Talk is not cheap, it’s free, with Hinsdale speaker service – Chicago Tribune – Doings

Jan Blum was looking for a topic to present to para-professionals at Hinsdale High School District 86 when she stumbled across FreeSpeakers.org.

“I think I hit the jackpot,” said Blum, an administrative assistant at Hinsdale South High School. “They had such a variety of speakers and topics. And I found out they are right here in Hinsdale.”

What she found was a pro bono service which has linked public speakers with organizations and businesses for 20 years.

FreeSpeakers.org, which was launched in 1996 as Free Speech, has a new name and new markets. A bureau in Milwaukee recently started up and one in Indianapolis is being formed, said Andy Richardson, vice president of Ginny Richardson Public Relations.

More than 220 speakers are members of FreeSpeakers.org. The information about them and the presentations they do is posted on the website.

Speakers pay a $35 membership to be listed on the website, but they do not charge the clubs or businesses anything to give a talk.

“Our speakers blanket the entire Chicagoland area,” Richardson said.

They include authors, doctors, nurses, basketball referees, a Grammy Award-winner, farmers, financial consultants, fitness experts, real estate brokers and teachers. The groups that book them pay nothing, no honorariums, no travel-reimbursement, the website states.

Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune – Hinsdale Doings

By Kimberly Fornek
Chicago Tribune – Hinsdale Doings – February 15, 2016