That’s what a university administrator said to me last week during our short conversation as I was picking up my free pass to the hottest ticket in town.

Bill Clinton, the one and only 42nd President of the US, spoke at a Vancouver Board of Trade event Thursday evening to a crowd of 1400 people who could afford tickets that ranged from $99 to $599. Oh, and a group of 40 or so motley (yet still well-dressed) students.

UBC was a presenting sponsor of the event, which meant that a sizable number of future leaders and high achievers were sandwiched together in the balcony of the Centre for the Performing Arts.

And while it was certainly nice to be selected by the university, I had no real intentions of reporting on the speech. What really was there to be said that the Sun or Province wasn’t going to say themselves? Clinton came, spoke, conquered, etc. You’ve read one write-up on a high-priced leadership speech, you’ve read them all.

But here’s what interested me about Clinton’s speech: What UBC students saw was clearly different than the rest of the crowd. Because while most in attendance were enthralled by the former president, the people around me weren’t. In fact, more than one or two were dozing off.

Chatting with seven or eight of my cohorts afterwards, it was concluded that though it was fun to see the former pres give his thoughts on events, it was more interesting than inspiring.

It wasn’t that Clinton’s speech was boring per se, but when The Province describes you as “somewhat rambling,” and your biggest applause line is noting that Canada won gold in Olympic hockey, well, it isn’t exactly a barn-burner of a speech.

While the rest of the crowd gave Clinton ovation after ovation, one student said later, “if it hadn’t been Clinton speaking, there wouldn’t have been much value to it.”

Ah, but because he who he is, the man who led the most powerful national on earth through eight years of peace and four balanced budgets, what he has to say means a great deal. Untainted from the last decade of turbulence, a beacon of when things were less screwed up, a Clinton speech is to politicos what a Stones concert is to baby boomers: A lovely trip to nostalgiaville. Complete with the overpriced VIP tickets.

Using his work in Haiti as a general focus, the theme of the speech was “The world is unstable and we need to find solutions to make life better for all of us.” Intentional or not, it was a reminder the world was a whole lot less unstable and solutions were easier to come by when a certain someone was in charge.

Then again, when incomes were rising and wars were averted in the 1990s, the only thing we were passionate about were Saturday morning cartoons. There are new challenges that face our generation—climate change, global security, online communication and privacy—and those leaders are still being found, those solutions still developing; and as a result, young people are still waiting.

Clinton may have inspired the suits, but for us? He’s the guy who made it acceptable to talk about adultery around the dinner table as a nine-year-old—part of the past, which made his speech more of a curiousity than anything else.

“The ‘how’ question is more important that the ‘what’ or ‘how much’ question,” he said at one point to the audience. That it won’t be the former president who finds the answer to that may have limited enthusiasm among the under-25 set.