Hanging on the wall of Robert Walker’s office are photos of him with Mikhail Gorbachev, Muhammad Ali, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ronald Reagan, and numerous other luminaries. They are all clients he’s represented through the American Program Bureau, or APB, a Newton agency that claims to have the largest speaker roster in the industry, including entertainers, intellectuals, politicians, and business leaders.
As president and chief executive of APB, Walker has spent the last half-century as the middleman between conference organizers and keynote speakers, negotiating contracts and handling logistics. Walker spoke with Globe correspondent Cindy Atoji Keene about the art and business of speaking.
“We have 50 agents here working at the American Program Bureau; our biggest money maker for bookings is corporations, associations, or organizations. We book speakers all over the world; one recent example includes actor Richard Dreyfuss, who spoke to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners about playing notorious fraudster Bernie Madoff.
“It’s the trend lately that businesses bring in speakers from disparate fields to entertain and enlighten attendees, keeping energy high at meetings. How do speakers end up at the podium? While it’s true that speaking engagements can be negotiated independently, many event planners go through agencies like ours to simplify the whole process.
“We have exclusive rights to speakers such as Cornell West, Larry King, Mary Robinson, Michael Douglas, and Jane Seymour. When Muhammad Ali recently died, I remembered him as inspiring anyone he met, including me.
“Professional keynote speaker fees vary but typically range from $5,000 to $850,000, based on demand. We have something like 250,000 customers in the database, and the busiest season is the fall and winter. While you might think that commencement is a busy time of year for us, for the most part it’s not even part of our business. Usually when the alumni or trustees ask someone like Matt Damon to come to MIT or John Kerry at Northeastern, it’s free of charge — the only time we get called is when someone cancels and the school is stuck without a speaker.
“I just turned 80, and my life has been like a living history book. I started APB in the 1960s, when people like Abbie Hoffman, Betty Friedan, Jane Fonda, and Ralph Nader didn’t have a way to get their message out. I went to college campuses to arrange and make sure their voices were heard.
“There’s no doubt that a good speaker can motivate, empower, and inspire, and even change lives. Many speakers tell me that if they can just influence one person, it’s always well worth the engagement.’’
Cindy Atoji Keene can be reached at cindy.atoji@gmail.com.
