Rochester, N.Y. – The Get Motivated! event had the feel of church, rock concert and infomercial wrapped into a day-long seminar.
The traveling motivational seminar stopped in Rochester Tuesday and packed the Blue Cross Arena with 10,000 people, many of whom took a day off of work or went with their offices.
For the $1.95 price of an advanced ticket, attendees heard from the likes of Terry Bradshaw, Steve Forbes, Bill Cosby, and Colin Powell.
“Most important thing is life is how you feel about yourself? Are you happy? Do you like who you are?” said Bradshaw.
Each speaker costs $50,000 to $100,000, begging the question how the event affords the speakers and makes a profit.
The answer quickly became evident. First, people could not enter without giving up their email addresses.
“I had a hard time giving my email up, had to give them the email just to get in the doors,” said Chris Steger.
In between celebrity speakers, the crowd had to listen to sales pitches.
“So far they tried to sell a financial education program. It's not something that I chose to participate in,” said Ryan Kaza.
“It was a software for stocks, websites, finance in order to better do your finances. They gave free lunch if you bought the software. I saw a lot of people doing that,” said Melanie Byrnes.
Many people took out credit cards and signed up for future seminars that cost $99.
“I signed up for the financial portion, to help with the stock options and things like that,” said Michele Tomaselli.
“We just signed up and if you want to do it, he said it was like putting your credit card on hold for a hotel,” said Julie Geraci.
We found most people enjoyed the event, despite the seminars motivation to make money.
“I loved it. I thought it was very motivational, very inspirational. I liked it a lot,” said Whitney Register.
“I just came in for Terry Bradshaw's speech. It was just amazing and I feel excited and ready to take on today,” said Bethany Dakin.
Traffic was heavy downtown for the morning rush hour. Police planned for the event and said shuttles were available from suburban locations.
