Gingrich delivers keynote address
Former Speaker of the House takes center stage on Sunday, May 2
By John Johnson -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/1999
For most distributors, the business runs in the blood. Many got their start by sweeping the floors and working in the warehouses of the distributorships they now preside over.You could say politics runs in the blood of Newt Gingrich. He too got an early start in his chosen field when, at the young age of 10, he was front page news after meeting with city officials about the future of an animal sanctuary. Politics has remained in his blood ever since.
Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who resigned from that post last November, will deliver the keynote address at the ASMMA/I.D.A. Spring Convention in San Francisco. Gingrich will address convention attendees on Sunday morning, May 2, during opening ceremonies.
"He really was a key person in shaping the Republican revival a few years ago," I.D.A. president Sam Mitchell, president of EC Blackstone (an IDG company), told ID in a February interview. "He's a real important person in history. And he's a known name. We're trying to keep our speakers at the level we've had in the last couple of years."
Mitchell added that the ASMMA/ I.D.A. group is largely conservative, and therefore Gingrich should be well received. He also noted that whether or not members agree with Gingrich's politics, they may be interested in what he has to say.
Gingrich certainly has the track record to keep the attention of a crowd. He was a major key in creating the first Republican majority in the House of Representatives in 40 years, which in part led to his election as speaker in 1995. In 1997 he became the first speaker from the GOP to be re-elected since 1928.
In 1995, he was named Time magazine's Man of the Year and the Georgia March of Dimes Citizen of the Year. Gingrich is known as being the chief architect of the Republican Contract With America, which achieved its principal goal -- a balanced budget -- in 1997. Coupled with that goal was America's first tax decrease in 16 years.
Peter Drucker, in an interview with Inc. magazine, had the following to say about the former Speaker: "...The most visible innovator and entrepreneur in this country today is neither in business nor the social sector. He's in government. It's Newt Gingrich."
Gingrich has always believed that one person really can make a difference in life, and used that belief to become one of the most prominent political leaders of the last quarter century. Throughout his public life as a legislator, which began in 1978, Gingrich thrived on speaking on behalf of the American people.
Although now out of politics, Gingrich continues to carry that message nationwide, empowering the groups to whom he speaks to respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by the information age.
Gingrich represents the third consecutive major political figure to keynote the Spring Convention. Last year, former British Prime Minister John Major delighted the crowd at the Spring Convention in Orlando. In 1997, U.S. Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) was the featured speaker.
"Mr. Gingrich has been one of the leading political figures of our day and has been involved in redirecting the Congress of the United States in policies which are evidenced throughout government," I.D.A. executive director Gary Buffington told ID in February. "Although a sometimes controversial leader, he is certain to bring an interesting perspective on the contemporary political scene to the members of ASMMA and I.D.A."
Gingrich has published four books. The latest, released in 1998, is titled "Lesson Learned the Hard Way."
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