THE SPEAKING CIRCUIT FOR VIPs

There are two very good reasons to do the speaking circuit for high profile personalities from the world of politics and the media: One is money and the other is exposure. Depending on the circumstances, it could be argued that either of those two incentives is more important than the other. For well-known political figures, doing paid speeches (in English slang ‘speaking gigs’ meaning in person presentations to groups of people) can be enormously lucrative with fees well into the six figures: For example  former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney made almost $375,000 in speaker's fees from February 2010 to February 2011. Former President Bill Clinton earned some $ 89 million in paid speeches after leaving office, including $ 13.4 million from 54 speeches in 2011. That’s an average speaking fee of more than $ 248,000. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to command $ 200,000 plus for each appearance. Former President George W. Bush standard speaking fee is between $ 100,000 and $ 150,000 and he has earned over $ 15 million in speaking fees since leaving office. Former President Sarkozy is said to command over € 100,000 per speech.

Speakers bureaus act as agents that hire speakers for their clients. Most bureaus work for the interests of their client - not the speaker. The bureau catalogues information about speakers and presents a selection of speakers to their client. Then the bureau hires the speaker. The bureau gets paid by taking a percentage of the speaker's fee. Bureaus tend to take 20 to 30% of a speakers fee.

The optimum speech time for most Speakers is between thirty to forty five minutes. A 45-minute speech is typically followed by 15 minutes of Q&A. Many Speakers, unless otherwise instructed, may go over this time as the Q&A is typically the most exciting and spontaneous part of any event. Many Speakers may also participate in a reception, a meal function, or possibly a book signing, if appropriate. Standard expenses include (but are not limited to) unrestricted, first class, round-trip airfare; hotel accommodations; ground transportation by a professional car service (both in the event city and city of Speaker’s origin), meals, and incidentals. Occasionally, some Speakers require additional expenses such as security or expenses for an aide.

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