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 theatre 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 theatre
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 South Florida's leader in
corporate comedy shows and performs regularly for some of the
areas' top companies. Often performing for charities, THEY improv
is changing the face of comedy in South Florida. THEY can be seen
in various venues in the area and the website at www.THEYimprov.com
is regularly updated with information about upcoming events and
shows.
