Economic experts coining it as recession bites

Home News | International | Letters | Editorial & Opinion

The country's leading business brains are replacing entertainers on the public-speaking circuit – and charging up to €10,000 per appearance, writes Mark Hilliard

Eddie Hobbs (above), Terry Prone and David McWilliams: their diaries are swelling with appointments for the next few months

Terry Prone

David McWilliams

An elite of economic and business thinkers has stormed the frontline of public speaking and seminars, proving what we had always suspected – that the recession had to be good for somebody.

Ireland's most recognisable and influential business brains are now commanding anywhere from €3,000 to €10,000 to sweet-talk a long list of clients still willing to pay a bit more than a penny for their thoughts.

The diaries of Eddie Hobbs, David McWilliams, Ben Dunne, Terry Prone, Pearce Flannery and Dr Maureen Gaffney are swelling with appointments for those who may have temporarily turned their backs on lighter dinner conversation.

"They are certainly in demand; from the middle of last year onwards there has been more demand for talking about the whole economic trends globally and nationally," said Frances Keane, managing director of the agency Personally Speaking, which represents David McWilliams and Eddie Hobbs.

"There is still a healthy demand for speakers but I guess people are putting a lot more thought into what they want a speaker to do when they are at the event."

Motivational speakers and others who can offer clients advice on the current recession and how to pull through it are currently topping the pile.

Former government minister Ivan Yates, Apprentice axe-man Bill Cullen and sandwich kingpin Brody Sweeney are also packing the halls of multinational companies eager to inspire confidence in downturned staff.

But despite a falloff in overall demand for speakers – specifically in the entertainment-driven 'after dinner' circuit – those who are being called upon for their insight are not suffering a fall-off in fees – but neither are they seeing their usual increase.

"We certainly haven't raised fees; people raise fees normally every year and if the recession hadn't happened I would have been changing them, but we certainly have not [now]," said Keane.

Susan Thornber of Speaker Solutions has also noticed a marked shift in the industry with business knowhow firmly outranking entertaining anecdotes. "Demand is up in terms of business speakers: people who maybe have been through a recession and can give real advice to companies on how to get through this. How can we handle this; how can we motivate the staff and keep busy?

"But with the after-dinner [speeches], as you can expect, the budgets wouldn't be there anymore. The glossy side of things is down but that is to be expected."

Economists in particular are in high demand, she said, but "rather than being all doom and gloom, it is about 'this is where we are at and this is where we can go to'."

As for the fees of the big stars, Thornber agrees that they are certainly "more negotiable" at the moment.

"A lot of companies have events and in the past they might have booked speakers who have a 'wow' factor," she said. "But in harder times, people are starting to question the value of that."

International stars, who do a select few appearances every year, can command fees of up to €75,000 for those wise words.

According to industry sources, Harvard Business School's Professor Michael Porter, or Gary Hamel, described by Fortune magazine as "the world's leading expert on business strategy" will set Irish clients back at least €50,000 for the pleasure of their company.

February 22, 2009

Comments

#1 Myles Rath commented, on February 26, 2009 at 3:01 p.m.:

Could I comment on your use of the term - an elite of economic and business thinkers. Apart from David McWilliams I suggest that there is little evidence that any of the others listed are economic thinkers at all, let alone being among the elite of same. Unfortunately, you may be right when you describe them as among the most influential. Good luck to them if they seize the opportunity to collect big appearance fees. However, in the current critical and somewhat unstable financial and political situation they may do far more harm than good through the absolute certainty with which some of them profess to know what course of action the government should follow and the effects of alternative approaches.

It is a bit presumptuous of me to criticise David McWilliams and to tweak the tail of our great ginger hope but he seems to want to be always ahead of the curve, to be radical and to demonstrate that he is the brightest boy in the class. He is therefore a bit rash on occasions. Because he is so influential his duty to be responsible is all the greater.

However, my most serious criticism is of the academic economics who have failed badly in their “duty” to inform economic debate over the last number of years in Ireland. With some notable exceptions such as Alan Ahearne and Brian Lucey they have not lived up to their responsibilities. Public funding imposes on them the obligation to contribute to discussions on policy matters where they have expertise - even where it may be uncomfortable to do so when their views may not find favour with to the body politic or vested interests. The media, of course, also has a duty to provide a forum for responsible commentary when it is offered.