Celebrity Enterprises specializes in Entertainment Strategies for Events. This involves booking entertainment, whether from
our exclusive roster or from our extensive list of major name entertainers or celebrities.
Please contact us if you are considering hiring entertainment
for any type of corporate entertainment, special event, theatre performance, official function or private party.
Celebrity Enterprises acts as an entertainment consultant or broker/producer and
does not claim, or represent itself as, the management, representative, exclusive booking agency or exclusive agent of any of the acts listed on this website except: The Pink Flamingos, Flamingo Express, Birds of Paradise, Route 66 Live, Cameleon, Art Explosion, The Three Painters, Artrageous, Artrageous Concert Experience, The Art of Entertainment.
All rights reserved. All content © 2009 Celebrity Enterprises™ Inc. (800) 700-3898 CONTACT
We all know planning a truly successful event can be stressful; from our perspective as entertainers- after observing thousands of events- it helps a lot if you start by answering two essential questions:
WHO? And WHY?
The what, where, when, how and everything else will fall into place once you’ve clearly established the “WHO & WHY.”
WHO? Learn everything you can about the WHO:
a. Number of guests attending ___________
b. Age range _______ Median age __________
c. % male _________ % female _____________
d. % of guests w/spouses or dates _________
e. Where are guests from? (local, national, international)_________
f. % of guests who know each other __________
g. % of guests who attended this event last year __________
h. Relationship to host/company sponsoring event __________
WHY? Next, learn everything you can about the purpose of this event, both externally and internally:
There is almost always an external, advertised purpose for an event:
TO EDUCATE sales teams, dealers, distributors
TO AWARD outstanding achievers
TO MOTIVATE employees
TO HONOR incoming/outgoing V.I.P.s
TO RECRUIT new members
TO CELEBRATE a company’s great year or anniversary
TO SHOW APPRECIATION to top clients/customers
TO MERGE two competitors bought out by another company
However there is also an unspoken internal purpose:
Ask “What is the intentional experience that you, or the powers that be, want to create for these guests?”
It’s important at this juncture to understand that no matter what medals, plaques, trophies, or accolades with which you shower your guests, those objects serve only as half of the equation. The other equal if not more significant half is the EXPERIENCE they have. While gifts are an explicit expression of appreciation, they can’t touch the power of a truly memorable experience—a gift that lasts forever. In the end, it is the quality of the experience that determines how successful the event has been.
THE REST OF THE PUZZLE
By knowing everything you can about the “WHO & WHY,” you can create a solid framework that allows the rest of the puzzle pieces to easily fall into alignment.
That initial checklist might look something like this:
1. Venue options (Where)
2. Date options (When)
3. Billing of event (What)
4. Room/space layout options
5. Timeline/schedule options
6. If event involves food, options include:
Hors d'Oeuvres only
Buffet only
Sit-down, plated meal
7. AV/sound/light options
8. Vendor/supplier options
9. Décor options (or no décor)
10. Theme options (or no theme)
11. Speaker options
12. Entertainment options
Also, within each category are a multitude of options. With your focus remaining on who your guests really are and on the specific intention of your event, you can double-check every choice you have with this one qualifying question:
“Which option most supports our guests and that integral ‘intentional experience’ that we want to create?”
In every category on that checklist, without exception, there are dos and don’ts, ideal and less-than-ideal options. But when held up to the light of your framework and that one qualifying question, the correct choices will quickly become apparent.
For example: If your event is designed to encourage and allow guests time to network and connect with each other, you wouldn’t choose to have them sitting at round tables of twelve with gigantic centerpieces that restrict conversation and pre-recorded music blaring down through the house PA.
In conclusion: We have all witnessed "event meltdown" (or sometimes- "meeting planner meltdown"). Almost always the real core "WHO and WHY" had not been acknowledged (or even known) by all involved.
When those cores have been covered we've seen almost everything try to derail an event- hurricanes, walls of drape falling over, power outages, late buses, food issues, even 9/11 - and somehow it all rolls with the punches and stays on track.
As one meeting planner put it to us- "Remember to visualize yourself on site: if at any moment the overview begins to overwhelm you, simply take a deep breath and know that you have clearly defined the basic framework. Then fall back on it whenever you need to, like a safety net."
Event Entertainment
