Cherished Moments Video Productions are a husband and wife team who provide video and wedding DVD production services for weddings, parties, christenings and other events. They cover the Nottingham, Derby, Long Eaton and East Midlands area.
This website is mainly about UK magicians and entertainers - the styles of magic they can provide, the events magicians are suitable for and how to book and where to find magicians. But we also have other, more general, articles about entertaining at events. We hope you find it useful.
Four Ways to Get the Most Entertaining Speaker for Your Corporate Budget
Use a Speakers Bureau - a reputable bureau is paid by speakers, so their services won’t cost you anything. Plus, with a stable of thousands or celebrities, musicians, comedians and business speakers, they can help you to find someone that meets your needs, budget and schedule.
Book a Speaker As Far Ahead As Possible - remember that your speaker might have to travel a great distance to reach your event. By working months in advance you can minimize last second headaches and costs.
Ask for Condensed Demos of Speakers - your bureau can send you a few video highlights of speakers that match your needs. You can usually form a good opinion of the entertainer within a few minutes, so save time by asking for shortened demos.
Be mindful of your timing - Scheduling the best speaker in the world won’t do you (or your audience) any good if the audience is tired or bored. Make sure that you schedule your speaker for a time when your audience will be receptive.
While the economy has been rough all around lately, few people have experienced as many budget reductions as meeting planners. Whether it’s money for travel, facilities or catering costs, the situation is the same-planners are asked to make more out of less.
Somewhere in this new sea of corporate frugality, where meeting planners are struggling to find the best bargains for all aspects of a event, lie the mysterious fees and budgets devoted to speakers, musicians, comedians and other entertainers. Finding a ‘good deal’ for event entertainment can be tough, particularly because there are so many subjective factors that make it hard to compare any one type of entertainer to another. When looking through bios and demo tapes, it’s hard to size up respective motivational or inspiration speakers the way you might a more tangible product or service.
Even so, there are steps that event planners can take to get a great keynote speaker for fewer dollars. Below are a few tips that should help you stretch out the entertainment budget for your next corporate event:
Think Big Celebrity Names. Big names cost big money, so you can’t save money by booking big name celebrities, right? It really depends. Hiring well-known celebrity speakers costs a big chunk of cash up front, but it can also be a great way to generate a lot of positive buzz about your event-from your attendees as well as the media. Nothing quite excites people the same way as hearing a talk or having a book signed by one of their favorite TV or business personalities. Savvy event planners can take advantage of this fact by spending big bucks on a top shelf speaker and saving even more by capitalizing on free publicity instead of expensive advertising.
Of course, that strategy only works if you have an event that’s large enough to benefit from the increased publicity and attendance that a big name entertainer can bring. What about those planners who have either events or budgets too small to justify the upfront costs of well-known speakers? In that case, you can still save money and get some great entertainment speakers by keeping a few things in mind:
Know The Type of Entertainment Your Audience Will Appreciate.
Many times, a speaker or entertainer who would not be considered or even well known within the general public can be an icon, or even a hero, to a specific group. For instance, not many people would be familiar with motivational sales speakers. But to the men and women working in his former industry, the speaker might be considered an inspirational superstar.
Keep in mind, though, that it works both ways. A business speaker who seems to be a big draw for one gender or age group doesn’t always translate into a home run for another. If you aren’t sure if a certain entertainer will be known throughout your audience, take a couple of minutes to find out ahead of time.
Be Specific on What Type of Speaker or Entertain You Need.
One of the greatest things about today’s speakers market is that there’s something for just about everyone, no matter how specific the need. If you’re looking for business speakers on needlepoint techniques in a post-modern global economy-trust me, there’s someone out there. So, the real trick is pinpointing exactly what type of speaker or entertainer you need for your occasion. Are you looking for a motivational keynote? A technical expert? Humorous after-dinner entertainer? The more you can answer this question, the easier your search will be.
No matter what, just remember that with the thousands of speakers available, a knowledgeable, experienced speakers bureau can help you find someone who meets your taste and budget. You just have to be willing to follow these rules and look for a good deal.
Written By:
Matthew Sherwood is an Account Executive with Brooks International Speakers Bureau. You can reach him at 303-825-8700, or at matt@brooksinternational.com
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_95850_50.html
Magician-Entertainer started out publishing articles related to magic and magical entertainment for events, but now we’re branching out! You will find general articles about entertainment for weddings, parties and corporate events covering topics such as music, DJs and professional speakers. We hope you enjoy them!
The important things are sorted, the ring, the reception venue, the flowers, and now you are thinking about music for your wedding reception. Music is one of the most important elements of the entertainment for your wedding reception and key to creating the right party atmosphere.
Many factors will influence your choice of music. What are your tastes? How many guests are you inviting? What size band will suit your venue? What is your budget? Most wedding audiences include guests with a wide range of ages. How can you be sure that everyone will like the band or DJ?
There are a variety of styles of music from string quartets and harpists to big bands and specialist party bands. It is worth considering something you do not normally listen to as it may be a better fit with the venue for your wedding and the guests you have invited.
When to start looking for a wedding band or DJ
You should really start looking around 12 months before your wedding, especially if your reception will be held on a Saturday. Popular bands and DJs will often booked up more than a year in advance, so the earlier you start, the more you will have to choose from.
What to look for in a wedding band or DJ
When contacting a band or a DJ, ask for their play list. Good wedding music has a lot of variety so it will appeal to a wide range of tastes. A wedding band or DJ should be able to incorporate songs that you want to hear or exclude songs you definitely don’t want!
Make sure the band or DJ has plenty of experience performing at weddings. Seasoned professionals should be able to provide you with a list of venues or previous clients that recommend their services.
Many bands and DJs provide samples of their music and videos of performances on their websites or MySpace pages, and this is a great way to see them and hear what they sound like. But, it is always worth checking if you can see them performing live at any public events.
Above all, while negotiating with the band or DJ ensure you feel comfortable and can communicate easily with them. They should be willing to learn your wedding song and to give you the benefit of their experience in helping to organise your wedding celebration.
A DJ is a great option if your budget is small or if you are looking for more of a nightclub feel for your celebration. A range of DJ are available from a single DJ to more elaborate packages light shows, dancers and MCs.
Find party bands, wedding DJs and ceilidh bands and more in our entertainment directory!
Important questions to ask before booking music for your wedding
These tips and questions should help you choose the best wedding music for your big day, whether that is a band, string quartet, harpist, or DJ.
Do you need an entertainer for a wedding, corporate event or party? Maybe you’ve considered a UK magician as an entertainer or maybe it’s all new to you? Find out more on this site, check out the articles below:
Professional magicians are often asked ‘How did you learn magic?’ This article explains how you can get started learning magic tricks.
People want to learn magic for different reasons. Some just want to do it for their personal enjoyment, while others want to take it really seriously and become a professional magician. Others just want an impressive magic trick to show their friends or impress the ladies!
How you go about learning magic depends on your reasons are for doing it.
To become a professional magician and learn all the skillful magical techniques, all the sleight of hand, takes time - you need to immerse yourself in magic. Watch as much magic on TV as you can, watch instructional videos, read magic books, find magic videos and instructions on the internet and talk to other magicians (join a magic club or society).
Of course, many people want something they can perform straight away. Look in your local library or old shops for books on magic. A lot of the magic books you will find in these places will be for people starting to learn magic. An important thing to remember is not to dismiss magic tricks that are easy to do - it is the presentation that counts. Experienced magicians know that the presentation of a trick requires as much practice (in fact more) as the moves and sleights needed.
You can also buy magic tricks, apparatus that do a lot of the work for you. A few words of caution though:
Probably the best magical apparatus you can buy are coin tricks. Coins are common objects that everybody carries. It’s not going to look strange if you take some change out of your pocket and say ‘Hey everyone, watch this…’. Classic coin tricks such as Coin Unique and Skotch and Soda are available from most magic shops, easy to do and look great. You can often perform more than one effect with them and build up a routine.
Remember, even though magic tricks that you buy from a shop may be easy to do, you still have to practice the routine and presentation until they are perfect before performing them.
Here are a couple of websites that offer more advice on getting into magic:
This site should be able to tell you anything you need to know about magicians and entertainers, and magical entertainment for events. If you are having trouble finding what you need, try using the search function on the right or browse through the categories.
The word “corporate” comes from the Latin “Corpus”, meaning “body”. This leads to the idea that a corporation is something close to a group of people meant to act as one through their decisions. The main goal of corporate entertainment is to provide a sort of bondage between colleagues, or team members, even between the lower-ranking employees and their superiors, thus making the “organism” of the company work better. As you are about to see, human interconnections could prove themselves very important, so it wouldn’t hurt checking out what corporate entertainment is all about and how to get in touch with a corporate event organiser.
In most cases, human interconnections prove to be vital. Perhaps many people are familiar with that strangling feeling of being stuck in your office for days and weeks in a row, having to provide creative and effective solutions on command while being supervised by you team leader or department chief as the phone keeps ringing. This is the most certain path to developing frustration, tension between team members and so on. This is why corporate entertainment is so useful nowadays and many companies turn to a corporate event organiser. When more and more corporations come to life and the old ones keep growing, so does the need to relax a bit, to change the scenery and try to work in a different environment. We all hate that routine, don’t we? Well, I know I do…
Visit the UK Entertainer Directory for corporate entertainers and more information on entertainment for events and event management companies.
Corporate entertainment comes in many forms, for example outdoor activities such as sporting or travel. There are many clubs with multiple members from the same company and so on. Fitness, yachting, golf, tennis, rafting, you name it! People have a natural tendency to socialize, and entertainment encourages this. Anyone works better with a friend by their side instead of a stranger. Otherwise, we would all be a bunch of impassive and lonely machines.
Also, many business men or women, develop a way of life out of being part of a corporation and doing business, especially if they get to be high-ranked, so working in a relaxed or at least different environment from time to time could offer a recharge both spiritually and professionally, as well as personally.
Corporate forms of entertainment such as get-togethers are wonderful opportunities to discuss or review projects, marketing goals, to discuss merges or divisions and plan various events. And what better way could there be to discuss business plans, get approvals and so on than a reception or a dinner? Therefore, a corporate event organiser might always come in handy to organize such events. You could also require the agency to provide you with a corporate entertainer, a professional, to lighten up the spirits and to enhance the atmosphere of the party or reception.
A specialized site which offers exactly this type of very much appreciated service is eventsbyoccasion.com.
By going online (the easiest thing to do these days) and visiting this site, you can read a listing to find exactly the kind of event you want organized. This corporate event organizer will assist you in everything you need to get up and running for the entertainment of you company’s employees. There is also guidance concerning bands, banquet halls, limousines and even parades, if you don’t like getting by unnoticed…Just try it and see how easy it is to have fun!
About the Author Rick Martin
Of course, for more information regarding how to enhance the experience that people have coming to one of your company’s receptions, fund raisers or mere get-togethers, the web could always ease your way to find corporate entertainment , but our website is the place to start doing it the professional way.
This site is about magic, magicians and entertainers in the UK. Browse our articles about close-up magic, cabaret magic, magicians for weddings, corporate dinners and parties. Everything you need to know about booking magicians and magical entertainment…