NEWS ARTICLE

May - 2007 - THEY improv Director Provides Advice for Hotel Entertainment Industry in The Restaurant News

THEY improv Director Provides Advice for Hotel Entertainment Industry in The Restaurant News

THEY improv director Todd Rice wrote an article for Today's Restaurant News for their May 2007 edition. The article dealt with providing advice for hotels on how to handle entertainment events. Information on Today's Restaurant News is available at www.trnusa.com.

Entertainment Made Easy
by Todd Rice

When using facilities to host an event it is sometimes easy to lose sight of some of the more challenging aspects. While a facility often prepares for the catering, the attendees and the wait staff, they are not often prepared for the entertainment. While most events deal with a standard set of issues, entertainers often vary their needs for space, technical requirements and variables that are too varied to predict.

Regardless of the flawless presentation of the evening with catering, ambient lighting, centerpieces, and many other issues under your control, a failed entertainment act can lead to a negative experience for the attendees and a strike against the reputation of the facility. Because of this, it must be a top priority to ensure that such acts have all the support they need to have a successful evening. A successful evening for the entertainment equates to a profitable future for a facility manager.

While there is a wide variety of entertainment acts, such as musicians, singers, magicians, comedians and dinner theater performers, they all have certain fundamental issues that they all have to be resolved. They all need a place to prepare, the ability to be seen and heard, and be able to control their performance. If you are able to anticipate these needs you will be able to adjust to changing requirements.

Preparation is the key to success, and yet is difficult due to a lack of communication. Most often the communication between the facility and the entertainment is conducted through the client as an intermediary. While the client may believe that they have handled all issues for the party, they are often not professionals, or at least not experienced with that particular entertainer.

There are certain items you should have prepared and should provide to the client to deliver to the entertainment. You should have an electronic version of the layout of the room, complete with the proposed layout on the evening in question and power outlets and restrictions. There should also be sample photos of the room for them to view. There should be a description of the materials in the walls as a way of explaining acoustics, as well as any issues of sound bleed-over from other rooms. Likewise you should provide any concerns that you may have for noise level within the room, such as hotel rooms above the room in question. You will also need a description of procedures for unloading/loading equipment and moving them through your facility, as well as potential storage issues and security disclaimer. This should be accompanied by a schedule for the evening including the times made available to them to load in/out. Lastly, you should describe available dressing rooms, etc. and may want to charge the client for extra used space prior to the event. These items together should empower the entertainment with a solid basic understanding of the requirements for a good-quality show in your facility.

As the event approaches, it is vital to ask the client what communication happened with the entertainment to make sure their needs are being met. Often the client is unaware of their needs and hasn't anticipated at all, while relating confidence that all will go well. Confirming that these issues are being dealt with in advance will help you assure that the evening will be successful. You could also communicate directly, if needed.

Once the evening arrives, have someone available to deal with the small emergencies that always arise. If you are able to have certain standard equipment available for emergencies, such as batteries, speakers, microphones, etc., it can stave off potential disasters.

Be aware that though the entertainment is essentially hired help, they are also artists and expect a certain amount of appeasement. Furthermore, making sure that all of the issues have been dealt with and that the evening proceeds without difficulty produces an experience that will have the attendees remembering your facility fondly.

The ability of your facility to anticipate the needs of your clients and to deal quickly with any issues can set you apart from your competition. That ability to solve problems before they arise can elevate a facility to the next level and can earn a reputation that is worth clients paying extra money to obtain. By taking a few simple positive steps, you can help achieve these goals and obtain more profitable events.

Todd Rice is the Director of THEY improv, LLC, a comedy theater company with troupes in South Florida, New England and Southern California. More information is available at www.THEYimprov.com.

About THEY improv
THEY improv is an informal group of actors getting together and performing improv, often for charities and always for the betterment of everyone. For now there is no corporate structure and no financial relationship, with their first several performances to be done for charities and the money never even being seen by the troupe. Marketing funds and efforts will either be donated by the members or provided by the charities themselves.