Q+A with Chris Cremer

As its premier fundraiser, the Ringling College Library Association’s Town Hall Lecture Series has donated $8 million to support the Ringling College of Art & Design Verman Kimbrough Memorial Library.

In 35 years the Town Hall lecture series has developed a reputation of quality presentations and hopes to continue attracting the highest level of speakers.

The lineup for next year’s Town Hall series started in 2014, with the selection of 2016 chairwoman Chris Cremer.

Q: What is the process for selecting speakers?
A: It’s a collaborative process. Once I got an idea of who was trending I met with the Van Wezel and reserved dates. I made a wish list of every speaker that I could think of that excites me. Then I met with my committee and I gave them my wish list and went around the room, and everybody weighed in with all of their ideas. After doing that I contacted some of the other Town Hall lecture series across the country to get an idea of what the circuit is.

Q: Were there any surprises about the process?
A: My final lineup looks nothing like I envisioned my first lineup. I think it’s a very good thing. When I accepted the chair, I thought about what would be my ideal lineup, and it looked very different.

Q: What was it like to make those choices?
A: Since I’m going to be picking speakers 12 to 16 months before they appear, it’s almost like I need to be a visionary myself to try to determine who is popular now, who is trending and who is still going to be trending months from now. Sometimes that can be a hard call. The flipside to that is that someone who isn’t on the radar now could be on the radar a year from now. I started with 152 and started narrowing it down.

Q: How do you come up with your wish list?
A: There is a process that is followed and of course I really drew on the knowledge of former Town Hall chairs because it’s kind of like you have the world of speakers to choose from and it can be quite daunting and overwhelming.
The process normally starts with what our audiences want. Every five years or so we do a survey of our audience and ask them what topics they’re interested in. We have a very sophisticated audience, very well read, very much into current events and knowledgeable about a lot of different topics.

Q: Who is at the top of your wish list for ultimate speakers to bring to Sarasota?
A: I think it would be Bill and Melinda Gates. I just think that they’re unbelievable visionaries, they’re businesses titans with his founding of Microsoft, and now with their foundation they are absolutely the premier foundation in the world.

But they’re almost impossible to book. They are so philanthropic and there is so much of that that goes on in our town I just think it would be just a fabulous connection.

Q: Who are some of the other names on your list?
A: Richard Branson, John Oliver, Jon Stewart and Anderson Cooper.

Q: As Town Hall chair you will also be on stage quite a bit for the Q&A portions. How do you feel about being on stage?
A: I’m very excited. I sing, so I’ve performed on stage practically my whole life. I’m kind of past the jitters, but to feel good about public speaking you have to be doing it all the time. I was chair of the Education Foundation Evening of Excellence in 2013 so that got me back to the stage and that really helped.

Q: When the 2016 series ends, what will you do next?
A: I sing with the Sarasota Choral Society in its chorus. I’ve sung opera and classical all my life.  I dream of someday auditioning for the Sarasota Opera to be in its chorus.

Speakers for 2016
Platinum Dinner Speaker Jan. 6: Amy Tan
Jan. 19: Shimon Peres
Feb. 3: Sharyl Attkisson, Jim Messina and Karl Rove
Feb. 16: Ken Robinson
March 7: Robin Roberts
March 15: Gen. David Petraeus