The Sacramento Metro Chamber office has been buzzing this week as Chief Executive Officer Matt Mahood and the rest of the staff finished last-minute details for their big annual event.

One of the most important things they've done to prepare for Friday's "Perspectives 2009: An American Experience" is to work closely with each of the nationally recognized guest speakers.

Surrounded by signed and framed programs from past Perspectives, Mahood talked earlier this week by phone with speakers preparing for their presentations.

The work continued Thursday when speakers started flying in from around the country and Metro Chamber staff became chaperones for the VIPs. Such behind-the-scenes work does more than ensure all the speakers enjoy their time in California's capital. It also has won the city good PR from very high-profile people, from former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright to boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien.

"Every time we have a speaker come here and they have a great experience, they go back and they tell people about Sacramento," Mahood said. "We dot all the i's and cross all the t's and make sure there's icing on the cake, so when they leave, they can say, 'Wow, Sacramento's really cool ... and they really know how to treat people well there.' "

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will headline at the 15th annual Perspectives, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St. The lineup also includes "Flags of Our Fathers" author James Bradley, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, personal finance guru Jane Bryant Quinn and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson. Their presentations will share the theme of turning challenge and adversity into opportunity and even success.

Roughly 3,500 people have turned out for the forum in peak years, but the Metro Chamber expects only about 2,000 Friday due to the recession.

In the last 15 years, the event has brought many sought-after speakers to Sacramento. In 1995, its inaugural year, President George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who would become vice president under Bush's son, shared their views. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke in 2001, before he entered politics, and former U.S. Senator Bob Dole came here in 2006.

Speaker fees range from $10,000 for unknown guests to $200,000 plus expenses for former presidents and heads of state, who are flown in on private aircraft.

Metro Chamber staff greet guests at the airport and check them into luxury hotels. They will escort the speakers to the convention center for the event Friday, as well as to other VIP events and elsewhere around town.

Lawrence Summers, President Clinton's secretary of the treasury, was one of the guests who had positive things to say after his experience in Sacramento.

"He goes, 'Man, you guys should be doing this all over the country. This is such a great event,' " Mahood said. "I laughed, knowing how hard it is to do one."

Volunteers help at the event, but logistics are handled only by the Metro Chamber's staff of 25.

"The entire chamber staff is all hands on deck," said Mahood, who also serves as the organization's president.

The public affairs speakers forum was launched to mark the Metro Chamber's 100th anniversary. Since then, Perspectives has become the chamber's signature event, Mahood said. Speakers' rosters that included motivational speakers and people representatives from both of the two major political parties have grown to include entertainers and intellectuals.

Rice is returning for the second time. She first spoke at the event in 2000, before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and before she became President George W. Bush's national security advisor and later, secretary of state. At that time, Rice was a political science professor at Stanford University and Bush was running for president.

Now, she brings significant political experience and a high-level understanding of complex international and security issues, Mahood said.

"I think she comes back eight years later with a whole new perspective," he said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.