Bonjour Events

Could seating charts be the hardest part of planning a wedding or dinner party? I just came across a user-friendly software that makes this lovely part a bit easier.  Perfect Table Plan loads your guests' contact information in a savvy manner and then not only keeps track of the RSVP status and meal preferences but allows you to drop and drag names into your custom "floor plan". 

You can configure your floor plan with as many round, square or rectangle tables and easily indicate the number of seats.  Once this step is done it's an easy drag & drop system to place your guests in their seats.  You can zoom in to view one table or zoom out and see your whole room.  And when a new vision for the room comes to mind... Drag the tables where you want them.  The other smart thing about this software, you can view your seating plan as a floor plan, a spreadsheet, or a table format.                  

At $35, Perfect Table Plan is appropriate for anyone planning Bar Mitzvahs, Weddings, formal dinner parties and charity events.  You can try the software for free at their website.  (I'm not getting a commission here, I just think its a great tool to share with you.)  

If the brown hotel foyer isn't the giving the hip vibe you envisioned for your wedding reception or cocktail party, have no fear, rental furniture is easy.  Adding a few funky chairs or a crisp white sofa to a lounge area can transform the overall feeling of your event. You can rent white tables with a light in your theme color inside the base, colorful pillows, mirrors and unique chairs guests will talk about.  I think pictures offer the most inspiration because the options are endless.

Even if your budget is small, adding a few peices can have a large impact.  A great resource for chic designer feel furniture rental is Studio Collection.  Based in the bay area, but servicing the entire country, this company offers a very wide selection of color and design options from modern to traditional for weddings and corporate clients.  Here's a bit about their site, but please visit their website for a full showcase.  Their work is wonderful.

                        
Click to enlarge photos, Studio Collection examples
From Studio Collection: Experience a brilliant collection of stylish and versatile furnishings designed specifically for your next special event. Create chic lounge groupings for your wedding reception in modern and traditional styles. Explore the many design and color options to match your reception palette. Our specialty chairs to create the finishing touch for your dining tables. Request a quote for your favorite furnishings today via our website.

We spend so much time and energy securing wonderful event speakers, but our job's just beginning once the event speakers are booked. If you have the bandwidth, I recommend assigning someone on your team to be a fully dedicated speaker host.  If you don’t have this person, consider hiring someone very responsible to serve this role.  

The speaker host will be the one waiting for the sedans to arrive, taking the call from the limo company when the client has been picked up from the airport, greeting the speakers upon arrival with a gracious smile, showing guests to the greenroom or their hotel room, providing agendas and basically assisting your special guest with any requests.  

What to give your fabulous speaker host: 

• A list of all speakers and their speaking times/rehearsal times on one sheet
  
• Arrival/departure times with flight numbers and confirmation codes
  
• Speaker cell phone numbers and assistant's numbers
  
• Your cell phone numbers
• Copies of the agenda and maps of the hotel 
• An introduction to the hotel management 
  

The speaker host can check your guests into the hotel rooms ahead of time and therefore hand a key to the speaker upon arrival and avoid sending the speaker to the hotel desk (who wouldn't like skipping this step?).  Your speaker host can also check the hotel rooms before your VIPs arrive - you wouldn’t believe the things we’ve found in the suites reserved for our keynotes.

Your speaker host will ensure the transportation company is enroute to pick up your guest at the end of the event, confirm their flight is ontime and show them to the car with a bottle of water.   Your speakers will remember your hospitality, and feel very taken care of.  Well done!

Have you checked out Event Manager Blog.com yet? 

If you're looking for another resource for our industry,  Italian event veteran Julius Solaris has created an incredibly insightful blog for professional event planners called Event Manager Blog.  With an International audience in mind, he provides reading suggestions, interviews with industry experts and poses great questions for the active online community.  A true believer in Open Source, Julius is currently working on an open source software solution for event professionals called MyEvent. 

Another great resource for you: Julius recently created a Linked In group dedicated to the event professional:  Event Planning & Management Group.  In the first weeks the group has grown to over 1000 global members.  Check it out.

When you host a corporate party or conference the registration desk is often the first impression your guests have of your company and the event.  Naturally, you want the desk to look as organized and inviting as possible. 

When setting up a registration desk I like to have one of each of the items the guest will receive in the welcome bag displayed on the desk, as well as the event agenda taped down.  You’ll probably want to have multiple copies of the guest list handy (keep this under the desk).   You can also benefit by having extra pens, mints, scotch tape, etc. hidden under the table.  What to avoid: wine glasses, scraps of paper, purses, etc.   Keep it clean.

Adding a floral arrangement always make an 8” table look better.  If you have a limited budget, consider colored M&Ms in a large glass bowl or tasteful ribbon as an inexpensive way to dress up a table.

Besides being a happy face, your registration hostess needs to be well informed of potential questions, start times, meeting locations, etc.  Your hostess should be dressed conservatively and in business attire if this is a business event.  Make this clear to the people you’ve talked into working the desk to avoid embarrassment onsite.  

And how many hostesses are needed?  1 to every 50 guests is a good rule of thumb, but  consider if your guests will arrive all at once or staggered when creating your work schedule.  

When looking into a tent rental there are many questions to ask and options to think through before signing the contract.

Who'd have thought a tent could be so complex? A few things I like to consider when planning an event with a tent are are now posted in the Helpful Planning Tools  section under "Tent Rentals".   Have a great party.

Consider a creative, branded ice sculpture to add a little wow to your next party. Beyond the simple ice swan, ice sculptures can be carved into the shape of your or have a logo tastefully etched into the ice (which looks great with your theme color light shinning up from beneath). At weddings I think it looks so nice when the seafood is arranged on an ice bar. Done right, the ice sculpture can be so interesting you don't need to invest in other decor for a cocktail party.

A few creative ways to enjoy ice sculptures:
Clear Memories' branded ice bars (click to expand)
* Bar Luge - Guests love to watch their colored liquor flowing thru the ice luge into their martini glass. A typical luge will run $500 but you can go smaller or larger.
* Bar - Creative Memories creates actual bars made entirely of ice. The bar can have a logo etched into the ice or a unique design of your choice. 4 foot bars start at $1600, and Creative Memories can go as large as you have space for (imagine a 32 foot ice bar).
* Bar Back - An interesting addition to your bar, add an ice sculpture and focus on uplighting for a great visual while guests order drinks. And around $300 you can always find budget for this.
* Seafood Platter - Caviar bars have become popular and seafood looks gorgeous set up on sculpted ice or an ice bar. For a smaller budget consider an open clam shell sculpture to present your oysters.
* Individual Dessert Bowls - gorgeous way to present berries or chocolate mousse.
* Centerpieces - Ice makes a beautiful unique centerpiece, with or without flowers.
* Glasses - I got this idea while visiting Stockholm's "Ice Bar" - as if it's not cold enough already-they created more ice. There is a dress code here, you are provided a groovy silver parka and full gloves. When you enter the Ice Bar, it takes your breath away. The floor, the bar, even the stools are 100% carved ice. Then you order one of 12 Absolute Vodka drinks served in, you got it, a thick tumbler made of ice. No tonic needed, the ice melts slowly into your drink. What a fun experience.

Visit Creative Memories  for more pictures and a great resource for your next event.

Remember how long it took to set up the Coleman camping tent when you were 14?  And your little brother forgot to put one stick back in the bag so the tent just won't stay up? Recalling these memories makes you think these tent companies have a very tough job - and nothing goes perfectly to schedule when it comes to tents.

Set up and tear down can take anywhere from 4 hours to 14 hours, so plan accordingly when you book your venue.  At the very least you want the tent installed the day before your event so the team has time to get everything right, even if this means working through the night.  Inevitably, some part gets lost on delivery and you can't be missing a few key bolts. 

When making your logistics plan remember the tables, chairs, linens, flowers are all on hold until the tent is completely stable.  Hopefully, the tent can go up two days before the event and you can enjoy it to yourself with a mint julip rather than a stressful race to the finish line. 

Check out "Tent Rentals" under the Helpful Planning Tools  section for more tips about tents.

Are you looking for a way to really surprise your guests with great branding?  Consider wrapping the elevator doors at your next event.  This really makes an impression and is easier than you would think.  We use a company called Giant Impressions
in San Jose, Ca. to create "stickers" to decorate the elevator with unique messaging.

Coca Cola's event logo on elevators. (Click to expand )You can use the giant stickers to unveil a new branding to your employees, recognize a big milestone or decorate a really plain room with your party's theme design.  The last event I did at Yahoo! was for 100 global marketers from Coca Cola and they were thrilled to see their event logo on the windows and elevators.  The price is around $900/elevator. 

One reader asked, "I work in a small office and plan events for 30 guests.  Without the leverage that a big brand or convention, how can I save money when booking events at a hotel?"

Here are a few items that may be up for negotiation and to help your bottom line, and Divas, please add your own suggestions to this blog. 

Being flexible on your dates can help achieve a lower room rate and help your sales person meet her quota for certain months.  Ask your contact if she has any unsold dates between conferences that she's trying to move.  

While you're not going to be their largest customer, a series of 30 person meetings adds up and should lower your room rates.  Offer to hold all quarterly meetings for one year, or all board meetings,  or the company holiday party in addition to your one meeting.

Ask for a discount on any Internet fees.  This is a soft cost.

Serve guests pitchers of water at the meeting rather than individual bottles.  One pitcher placed every third seat is a good rule of thumb. 

Ask for a flat (or free) storage/shipping receiving fee if you have a lot of boxes arriving.   

With the current economy the buyer has more leverage now than a year ago.   Hopefully it picks up soon, but in your case it does make for a better hotel rate.

If you’re planning an event and don’t drive a suburban, chances are you’re relying on the fabulous invention of FedEx or Men in Brown Shorts for some help getting your items back to the office.

Quick Tip: ask your shipping dept to create pre-printed fed ex slips that already have your office address on the To: section and the account #.  This will save hours of handwriting labels when all you want to do is call it a night.  Don’t have a shipping dept?  Fill these out while watching Project Runway the week before. 

At the end of the night people do get a bit kooky and some of our staff must have had too much punch one evening.  We got our event shipment back to find the guys had run out of packing tape so they “creatively” tied a banner boxes shut with electrical extension cords and sealed a fed-ex slip around the cords.  It was not a pretty site, but fed-ex delivered.

Party Tents can be an opportunity to create a magnificent space in a not so magnificent location (a parking lot, a field, etc.).  Tents allow you to create a garden feeling in the desert and Christmas in July.  When guests walk into a tent they should be swept away and feel like this is a very special place.  If you don't have a Platinum Wedding budget, there are a few things you can do to make the white tent less "white" without breaking the bank.

Carpet: You can usually find a carpet in your theme color or go with a green to make the environment more inviting.

Trees: Even three or four trees make the tent a more relaxing environment.  Who doesn't love seeing a tree.

Uplighting:  If your event is at night you have a wonderful opportunity to shine gobos on the walls in the shape of tree leafs or simply have a color wash effect on each of the walls.   This looks so incredible.

LeCirque effect: My favorite decorating touch is to drape your theme color, in a thin plastic, from each corner and post attachment to the center of the tent, creating a beautiful ceiling and overall happy feeling to the tent.  It's not LeCirque, but it's a great touch.

Windows: You can rent tents with pretty windows, which make the tent less confining and more inviting.

Picket Fence:  If your event is in the day consider adding a picket fence "yard" in place of one of the four walls.  This is a perfect place to set the bars and cocktail tables while adding a few extra square feet to your event space.

Got some ideas to share? Please add to the blog.