Do you consider conversation a lost art?
Then find your way to the Madison Hotel this Thursday, April 27, 2017.
Great Conversations promises an evening of stimulating dinner talk with 30 captains of industry, sports stars, scientists, artists and media personalities.
“It’s our most exciting lineup ever,” says Gina Moran, director of development for Morris Arts.
Conversationalists include Joan Rivers biographer Leslie Bennetts of Vanity Fair, Metropolitan Opera soprano Jennifer Check, New Jersey Performing Arts Center CEO John Schreiber, clean-tech entrepreneur David Rosenberg, and Madeleine Thomson, a Columbia University researcher studying the impact of climate on disease.
You can talk steak with chef David Drake, or baseball with MLB.com correspondent Lindsay Berra, whose late granddad was a guy named Yogi. Investment adventures? Ask TV personality Guy Adami.
There are architects, fashion designers and medical experts, too. See the full list.
A few $250 tickets remain for the event, which benefits the Morristown-based nonprofit arts agency. Cocktails start at 6 pm, and then speakers hold forth over dinner at separate tables.
Patrons list five preferred speakers when they buy tickets. Morris Arts attempts to seat patrons with one of their choices, on a first come, first served basis.
For Moran, recruiting “high energy, inspirational people” for this annual soirée is her passion. She hunts for over-achievers who are dynamic and fun.
A tough job, but someone’s got to do it.
Many referrals come from past speakers. Others are tapped via families and friends.
Damien Woody, a two-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots, was booked because the son of event Co-Chair Tara Skirzenski is friends with Woody’s daughter.
‘HONED AND BUFFED’
The dinner, now in its ninth year, was suggested by another board member, Joen Ferrari, who saw something like it in Atlanta. The idea caught on fast.
“A lot of times, galas are somewhat formulaic,” said Moran. “This one’s a little different. You have a conversation with your table.”
Morris Arts aims is for a program diverse enough for married couples to choose different tables that pique their individual interests, giving spouses something to talk about afterward, said Tom Werder, executive director of the nonprofit.
Great Conversations is anticipated to net $170,000, a vital chunk of Morris Arts’ $1 million budget at a time when federal cuts are looming, Werder said.
Morris Arts receives $103,000 annually from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which gets its funding from Washington. President Trump has proposed eliminating the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Now, more than ever, it’s important to support our work,” said Werder, calling the arts an economic engine. Government dollars to Morris Arts translate to grants for 20- to 30 organizations across Morris County, he said.
Speakers donate their time, and sometimes forge helpful professional ties in the process, Werder said. The same goes for Morris Arts, which cultivates corporate relationships “that have really paid off,” he said.
Moran thinks it’s a winning format.
“We’ve honed and buffed it, so it’s near to being fully crystallized,” she said.
On Friday, Moran and Skirzenski will start prowling for 2018 speakers. Who tops their wish lists?
Peter Dinklage, got any dinner plans for next April? Are you busy, Meryl?
