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THINKING GLOBALLY
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By Kevin E.
Kipp
The St. Louis Speakers Series boasts that it features “heroes and
legends” whose “diverse opinions, profound insights and fascinating
discussions” will “enlighten, inspire and entertain.”
In an age of hyperbole, Thomas may doubt.
But a quick look at the list of luminaries lined up to lecture at
Powell Symphony Hall for the 2003 – 2004 season immediately allays
skepticism’s easy surmise.
First is Rudy Giuliani, Hero, who emerged after the 9/11
gut-punch as a pillar of strength and beacon of hope.
Second is Elie Wiesel, Legend, who survived Auschwitz AND
Buchenwald, earned the Nobel Peace Prize and who has defended the
rights and dignity of oppressed peoples and tribes on five continents.
The series also brings to St. Louis a storyteller, a secret-keeper
and a scoundrel: Lake Woebegon’s Garrison Keillor, Robert
Woodward (will we ever know who is Deep Throat?), and Frank
Abagnale, the confidence man portrayed in the film “Catch
Me If You Can.”
Also appearing this, the fifth season: best-selling author Amy
Tan and recovering White House advisor and journalist David
Gergen.
Dr. Keith Lovin is president of Maryville University, the series’
presenting sponsor. He says, “Colleges and universities need to
contribute to the community where they belong. They can do that
a lot of ways. Washington University, for instance, is a major research
institution; that’s significant.
"WE'RE
A TEACHING INSTITUTION, NOT A RESEARCH INSTITUTION,
AND AS THE PRESENTING SPONSOR OF THE ST. LOUIS SPEAKER
SERIES, WE CAN HELP PROVIDE INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION
IN THE COMMUNITY; THAT'S SIGNIFICANT."
Dr. Kevin
Lovin
president,
Maryville University
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“We’re a teaching institution, not a research institution, and as
the presenting sponsor of the St. Louis Speaker Series, we can help
provide intellectual stimulation in the community; that’s significant.”
KWMU, American Equity Mortgage and the St. Louis RCGA are also sponsors.
Lovin appreciates the benefits that redound to his institution for
having supported the series since its second season. “It has been
a marvelous vehicle to increase the visibility of Maryville University
in the St. Louis community,” he says. “I can’t think of a better
thing for a university to be involved with than a lecture series
that brings in people as prominent on the international stage as
[past speakers] Benjamin Netanyahu, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher
and Henry Kissinger.”
Not all the players are from the stage of geopolitics, Lovin points
out. “We try to bring a diversity of people, ideas and positions
to the people of St. Louis.”
Thus past speakers have ranged from opera diva Beverly Sills to
pop culture celebrity Erin Brockovich, from conservative columnist
George Will to NPR liberal Terry Gross. Historians and other authors
appearing at Powell have included David McCullough, Frank McCourt,
Doris Kearns Goodwin and the late Steve Ambrose.
One of Lovin’s favorite moments was Goodwin (a Dodgers fan) asking
forgiveness for praying for the Yankees to suffer injury.
Subscriptions are sold as a package, and not available for individual
speakers. No cherry picking and no escaping views you expect to
disagree with. “If tickets for individual lectures were sold, then
it no longer would be a ‘speakers series,’” reasons the website.
(Visit www.speakerseries.com)
Even within the diversity of the presenters, Melissa Barreca, public
relations manager at Ameristar Casino St. Charles, found a theme.
“The bottom line reason I subscribed this year was for professional
development,” she says. “The speakers seemed to offer something
to anyone interested in journalism and communications—Bob Woodward
and David Gergen in particular, for obvious reasons. And Rudy Giuliani
handled the crisis communications after 9/11 masterfully. I expect
there will be a lot of meat in his presentation. Any PR person would
salivate at the idea of having him as your spokesperson.”
And the others? “Well, they all write,” Barreca says. “I read that
Elie Wiesel has published something like 40 books.”
For her part, Theresa Lynch, president of Project Professionals
LLC, attends the St. Louis Speaker Series as one of the bundle of
benefits that derive from her membership in the RCGA’s Leadership
Circle. She also attends the RCGA Leadership Circle reception at
the Powell Club prior to each evening’s lecture.
Lynch says she likes hearing from speakers about “the unique challenges
in their lives and how they have worked through them.”
And she appreciates the audience having the opportunity to submit
questions. “It gets them off-script. Last year for instance, someone
asked Gen. Hugh Shelton [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, ’97 – ’01]
what it was like working for both Presidents Clinton and Bush.”
(They’re both intelligent, she says he said, with Bush being a little
more aggressive.)
“I like to know what’s going on in the community and in the world,”
Lynch says. “On the local level, I stay involved. [Besides her participation
in Leadership Circle, Lynch serves on the Creve Coeur City Council,
United Way committees, the board of St. Louis County, CASA and more].
The speaker series offers a way to be knowledgeable about international
matters through the in-depth, personal view of people who were actually
there.”
In a similar act-local-think-global vein, Tom Langsdorf, vice chairman
of Universal Printing Company, says, “We joined the Leadership Circle,
primarily as a way to support the RCGA and all the good they are
doing in St. Louis. The speakers series and the receptions are just
a bonus.”
Langsdorf subscribed to the series for three years before joining
Leadership Circle.
“The series is very worthwhile,” he says. “You get a lot of information
and perspective about what’s happening in global politics that you
don’t get any other way. And you get it in a short time, in an entertaining
format.”
Like Lynch, Langsdorf attends Leadership Circle receptions before
the lectures. “My wife and I have met people we don’t usually meet,”
he says. “We don’t do ‘after hours,’ so this is a good way to meet
people informally who share our interest in a vibrant St. Louis.”
Kevin Kipp runs Bubble Communications, a creative services and
community relations firm. |
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