No, not RPGBaby’s speaking. While she coos a lot, she is only speaking in my wife and my heads, and we get to make up the words. This is about public speaking, as we have opened SIEGE for speaker requests. I can’t even begin to count the number of presentations I have given at conventions, or even the number of conventions at which I have run my mouth. Heck, the con badges I have saved fill up several boxes, and most are long gone.
At times I have considered what it would be like to just run my mouth for a living, following the convention circuit, telling executives how gaming can save their lives, and surviving on hotel chicken dinner banquets. I never went that route, preferring to go to the cons I liked rather than the ones that would pay me. As a convention organizer, I hear from a number of them, and I am usually less than impressed with the general speaker for hire.
One friend of mine has, however, done it right, mixing a strong knowledge of game development with a real understanding of business culture and the regular need for culture change. Scott Steinberg still has a game industry focus, but he now takes that to all kinds of companies and events (Singapore parenting?). He’s done the traditional speaker things (books published, consulting established, videos up), but his best work has been on games and technology.