Help me get a gig I made up?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The gig exists: giving lectures aboard cruise ships, but I have a specific subject which I’ve taught to undergraduates that’s actually much more suitable for people of the age and demographic that goes on cruises. What I need is a way to contact the people who do the hiring for cruise lines.

So far, I’ve just been able to contact people who give my contact information to those who do the hiring, and none of those have gotten back to me yet.

Are there booking agencies whose clients get hired to lecture on cruise ships? Maybe I need to contact one of those, but Googling “booking agents cruise ships” doesn’t give me much. Any ideas for cutting through the BS and finding someone who does the hiring? I’ve got a great one-page pitch for the job but I haven’t had a chance to use it yet.

Also, I assume one is paid mainly with room and board on a cruise ship, not so much with actual money. Anyone who has done this, or who knows someone who does?

2

This is somewhat unrelated, but I’m leery of cruise ships. I’ve heard too many stories of mini-epidemics aboard them. I don’t know the actual statistics. but it looks risky from here.

3

I’ve known a couple of people who do/did these trips. Both were retired Ph.Ds in their field:

A retired Art History professor from Georgetown (specialty: Silk Road) does them several times a year for the Smithsonian and in fact is on one right now. I don’t think all of his gigs involve cruises per se; they are at least sometimes land-based. He goes to Turkey, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and even did one in Vietnam a while back.

The Smithsonian runs a tight ship, so to speak. Their paying participants are asked to rank the quality of his lectures every time he goes out. When his scores dropped below a certain level (in Vietnam; I assume because he’s not as familiar with the material, and he said there was one guest who was a PITA), he was put on probation! But he’s fine now.

His biggest complaint about the work, which he mostly loves, is that he is expected to mingle with all the travelers. He’s an introvert and so that can be a challenge.

A Harvard professor, now deceased. I forget what his specialty was but I am sure he was a fantastic lecturer, as he had a wonderful sense of humor and a booming voice. I also forget who his employer was, but I assume Harvard University. He did primarily do cruises, I believe. His feelings about it were mixed - he said some of the guests could be demanding assholes.

We get brochures trying to tempt us into taking such “intellectual” cruises all the time, from our various alma maters. They have included wonderful sounding adventures to the Galapagos and Greenland, among other exotic locales. The lecturers are always current or retired professors from whichever alma mater is involved.

So, based on the above, I tend to assume that many of these trips are organized not by the cruise ship companies, but by universities or museums, who provide two components: the academic expertise, and access to a mailing list of alums/members who may sign up. I imagine they work with cruise ships/travel agencies to take care of the other details.

That’s all speculation on my part, though. Still, I doubt the cruise ship companies are the ones to talk to.

ETA:

Nope, they get well paid. That’s why my art historian friend does it.

4

Surely theres dedicated head hunters for this industry.

You’ll need someone on the inside to get your name to them.

I would doubt there’s an index with these people.

An employment agency?
Or a temp service agency?

5

Doing a quick bit of research:

Compass Speakers and Entertainment, Inc.

Maybe Sixth Star.

Or Cruiseship Enrichment?

I can’t vouch for the quality of any of those places – the first seems somewhat promising – but it looks like “cruise enrichment speakers” or something like that is the search term you’re looking for.

6

Wow! Color me impressed that you found that material. Intriguing!

Especially this entry, from the Compass listing:

Gentlemen Hosts® must be single gentlemen, 40-68 years, who are refined social dancers, cultivated and distinguished gentlemen who enjoy enriching the lives of others. Our volunteer dance hosts possess the highest moral ethics, make friends easily and love to dance.

Yowza. I would love to meet someone who actually did that. It sounds both bizarre and fascinating.

7

Maybe contact a Speakers’ Bureau and go from there?

8

That’s me. Retired for a few years now, Ph. D., and this subject is square in my field.

Not so much with me–I’m something of an introvert but this should be fun, getting to mingle

From @pulykamell’s Cruiseship Enrichment link:

WHAT DOES IT COST ?

Cruise lines DO NOT pay cruise ship speakers and instructors for their services and they DO NOT pay for the recruitment of them either. They DO NOT pay us or any agent for our services either.

So if you wish to consider being a speaker or instructor you have to accept that you will need to pay something, either to be promoted, or to apply for openings and to get booked by some cruise lines. You can read more below about how the different cruise lines recruit speakers and instructors.

There is no FREE way to get cruise ship guest speaker or instructor assignments unless you know someone at the cruise line.
There are plenty of people offering their services for cruise ship enrichment so don’t expect that you will get an assignment thinking that the cruise lines are desperate. They are not. You need to promote yourself effectively and be active in applying for cruise openings. No cruise line is going to be contacting you if they have never heard of you before, no matter how good you are.

For new registrations we charge an Initial Startup Fee of £91 (about USD$117) if you have a UK bank account and can pay by internet banking. This Startup Fee includes a setup fee of £32 and a 12 month subscription access fee of £59 to our platform. There is a 5% surcharge by Paypal if you pay this fee using a debit/credit card. This fee is non-refundable.
It takes us time and effort to put together your profile on our platform for the very reasonable fee that we charge. Your profile is then available for the cruise lines to view and consider, and we provide promotion to the cruise lines in various ways.

For this Initial Startup Fee you will receive the following:

  • 12 months subscription access to our platform so that you can create/edit your online profile (CV) and apply for cruise ship enrichment openings
  • An online profile (CV) that will be specifically targeted to the cruise line booking managers. This is your own online CV webpage which you can also send to anyone who maye be interested in what you offer as a speaker or instructor.
    Click this link to see a sample of profiles >> CLICK HERE
  • A link on your profile page to a video showreel that you may have created to promote yourself. Most cruise line enrichment booking managers now expect to see a showreel before they will engage you for the first time.
  • Assistance in setting up your profile such as uploading your profile photo and links to your video showreel if you have one.
  • Regular email notifications about updated enrichment listings on our platform as well as other useful information to help you get the most out of our platform.

If you are ready to make this small investment, click the CONTINUE button to complete the registration process.

Seems like a bit of scam, no? You don’t get paid, and you can only land a gig if you give us 117 bucks first?

9

Yeah, I’d be leary of that, too. I didn’t get far enough into the page to see that, but hopefully some search terms may help like “cruise enrichment” or “enrichment cruise.”

10

Trying to find HR through the customer website seems less than fruitful.

11

The NEA website has a page that might be helpful:

12

Almost sounds like a high-class male escort for the older crowd… :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

13

Yeah. I know for a fact that the Smithsonian pays good money - while my friend enjoys doing it, the income is also a significant motivation.

14

@pulykamell’s recommendation Sixthstar got back to me, had me fill out a sensible application form (demanding that I supply them with six mini-courses I could teach, rather than the one I have in mind, but that was no real problem) and (I think) suggested that their cut would be a portion of what I’ll get paid, which is only fair. I had to give them three recommendations, which was easy enough, and they will have a rep contact me. Maybe something good will come out of this.

Doesn’t really read too much different from “man-whore,” does it?

Not really. Apparently, I need to join the NEA first, which I tried, but they sent me to my state-wide NEA branch and it was a bit confusing as to how I’d sign up and completely unclear as to what the dues would be.