The Bakersfield Business Conference, hosted by Borton Petrini, roared into town for the 25th anniversary of the local event extravaganza Oct. 9. The big-tent event featured some of the most well-known platform speakers in politics, such as Sarah Palin, former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
The conference also featured motivational speakers such as Joe Clark and Medal of Honor recipient Peter Lemon. Entertainment acts such as Rich Little and political satire comedy group The Capital Steps provided the light-hearted entertainment to the audience of over 10,000.
Taking place on California State University, Bakersfield’s soccer fields, every attendee in the audience cheered as they stood, waving the American flags they held for each speaker that took the stage at the big-tent event.
After a five-year absence, the conference returned to bring back the tradition founded in 1985 by the event’s master of ceremonies, George Martin.
Bringing together high-level speakers for an event this large is not an easy task, according to Brandon Martin, media coordinator and son of George Martin. In addition to booking speakers a year and a half in advance, the elder Martin, who books the guests, must determine if the speaker will still be relevant once the event comes to pass.
Martin commented on how the Bakersfield Business Conference has firm criteria that must be met when they look for speakers to book.
“Just because somebody’s a big name, or a celebrity, does not mean they get to grace the stage of the Bakersfield Business Conference. Our attendees are much more demanding than that,” said Martin. “Not all of our speakers are political in nature; we like to get the audience feeling good about themselves, laughing and enjoying themselves.”
The event also looks to find a variety of speakers to include in the line-up, regardless of their background, to give guests the best experience possible at the conference, according to Martin.
“We want the best speakers we can find, and we’ve been lucky that that’s turned out frequently to include both women and minorities. Probably the most popular speaker in the history of our event, in terms of attendee feedback and evaluation forms, was a woman, Margaret Thatcher,” said Martin.
“Ultimately, nobody is saying we have to have a certain ratio of this ‘type’ of person, we look at them as individuals. This year, as in years in the past, minorities have performed well as public speakers. We brought back Joe Clark on different occasions, not because he’s African-American, but because he’s frankly just one of the best platform speakers in the nation. There’s no doubt about it, he definitely earns his place on our stage.”
One of the attractions special to the event were the 2,880 flags that were posted into the ground by members of local high school ROTC programs and wounded veterans as a memorial for each individual that died during the attacks on 9/11.
Martin discussed the importance of the dedication and what the organization hopes attendees will take away from the memorial.
“There’s 2,880 flags for each person who died on 9/11, and the idea is you should be able to go to the top of the 110-foot Ferris wheel, look down, and get a real visual representation of all the lives that were lost on that day and start to understand, maybe for the first time because 2,880 is a big abstract number, and look at what it really meant in terms of our country’s loss that day,” said Martin.
From humble beginnings in the 1980s, to the nationally oganized event it has become, organizers of the Bakersfield Business Conference credit their growth to the attendees and presenters sharing their experiences.
“We began with 250 people in a small tent in Stockdale Country Club, and through mainly word of mouth, we’ve done very little marketing – we’ve grown. It’s been a very organic process,” said Martin.
“I think that the patriotic tent-city environment provides a lot of attraction. Normally platform-speaking events are in hotel rooms… but what we offer is a better opportunity to interact in almost like a Disneyland type of environment. Basically, as much as you can do in turning an unimproved soccer field into a kind of wonderland for people to have a great experience,” said Martin.
Martin also credits former Secretary of State Colin Powell as a source for the conference’s success. In Powell’s autobiography, there is a page with a picture of him walking on the stage at the Bakersfield Business Conference in front of 12,500 cheering people waving American flags as he looks on in astonishment, according to Martin.
“This guy (Powell) has given a lot of speeches, a lot of very important speeches in a lot of very important venues, but when he saw our crowd on their feet with that incredibly patriotic display, literally, he was speechless for a moment, and he’s been one of our greatest advocates in terms of introductions to speakers and telling them about our event,” said Martin.
In addition to the 10,000 in attendance, the conference was managed by a group of over 1,000 volunteers that held the event together.
“I don’t think that there is any other single-day, platform-speaking event in the nation that has over 1,000 volunteers. These are people, mostly from our community, who have decided to give their time,” said Martin.
The all-day event also featured a farmers’ market, Ferris wheel and merry-go-round.
The show concluded with an evening program titled The Music of Our Lives, which included performances by Bobby Vee and Ronnie Milsap.
The next Bakersfield Business Conference, according to Martin, is tentatively scheduled to take place in 2015.