Here is a newsletter post I made for our To Go Events page. It has some real world advice for event planners and so I thought I would share it here as well. Hope you enjoy! Please reach out and let me know what you think or if you have more ideas to share!
Every corporate client is different. Some have a
preconceived vision for what the event will look like down to the minute
detail. Others are just looking for
something fun to let their employees have a reward and experience that is new.
The common thread that runs through shows that are “knock it out of the park”
great from the shows that are ‘good’ or ‘average’ are easy to spot. I think it
is important as an event planner to know what can be done on your end to help
make the event as awesome as possible from the perspective of the person performing
at your event.
Here are my top 7 things you should know to ensure you get the
best performance out of your entertainer.
1. Read the Contract and Rider.
I can not stress this enough. If you have gone through the trouble
and expense to hire an entertainer and they have gone through the trouble and
time to send you information you need to know in writing, go over it with a
highlighter in hand and make sure you can fully accommodate the items that they
sent. 50% of the time I arrive at a venue to perform my show, I am met with
stage conditions or tech conditions that need to be addressed before I can even
begin setting up my equipment. On the flip side, events that I show up to that
have been set up exactly as outlined in my tech rider allow me to quickly and
joyfully start the set up process without any stress or confrontation. In many
cases, this is the first time I am meeting my client and I can focus on
starting our relationship off on positive exchanges rather than looking like I
am coming in and being confrontational.
2. Plan for parking.
Every show and every venue is on a different client's home turf. The
more that can be done by you the event planner to lessen the guess work of the
performer and speed them to the actual task they are there to provide, the
better your event will be. I have literally spent 2 hours of a 3 hour set up
time being forced to look for parking. I have literally left my vehicle in a no
parking zone with my hazard lights on and a note for police to "please not tow
my vehicle" so I could go and make an event happen. Once, at a downtown hotel
and conference center, I used all of the money I had budgeted for food to pay
for their no in and out parking via valet service. My point is that if you can
keep these kind of stresses out of the picture, then you will get a performance
by someone who is focused on the show at hand and not one by an entertainer who
is worried in the back of their mind that their car is being towed!
3. Provide food and water.
Your performer is a human. They have traveled hundreds if
not thousands of miles to make sure your group is taken care of to the best of
their ability. For a 7 pm show, my day can easily start at 3 am. Many times for
corporate clients, the show time is 7 pm, but doors or cocktail hour is at 4
pm. This means I need to load in 3 hours before doors. It also means that I am
in the venue for 10 hours straight. Every time clients come to me with meal and
snack options and some bottles of water it is actually very meaningful. It says
to me that they recognize me as part of their team and that helps me give them
my best show.
4. Provide a place for the performer to change
clothes.
This is another one of those aspects to a show that most people
planning an event overlook. Ideally the event is taking place at a venue that
the hotel is attached to so the performer can change in the comfort and privacy
of their own hotel room. In theaters, most venues have a designated green room for the performer. However, if neither of
these is the case, you will earn many extra points with your performer if you
have designated a room with a mirror for them to change in. I have had to
change in public bathrooms after laying down paper towels on the gross floor. I
have changed in closets and behind drapes. Once I even changed into a suit and
tie while lying underneath the stage! I could see the shoes and ankles
of everyone present while I was wriggling into my dress pants. My point is that for me to give you my best, I want to
look my best. This comes with being able to change and freshen up appropriately
so I can walk out on stage and be the image that you wanted your staff to see.
5. Save steps.
I think it is always appropriate for the event planner to
walk the load-in route at least once before the performer arrives. Our show is
well over 1,000 lbs. of equipment that needs to be transported from our vehicle
to your stage. I am often amazed by how creative we have to be to just get into
some venues. If a load in is going to be particularly difficult, then knowing
that ahead of time is an important piece of information for the performer to
have. Loading in can take me anywhere from 15 minutes on an easy load in that
is direct from the vehicle to the stage, to 6 hours where the loading dock is
full so we have to wait our turn, then go up an active freight elevator with
garbage from the kitchen, then have a plastic mat laid out so our wheels on our
cart does not mess up the carpet, then push the carts ½ a mile to the venue.
This all really happened to me at the (NAME REDACTED) Hotel in Dallas. Luckily we were
loading in the day before or we would have not been able to make the show.
Unluckily, we didn’t get to eat all day and when our client checked in on us,
we were not at our showmanship best. My overall point is that the more your
performer can focus on your show and nothing else, the better your show will
be.
6. Give a 5 minute warning.
During your event, it is easy to get caught up in the
awards, the speeches, the dinner, the bar, etc. Our show is usually the closing
activity for events and as such what usually happens is that at some point in
time after dinner we are introduced without a heads up that we are about to
begin. Ideally, I like to get a quick check in that we are all set and that we
will be starting right after this speaker is finished. It allows me and my crew
to prep ourselves for a smooth opening and be waiting in the wings instead of
rushing backstage and looking flustered. A text or a quick heads up allows for
a warm start instead of a rushed one.
7. Trust your performer.
I totally get it. Your job, your reputation, your pride is
on the line in a very public way. I truly understand clients that want to have
their hands in every aspect of the show and reshape it to fit what they have in
their heads. That being said, you have done the hard work in selecting a
performer. You have vetted that entertainer and made sure they are a good fit
for you. The next and most terrifying step is to trust them to give you a great
performance. If you have selected them as your entertainer then chances are
they have done hundreds or even thousands of performances all very similar to
yours. They have worked hard to make their show as perfect for you as possible
though trial and error. This is a BIG night for you, but this is a Thursday at
the office for them. My biggest piece of advice is the hardest for many event
planners, but it is still the best advice. TRUST your performer. Tell them the
goals and the concerns you have for your audience and then let them loose to make you
proud. We are an open book. If you want to call our last 10 clients and ask how
we did for them we will happily provide you that info. For our shows, we are
not surprised when we do a great show. We have worked hard to be able to
provide a great show. However, when a client changes the formula or doesn’t listen
to our suggestions as to how to make the show work for their crowd, we are now
doing a show that is off script or that we have already done and found we have a
better way to do it. This is not to
say we won't bend over backwards to accommodate all of your needs, it is just to
say that the client is never disappointed when they trust us to be the professionals we are. The clients that want to
reinvent the wheel and throw something new up on stage have often come back to
us saying they wished they had listened to us and our suggestions.
I do not expect anyone to be able to follow these
suggestions 100% of the time, but I do hope this was a eye opening window into
some aspects of your next event that you may not have thought of before.
As always, if you have comments, please feel free to reach out!
_ Gus Davis
