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Setting The Stage and Planning your Entertainment

The program plan you choose stems from the purpose and participants. Your four main considerations include:

What is the main emphasis of the program – educational, business or social?
What is your financial criteria – generate revenue, break even or is it a company expense?
What are your participants’ expectations?
What is the optimum ratio of education and business to social programming?

Create The Right Atmosphere

One key to a successful special event is to seek out entertainment or decorations that are unique and fun to spark excitement and add the right ambiance. Think outside the box and consider all sorts of amusements – strolling musicians, magicians, chefs’ demonstrations, palm readers…anything out of the ordinary. Novelty is the key to your success. Keep in mind that entertainment to rave about can also come in the form of an elaborate coffee bar or startlingly beautiful champagne fountain. Remember to check all decorating plans with the venue in advance because many have restrictions on what they allow. For example some establishments forbid helium balloons, others have fire, height and noise restrictions.

Create A Memorable Theme

Creating a theme for your event helps make it easier to organize food, dcor, and other accessories, such as giveaway items. Select a theme that fits your participants and the purpose of your event. Consider choosing from the following categories:

• Fashion: The Roaring Twenties or The psychedelic 60’s
• History: The Garden of Eden or A Renaissance Fair
• Cultural: All the glamour and glitz of Bollywood or a summery Hawaiian theme.
• Popular culture: The Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Idol
• The arts: A Night at the Oscars, Broadway theatre
• Futuristic: Outer space, hi Technology or your favourite Sci-Fi Movie/TV show.

Integrate The Theme

Don’t consider a theme unless you are prepared to follow it through your entire event. Don’t limit it to a few posters on the walls, which just add lip service rather than real ambiance. For the most impact, integrate it before, during and after the event. Reflect your theme in your invitations and in any party packs guests take home. Your theme should complement the tone and content of your event. Advise speakers and discuss with them how they can incorporate, but not overuse the theme in their remarks.

A few extras to consider when integrating your theme:
• Make sure the theme is general enough that it is unlikely to offend anyone and is meaningful to your group.
• Develop a slogan or message to go along with the theme to add a little extra when you promote the event.
• Consider having a special logo designed to enhance the theme and its possible message.

Hire A Professional Photographer

A photographer is a great addition to almost any event. Guests appreciate a visual reminder of the fun time they had at your affair. Arranging to have family portraits taken at an employee appreciation event shows your employees that you care about them as individuals. Guests at more formal affairs enjoy having their pictures taken while they’re dressed up for a night out. Decide whether you want a photographer to roam among your guests taking candid shots, to set up in a central location to take posed shots, or both.

Adding paparazzi actors to the start of your evening can also create a buzz as your guests arrive. Let them create a bit of havoc so your guests feel like stars pushing through the riff-raff. Smuggle the professional photographer in there during that first 30-60 minutes and then they can upload the photos to a laptop and project the images on an overhead projector later in the evening.

Entertain The Group

Participants look forward to the entertainment segment of a program. They want to have fun, enjoy themselves, and let their hair down, particularly after stressful and demanding sessions. So guess what? Your participants’ stress reliever now becomes your stress maker. You have a true responsibility to choose the right entertainment for your group. Some options include the following:

Music: Your choices include a band with or without singers, a soloist (instrumental or vocal), a DJ/VJ Spectacle
Roving: Consider hiring a magician, juggler, comedian, mime or hypnotist.
Theatre: Arrange a dinner theatre performance, a one-person act, a murder-mystery experience, or corporate theatre (which involves using professional or amateur actors to dramatize a company’s image, a new product, or the history of an organization).
Games: Involve your participants by planning individual games, such as a treasure hunt, a casino night with professional tables and croupiers, a Murder Mystery theme.
A picture is worth a thousand words. For a retirement dinner, consider creating a slide show featuring the guest of honour's accomplishments. For a sales meeting, provide a video demonstration of a new product.

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