toward a self-eulogy of the person's work achievements. And it's boring. It's a bit sad that most of the…
I don't know about changing my mind per se , but I definitely got a new perspective on financial regulation after attending a talk by Barney Frank (famous for the Dodd-Frank bill). I don't remember the exact details now, but hearing about how he designed the regulations was very interesting, even if it was a pretty high-level description. It colored my understanding of the regulation in a way that just reading a desc…
Well, I won't call him a "famous speaker", not outside of a specific field (politics and finance). By famous I mean popular in a broader sense. On the tech side of things that would mean Steve Wozniak famous, so to say (famous for his contribution on a specific field, but broadly recognized as popular).
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#29It's a legal way to baksheesh them! Nicolas Sarkozy then a random french president got payed over 200000 euros to give a 15mn speech at a Qatar based event. Qatar did really well in Business with the french since then. That's how it works!
Well this is exactly what fta is about. People also give this kind of money to famous non politicians.
Maybe because they influence the people who vote
Re: Why Do Famous People Get Paid $250k to Give a Speech?
#30Because Americans worship celebrities and bribe their politicians.