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Talks of the Town

The Desert Town Hall series has attracted some of the most high-profile speakers in the world to the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa in Indian Wells for over 30 years … and there isn’t an empty seat in the house.

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If you want to know how Desert Town Hall began, go no further than Becky Kurtz, executive director. She was practically in the delivery room when the baby was born.

“I went to the very first one,” she recalls. “And I was so taken with it that I called the next morning and asked if they needed any volunteers.” Kurtz has worked with Desert Town Hall since then and has attended every lecture. She assumed her current role in 2010.

The idea for the speaker series originated with French-born, Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner, Jr., according to Kurtz. The first season occurred in 1992 and the series is now in its 33rd season. The 2025 edition will begin on Jan. 16 with explorer Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones. Stephen Harper, former Canadian prime minister, will speak on Feb. 7. Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie, will speak on March 4. The 2025 season will conclude with a speech by Megyn Kelly, journalist and media personality, on March 31. A highlighted shortlist of speakers from the last dozen years is staggering: former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; President George W. Bush; Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Newt Gingrich; Dick and Liz Cheney; former astronaut/Senator Mark Kelly and his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords; Caroline Kennedy; General David Petraeus; director Ron Howard; and journalists Chris Wallace and Bob Costas.

Kurtz is a Wisconsin native who moved to the Valley to take a position as managing editor of Palm Springs Life. She says the selection process for the four speakers each season is multi-layered. It includes input from Desert Town Hall attendees; she also works with various agencies that manage speaking tours for high-profile clients. At first, it seems surprising that the likes of Thatcher or President Bush would be inclined to visit our sleepy Valley. But, when you consider that over 1,800 residents back the Renaissance Esmeralda, it casts it in a different light. A large percentage of attendees are long-time season ticket holders. “It’s like the symphony,” Kurtz says. “Every year, [the ticket holders] renew their tickets and move further up to where they want to be.”

Kurtz says one surprising thing about the event is that, quite often, a speaker who is not well-known to the audience will turn out to be the most moving. “The masterful storytellers can really move the room,” she says. “I’m thinking specifically of Beck Weathers (the amateur mountaineer who survived the 1996 [Mount] Everest disaster described in Jon Krakauer’s book, Into Thin Air). As he was talking and describing the lack of oxygen and his step-by-step journey on Everest, you could have heard a pin drop in the room. Another amazing storyteller was Nando Parrado, who was a member of the Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes in 1972. After two months, he and a companion spent 10 days climbing out of the mountains to find help and rescue the survivors.”

The youth program is another highly popular facet of Desert Town Hall. Each season, 150 students from high schools throughout the Valley are chosen to participate. Kurtz says when the series began, adults supervised a separate program where speakers would meet with students before the main event and deliver remarks that were more appropriate for a youthful audience. “Over time, we saw that the students wanted to take ownership of the event,” she says. “So, now, we have youth ambassadors who run it. They greet the students in the parking lot, show them where to go in the hotel, introduce the speakers, and take the microphone around during the question-and-answer segment. It works beautifully.” 

Gingrich was a particularly popular speaker among the kids, according to Kurtz. “He asked to take individual photos with all the kids,” she says. “I said, ‘Mr. Gingrich, I don’t think we can get that done with our limited time.’ And he’s such a masterful politician. He said, ‘Ms. Kurtz, I’m sure you can find a way to get it done.’ And we managed to run all the kids through, and the photographer was just like click, click, click. And afterwards, he said, ‘Now that’s an experience each of those kids will have for the rest of their lives.’”