type private industry meetings and events industry founded 1972 founder john palmer headquarters libertyville il united states key people brian palmer president number of employees 1 10 website www.nationalspeakers.com contents 1 overview 2 history 3 references 4 external links overview edit national speakers bureau is an illinois based speakers bureau . the firm founded in 1972 by john palmer is currently led by brian palmer who assumed the presidency in 1996 . history edit after working as a band leader for twenty years john palmer searched the yellow pages of new york city for an established business that he could translate to his hometown of chicago . while there were established professional speakers in chicago there was no speakers bureau that served the market at the national level . this led him to found the national speakers bureau in 1972 . the first foray into the business came when palmer arranged for rod serling renowned screenwriter to speak at michigan state university . 1 john palmer s son brian palmer joined the national speakers bureau as a sales person in 1980 . in 1996 brian was named president . since then the company has continued to source speakers for organizations and associations internationally . national speakers bureau does not represent speakers exclusively . their business model is to work for companies and recommend speakers based on their quality and fit . 2 the company celebrated their 43rd anniversary in 2015 . references edit lazarus george june 30 1982 . former band leader s speakers bureau a hit . chicago tribune . section 3 . p. 1 . 1 http www.nationalspeakers.com document.php id 3 external links edit national speakers bureau official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title national speakers bureau & oldid 740138801 categories speakers bureaushidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 19 september 2016 at 08 24 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view