Anatomy of a Seminar - National Achievers Conference - Part 7

The next speaker was a person by name Kevin Green. He claimed to be a real estate magnate who owns thousands of properties in the UK. He was here to give tips to Indians on how to become rich by investing in the property market.

He started by asking how many people own 1 property. Many hands went up. Then he asked how many own 2 properties. Few hands went up. Then he asked how many own 5 properties. Hardly any hand went up. Then he said that he owns 1000 properties!

In similar fashion as Peng Joon, he also started showing pictures of his affluence, his family taking vacation, his picture with Prince Charles and other dignitaries. I knew quite clearly what was the modus operandi. He was here to sell his training program again. I did not want to spend much time in the conference as I had some important family gathering to attend. So, I left, having been satisfied by listening to Dr Velumani.

I heard that there were some other speakers later who were quite good.

So, here is how the NAC format works. They line up speakers. One would be a motivational speaker who may not be selling anything directly, like Subodh or Dr Velumani. Then, alternatively, there will be others, who are basically hard selling their training programs. Though they also have something to tell, I felt they did not have a good message. Typically, these guys who are trying to sell something, are sourced from outside the country and may be for a reason. No one can in such case, do a background check on their credentials. They of course have a profile in the internet which can be created for anyone in matter of weeks.

It may also be such that while Subodh and Dr Velumani would have been invited by Success Gyan, the others who are trying to sell their programs, would have rather paid Success Gyan (or the Singapore company) to get the stage time. Also, Success Gyan may claim a commission on their training program sales. Success Gyan also partners with other trainers to offer programs like ‘Milionare Mind Intensive’ (MMI) etc. In such seminars like NAC, they sell discounted tickets to MMI

Now, Success Gyan also recruits an army of volunteers at each location. These volunteers work for free as ushers, stage managers, audio visual team, other support staff and probably have the benefit of being able to attend these conferences. They do much of the ground work. They also keep selling tickets (without commission). They get some other benefits as meeting some of these trainers personally, taking pictures with them etc.

I felt that this is network marketing for learning and development. You get good as well as bad teachers. It is part of the deal. The good part of it is one can learn a lot, but the bad part is one can lose a lot of money in this as well. The discretion is yours, where to draw the line because everyone tries to hardsell!