A would-be rival to a now failed Florida-based investment marketing company is hoping to pack the Idaho Center this week for what’s touted as a motivational seminar with Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani and Steve Forbes.

Wednesday’s all-day event is the first under the Power Up 360 name, but organizer Ryan Smith’s lengthy involvement in investment promotion and training includes work with Get Motivated Seminars, which closed this year.

In 2010, Get Motivated brought high-profile speakers including Giuliani, football great Terry Bradshaw and Boise State football coach Chris Petersen to Nampa for an event advertised as a life-changing day. An estimated 10,000 attended.

In a two-minute promotional video available online, Palin says she and the other speakers won’t be talking politics at this week’s seminar.

“We’re going to talk about leadership with you. We’re going to talk about what real hope is and we’re going to talk about, most importantly, your future,” Palin said. “Let’s talk about how to live life vibrantly and get the most out of what it is we’ve been given and how to get out there and get more in order to help other people.”

The seminars typically include pitches for financial investment classes that can cost thousands but aim to teach users how to earn money through real estate and investing. Seminar organizers partner with financial investment companies to promote the additional training. The more people who sign up, the more money for the organizers.

But Smith said Power Up is different — the seminar has a plan for the future that Smith said is a surprise for attendees.

But one thing is certain, he said — it won’t cost any money.

Seminars “are typically fluffy and void of good information,” Smith said. “We didn’t want to be another copycat, so to speak.”

Smith and his father, James Smith, a self-described real estate investment trainer, have spoken at Get Motivated seminars, but Ryan Smith said he hasn’t had contact with the company since owners Peter and Tamara Lowe bought his father’s company about two years ago. The Lowes’ contentious divorce preceded a series of canceled seminars last summer and the ultimate demise of Get Motivated.

Smith said he launched Power Up before Get Motivated went under.

Tickets to glitzy Get Motivated events sold for as little as $1.95 and sold by the thousands, but sales slowed this year, and media reports from Kentucky, Michigan and Florida described seminars being canceled at the last minute, with no refund options. The company went out of business in July, according to Bloomberg News.

Giuliani is an experienced speaker who was a Get Motivated favorite, with Bloomberg reporting that the former New York mayor was paid $1.8 million for 20 seminars in 2006 and 2007.

Forbes was a longtime Get Motivated speaker, too — he and Bill Cosby were among headliners for a seminar in June in Buffalo, N.Y., that Bloomberg described as “sparsely attended.”

Tickets for Power Up are pricier than the typical Get Motivated entry fee — $29.95 each or 10 for $99.95 — but the event’s pitch is familiar: Get ready for a life-changing day that focuses on your future.

Smith said the higher ticket price correlates with the lack of pricey after-seminar classes and materials.

The Boys and Girls Club of Ada County and St. Luke’s Children Hospital are to receive a portion of the event’s proceeds. Smith declined to detail the agreement but said the charities “were overwhelmed by the offer and both accepted on the spot.”

A spokeswoman for the Idaho Center said Power Up is taking the unusual step of selling its own tickets. Smith said sales have surpassed his starting goal of 3,000.

Meghann Cuniff: 377-6418