Make a Few Suggestions....

My local herp society's annual show will be in October. I am trying to convince our executive board to set up some guest speakers at the show, to help draw a bigger crowd, and to help generate more money in entry fees. The idea is to charge extra, in addition to the regular admission fee, for attendance in any lecture(s) given by the guest speaker(s).

Now I need some suggestions for guest speakers. I was thinking along the lines of Bill & Kathy Love, Clyde Peeling, De Vosjoli, Richard Bartlett and so on. Of course these guys may be too expensive for a local herp society, so does anyone have a suggestion as to a reasonably priced speaker who is fairly well known - we need a fairly well known person to draw a crowd.

The closer to the New York City metro area the speaker is located, the better to help defray travel costs.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

Best regards,
Glenn B

I can't make any suggestions as to who you could get for a speaker Glenn but I can point out something else to look for. Its not enough to get an expert on something. While I am sure that most of us here would jump at a chance to listen to Bill or Kathy Love or Philip De Vosjoli speak, you have to decide if the majority of attendees at your event would be willing to pay extra for it. Granted, a herp society should be filled with people willing to do just that, but I would venture to guess that most of the attendees will not be members. They will most likely be members of the general public who happen to have an interest in reptiles. In my opinion, most of these people might not be to keen on spending extra money to here an "expert" talk. They want glitz and glamour. I am certainly not saying that anyone you mentioned would not be able to provide that. I am sure that those people would be able to provide some extremely interesting animals. Its just that these people may provoke a fear of a technical lecture in the general populace and it may scare them away. I am not saying that you need to go with a flashy Steve Irwin type, but I am sure that someone with a wide array of spectacular animals would get a better turnout than what people might percive as a boring old herp dude talking about gentics.

Simply put, who would most of the general public rather pay to see Steve Irwin or Kathy Love. (Sorry Kathy, I just used you for an example, I for one would be wiating in your line)

I might also add that such a person might not need to be as well known since its not really the person people are going to see, its the animals they have.

I know that as a herp society you are probably trying to get away from that type of show, and promote a more scientific approach, but if you are going to spend the money, in the hopes of raising more money, sometimes you have to bite the proverbial bullet and go with what I am not saying you have to give up profesionalism to get the glamour. I am sure that there are some people out there who can provide both.

Good luck with your show and let us know who you got and how it went.

Steve Schindler

I agree, it would probably be "wasted" on the general public.

It might be more of a draw to set up the lectures by theme, rather than a name.

And, I don't think Kathy would be too expensive...she regularly donates her time on the Kingsnake forum and I know she's in this for the animals. She might just do it for free, if you asked.

Ok...maybe I shouldn't have said the "do it for free" part because I don't know her. But, from what I've seen on the forum, I still think you should talk to her.