Event Stage Lighting

It’s amazing what lighting can do for an event. Up-lighting your stage set with color gel scrolls can give you a completely new look with the touch of a button.    The three photos shown here are of the same stage set, just different lighting colors.  I love how this simple effect changes the entire look.

Color gels are actual pieces of plastic placed over the bright white bulbs to add a hue to the lighting.  You can order a color gel “scroll” which typically has 6 colors on a wheel that is controlled from the AV booth.        
 
Changing the set lighting keeps the visual more interesting for your guests in a full day summit or a multi day conference.  It’s important to test the colors on the actual set with the AV team before the show begins.  You may find certain colors look better than expected while others get the veto.   The backdrop canvas in this example is a light blue. Blues and greys are great colors to use as the base.               

If you're looking for a set designer, Event Strategies Inc. created these and many other sets for us.  

Wedding Style Resources

Are there a million and one wedding planning websites?  While I loved planning my own wedding, this site is not focused on wedding trends, there are too many great sites out there for us to attempt that category.  But if you’re in search of sophisticated wedding style tips here are three fabulous sites to check out. 

* Martha Stewarts' Darcy Miller writes The Bride's Guide . As expected, this is a very professionally written blog with wonderful etiquette tips and beautiful photos on topics from cakes to dresses to centerpieces.  The site is updated daily and has thousands of creative ideas (and not the kind you have to have a craft room to execute). Darcy’s photographed standing casually with Vera Wang and Carolina Herrera – how cool is she?

* Style Me Pretty is a very stylish site with an active community offering ideas on hairstyles, makeup, flowers, cakes and more.  The designer's Inspiration Boards (click) demonstrate how a classy design can be carried throughout one's wedding.  Abby's strong sense of fashion and appreciation for the fine details in weddings shows in every entry.

* JuneBug Weddings has a wonderful collection of photos from "Real Weddings" (click). The featured weddings are beautiful yet not "over the top" celebrity weddings that are nice to look at but hard to replicate.  Another interesting aspect of this site, the editor is based in Seattle so you see slightly different trends than the typically covered east coast weddings.  Refreshing site.

                                     
 

Branding the Elevators

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. 

Mark's Garden, Simply Inspirational

If you're planning weddings or based on the west coast you're probably familiar with the amazing works of floral art Mark's Garden has produced.  For more than a decade, Hollywood celebrities have enjoyed Mark Held and Richard David's creative visions for their weddings and major celebrations. 

If you're looking for inspiration for your next soiree, consider their new book, Fabulous Parties, featuring hundreds of elegant decor ideas for the event hostess.  As one would expect, the book offers top-notch tips on arranging stunning floral centerpieces, but Fabulous Parties also provides the reader helpful guidance on how to tastefully work a theme into the menu, food presentation, table settings and aperitifs.     

And if reading the book just isn't enough for you....Mark's Garden does take their floral production anywhere in the world.   Marks Garden.  Simply Inspirational.

                                                                         

Every Hostess needs a Silver Platter

Are you throwing a lot of parties in your home or just starting a catering business?  Well if your buffet doesn't include a coffee urn for 50 you may find buying silver hollowware is more efficient than renting these items from caterers.  I was surprised to see you can purchase fine looking coffee urns and silver platters that don't reach the thousands.  

And if you're looking for an interesting talking piece at your next formal function, check out this silver Champagne Fountain.  Apparently these are very popular in the UK right now, along with the festive Chocolate fountains. 

If you would like a source for high quality fountains, silver platters or other formal serving pieces Boca Party Supplies is a great online resource to check out.  They specialize in servicing the small business or private homeowner who is looking for formal additions to their hostess collection.  The owners ship all items promptly from Florida.  Be the hostess with the mostess....
 

Event Furniture you'll be proud to show off

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.

Spa, I mean Site Visit

Your colleagues are probably giving you a hard time every time you jet off to the airport on another site check.  Stay in luxury hotels, dine in fine restaurants and check out the spa...Site visits sound glamorous but as you know, site checks are anything but a vacation.  

If a venue can physically accommodate your group size, I like to walk the property as if I were attending this future event and consider:  what are the parking options, how are the staff outside the sales team (hopefully happy), do I like the food presentation, does a logical registration area exist, how far will guests have to walk to each meeting area, and what existing features can be incorporated into the production?  Discovering ways to incorporate a large blank wall, a fountain, a row of picture frames into your event branding are creative discoveries you can't unocover over the phone.  There is so much you learn about a venue, and inturn improve your guests' experience, by spending some serious time walking through the event logistics on site. 

For a simple checklist to help brew more ideas on your next site visit see "Venue Ck List" under Event Planning Templates.  And hey, if the hotel GM sends truffles to your room, enjoy!

Tent Planning Software

Once you’ve decided to host your dinner party or wedding reception in a tent the next part is figuring out how to “make it work”.  How many tables can you fit? Where should the entrance be? Where is the least likely location for someone to tango into the cake?                    County Marquee Photos 

A brilliant woman in the UK has developed a very user-friendly software to help you design the floor plan for your next event.  County Marquees free software allows you to drop and drag tables of various sizes to your proposed location, easily adjust the dimensions of your tent, and add doorways.  It’s wonderful.

County Marquees' website also contains hundreds of event photos and case studies that may help you determine the type of tent, or more elegantly called by the British, type of “Marquee,” that best fits your event.  And if you’re in the UK, County Marquees is ready to provide you with the highest quality Marquees and service.

Here’s the link to the software section and a link to their very helpful Q&A section. 

Selecting the perfect venue

A lot of decisions go into selecting a venue for your wedding or next company function. It’s never easy.  When we were looking for the "perfect" wedding venue I had to work hard to put on my event planner hat rather than the head over heels in love bride who saw many "perfect" locations.  By being open-minded we found a venue that worked very well logistically, and of course, was romantic as well.

When planning corporate events it really helps when a venue is flexible and willing to allow you to do such things as remove furniture, load in the night before, send boxes ahead of time, bring in your own AV team, etc.  

To help select the venue that best fits your needs, we've put a Venue Checklist in the Event Templates section. There are no right/wrong answers to these questions, simply a list of ideas to consider before declaring you've found "the perfect venue".  Happy Searching.

Gifts at your next event

Finding the perfect gift for any occasion is so delightful.  It is so much fun to shop for your best friend, but when you're shopping for 100, or 1000, it can be a bit tricky to find that "perfect" gift.  If you're overwhelmed with the thousands of corporate gift options, establishing a few parameters up front can help focus your search.  Once you determine the budget/person, desired message, target audience (women/men/execs) you're ready to browse.  

A great source for inspiration:  your nearest Five-Star hotel gift shop.  Fine hotels employ buyers whose sole responsibility is to find the very best items that are worthy for their logos to appear on.  From jackets, to ladies spa robes, to tote bags the better hotels will have fine products.  And you can see how they have placed the logo - does it look tacky or does logo placement work with that product?  If you see something you like, simply write down the brand and begin your search for the supplier.  We found the best robes and sun block at the Pebble Beach Pro-Shop.   The next two years this Yahoo! sun block was the most requested item at the golf tournaments and beach parties.  Who knew? 

For speaker gifts, companies like Tiffany's, Baccarat, and Coach are all to eager to sell to corporations or groups at a reduced rate.  If you happen to have a very large gift budget these companies can even create a custom piece for you - like they do for the NFL and Pepsi.

Before ordering any gift it's smart to request a sample.  If it's clothing, wash it a few times.  If it's a pen, test it for a few weeks.  No matter how a product looks, if the quality doesn't hold up we can't expect guests to use the gift, and afterall, we want them to show off this branded item. 

Got a great client gift to share? Please add to the blog. Happy Gifting.

Seating Plan Solution

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 no, not getting a commission, its a great tool to share with you.)    

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Hosting guest Speakers

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!

Event Professionals Networking Resource

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.

I've found this website to be thought provoking and interesting, hope you do to.  Here's the link Divas: EventManagerBlog.com.

Welcome Desk Appearance

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.  

Tent Rentals

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 Event Planning Templates  section under "Tent Rentals".   Have a great party.

Ice Sculptures at your next event

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.

How long to pitch this tent?

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 Event Planning Templates  section for more tips about tents.

Small event seeks large discounts...

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.

What’s our shipping account # again?

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.

Email Invitation Etiquette

The Internet has absolutely improved communication and our ability to quickly and easily "get the word out" to large numbers.  Too easily sometimes.   When sending an email invitation for an event there are a few steps you can take to minimize the chance you'll create an OMG moment after hitting send...

• Protect your invitees names.  The easiest way to do this is to place the recipient's names in the BCC field of an email.  To outsmart the spam filters put your name, or whomever they are to reply to, in the TO field.  Another way to send mass emails, which I prefer, is to use a mail merge system.  This way the email is addressed to your guests, but only their name appears in the TO field.  
• Keep it short.  The email invitation should have enough information to hook them, and your landing page will have all other details.  The invitation is the first impression for the event you're throwing, so give some serious thought to the graphics and colors. 
• Critical information to provide on the email invitation or landing page:  Date of the event, start & end time, the host's name, the venue name & address, where to RSVP, your phone number and suggested attire. 
•  Make the URL simple.  If you're providing a URL for RSVPs and will be sharing this to people, create a short URL.  IT depts can help create an alias, while your site is actually hosted on the longer URL.   If you're creatting a website for your wedding and you are the IT dept, consider purchasing a short domain name for $10/yr and have it redirect to the actual wedding site.
• Consider an Alias.  If your host is well known and it fits with his/her personality, consider sending the invitation from their name.  Clients feel special and the open rate will greatly improve.    
• Check the RSVP email account daily.  If a guest takes the time to write to you best to respond within 24 hours.
• Test the email on several people outside of your corporate intranet.  I can't tell you how many emails my mom's opened with me on the phone asking, "What happens if you click on the picture, do you see red flowers?  And "who" does the message appear from?  Hit reply, where does the reply say it's going?"  Clients expect professional messages.

Good luck Diva, and may the email gods be in your court the next time you send an email to 2000 people.  Please add your tips to the blog...