Five Questions with Rick Borman

As the Naples/Fort Myers Town Hall series pops the champagne cork to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2008, Rick Borman, vice president of media and public relations, has another reason to grab a glass. He was elected president of Talking Heads Executive (THE) Forum, a group of lecture-series producers who organize lecture events in major markets throughout the United States.

Borman has organized lectures for the Town Hall series for the past four years, following in the footsteps of his father, Earle Borman, Town Hall co-director and one of the founding members of THE Forum. The lecture series showcases government leaders, authors, journalists and other high-profile figures from around the world. The speakers this season include genomic scientist Dr. J. Craig Venter, former U.S. Senator Dr. Bill Frist, Forbes Inc. president Steve Forbes, and historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin.

 

1. What is THE Forum?
The group consists of 10 members who [together] represent about 30 venues in 15 different major cities in the U.S. You might book a speaker who doesn’t show up, or who was supposed to speak for an hour and only spoke for 30 minutes. Before, there was no good way to share that information. We decided to find a place where we could discuss trends, experiences, difficulties, and share marketing concepts. It’s helpful for a guy out in San Francisco to be able to look on our Web site or pick up the phone and ask us about a speaker we’ve used before that he is thinking about. We talk about how to get a good quality speaker whose name people will recognize and that won’t cost a loss in profit.

2. What’s your role with the Town Hall series?
I bring the immediate knowledge of what’s happening nationally back to the local area. What we’ve done is create a place where [the audience] can talk to each other and the speaker. It’s like bringing the world to Naples.

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