There is nothing wrong with having select speakers who sell product occasionally.

My partner is an investor, broker and public speaker at most of the New England real estate investment associations.

This "experience" is one reason stores like Starbucks have people shelling out $5 a cup for lousy coffee and milk - you simply cannot beat the casual, yet classy, atmosphere of their lounge-type stores, with the easy-listening jazz playing over the speakers, your poets and would-be screenwriters banging out their next masterpiece on their laptop computers, and Realtors or notaries in the corner signing offers and loan docs.

I have also been a guest speaker at the GA REIA on two occasions.

Disclaimer: I am fairly new to the real estate investing game and my expertise is on the construction side not on the real estate or economic side, but I do try and keep up as best I can.With that being said we had a speaker at a local REIA here in Sacramento go over some trends he saw in the real estate market.  

I have also been a guest speaker at the GA REIA on two occasions.

Diversified Investors Group: NW Philadelphia Sub GroupMonday, August 8th, 20166:30 PM to 8:30 PM2nd Monday of the MonthManayunk Brewing Company 4120 Main St, Philadelphia, PA 19127Educational Speaker: Andrey PakDiscussion: What is Servicewhale.com?

We have a meet and greet (with a guess speaker) every month in Manchester.

Rick, there are so many great real estate investing speakers in SoCal, we don't have that as much up here in the PNW.  

I heard this quote from a motivational speaker.