Corporate Entertainment

Corporate entertainment is of crucial importance in today’s business world. It is used to woo potential clients, to celebrate a goal reached, to reward and motivate staff and even as a subtle method of team building. But there is such a bewildering array of corporate entertainment events, what do you choose? Here are a few ideas of what is on offer.

Adventure Days

Adventure themed corporate entertainment events have been around for quite a while now. They provide you with an exciting and entertaining day out and offer the chance to sample activities that most people would not normally experience. The original adventure days involved abseiling and climbing, plus possibly weekends out in the wilds, although the latter became the steroetype for management training and team building events. These are still very popular but could alienate some of your staff who prefer a dry and less physical environment. Also, there can be quite a lot of standing around watching others. The adventure days style of corporate entertainment has evolved into more sophisticated events, for example Spy themed events, in which teams compete in a variety of short tasks, motivated by (fake) money!

Hospitality Days

Taking your clients or staff on a day at the races or to a football match is another popular corporate event. One benefit of these is that your staff or clients will remain dry! They will also be pempered as sporting clubs and venues compete for their slice of the huge sums spent on corporate entertainment. A downside is, as with the adventure days, some staff could be thoroughly bored by the sporting event so do your homework carefully.

Food and Evening Events

We are talking casino nights, wine tasting, chocolate tasting, gourmet meals and so on here. Even the most sour of your employees could not fail to have a great time, unless of course they are teetotal or on a diet! The casino night is popular with just about everybody - the point is to try and make money, but even losing huge sums can make for great entertainment. With the tastings, always make sure that they are a little bit special, either at a special venue or with a company who emphasises the 'fun' in 'corporate fun event'.

Themed Events

The corporate entertainment events that prove hugely successful with staff and clients are themed days - It's a Knockout for example. An up and coming fun day idea is the Medieval themed event that have developed from the medieval banquet style of event. Participants dress up in medieval clothing for the whole event, which is just the start of the fun. As the day progresses, they learn and practice an assortment of medieval skills like archery, building and firing a trebuchet (siege catapult), getting a reluctant boar to the kitchen and jousting. As the day develops, everyone is involved in an archery battle, where the battle of Agincourt is (sort of) re-enacted. The day is given a real sense of direction by the jousting finale. In the jousting, each team's best knight competes for the championship - on horses propelled by the other team members. Great fun indeed!

So to sum up, there are many different events out there; all have their merits and drawbacks so think carefully before choosing. Ring the changes, don't go for the same event each time, no matter how much fun it is, too much can be boring and demotivate staff. Some corporate entertainment also doubles as team building which is an added bonus to your organisation.

If you are the one that has been assigned the job of procuring the entertainment for a corporate event in New York then you are in luck, because New York has loads of great acts to select from but remember that you do get what you pay for when it comes to great entertainment. Hiring an entertainment act is very different from say, hiring a flooring contractor for a number of reasons, so the contract that you use will have to be structured accordingly.

The act that you hire will most likely have their contract that you sign and you will want one of your own that they have to agree to as well unless the terms that you need addressed are covered in theirs. Make sure that you get it in writing that the performers or musicians that are in any demo video or DVD are all the same performers or musicians that will be showing up at your event and keep a copy of the DVD or video.

Get it in writing precisely the time that they will be going on stage and precisely how long they will be performing. You will be required to pay a deposite but never pay them in full until they show up for the event. Also if you are hiring more then one act you will need to be specific with regards to how and when their equipment will be set up and removed.

Lastly, if the band has any people that help them haul and set up their equipment make sure that you have an agreement with them with regards to their help being there. That is to make sure that you don't have any of their wild tattooed friends doing drunken tribal dances on the dance floor all night. Lastly consider going through an agency that has pre-screened the acts that they hire out, so you can be sure that you will be dealing with professionals when its time for the show to go on.

Corporate entertainment is big business these days and can mean the difference between winning a contract that can bring your company literally thousand of dollars, or remaining exactly where you are in the rat race. Providing your corporate sponsors and collaborators with something different is always an excellent idea, but where will you find that type of corporate entertainment that can make a positive and winning impact?

More and more companies are using extreme entertainment to make an impression on potential business investors, sponsors and partners that will be as long lasting as it is awe-inspiring. A prime example of the extreme entertainment that more and more companies are opting to employ is BMX stunt shows. The ramps, jumps and turns that you see at county and state fairs have made their entrance into the world of corporate entertainment and have exactly the same impact on businesspeople that they do on the Average Joe on the street!

The half an hour shows that are staged actually take very little time to set up and invoke a memory that will last a lifetime, thus making your company stand out. Their jaw-dropping twists and mid-air turns have every individual in the place begging for more. This form of extreme entertainment has the potential to wow everyone watching and encourage him or her to remember your company for years to come. The whole point of corporate entertainment is to make an impression and that is exactly what these people do, so hiring a BMX stunt team could prove to be a sound investment in the future of your business!

Corporate entertainment underscores our commitment to the events industry to deliver flawless, impressive events. Its Main aim to achieve marketing goals set at corporate meetings to achieve a return on investment. Many companies operate one of the most comprehensive catalogues of corporate event activities and exercises available throughout UK.

Good corporate entertainment leads to confidence in the company and allows your employees to relax, producing a more efficient work environment and therefore increasing productivity. Finding corporate entertainment online makes your life easier when it comes to event management. Corporate events can be essential for team gets your building that team working together in a fun environment.

Corporate entertainment can make all the difference to the social part of the meeting. You have decided what type of entertainer you need for your corporate events. You should inquire about the setup that the entertainer needs to adequately perform his or her act.

The selection of the right event entertainer is as important to your event as choosing the right activities that will reflect your personality.

A corporate entertainer knows how they must gain the client's confidence and best to maximize their client's budget. Corporate entertainer brings some light relief and humour to reward your delegates for their hard work. It involves visualizing concepts, planning, budgeting, organizing and executing cultural events such as musical concerts, corporate seminars, exhibitions, wedding celebrations, and James bond theme parties.

There are many event agencies which provide various sporting events across the world. The sporting event valuations have been compiled by adding up television rights fees sponsorship revenue, ticket purchasing and licensing revenue. Sporting events offering to include Adult Sports and Youth Sports along with Participant Liability and Participant Accident Medical, Weather & Event Cancellation, Extreme Sport, Travel, Accident and Prize Indemnity

For many years I have supplied music for and played in bands that provide music for corporate entertainment. Clients have included Audi, The Evening Standard, Sainsburys, P.C. World, Safeways, Large corporate clients at Henley and Ascot, I.T.V. and H.M. Treasury. Because of this experience I felt it would be relevant in putting down some pointers in helping clients choose the right kind of music for their particular corporate entertainment.

Interestingly enough, most corporate hospitality entertainment work tends to require music as an ingredient to a larger recipe. What I mean by this is a great deal of corporate events are offering a multi service package. Typically an organization may be putting on an evenings entertainment to thank its workforce for a particularly successful year. They may be offering music, food, comedy, a close up magician, a casino and a caricaturist. The corporate client organizing needs to decide what part the music has to play in the days/evenings entertainment.

Questions he or she needs to ask are:

Is the music specifically for entertainment or is the music for background listening?

Do we need one style of music early on in the proceedings and then a change of style later in the days/ evenings entertainment?

Do you expect the corporate clients to be networking and discussing business or are they just there for a good time?

What overall atmosphere do you want to project with the event?

Is there going to be a change of location for the music as the entertainment event unfolds?

Different styles of music bands lend themselves to different corporate hospitality situations. Below are a number of typical corporate hospitality events with music suggestions for suitable music entertainment.

Corporate entertainment model 1.
Evening reception with dinner and speeches.
In a situation such as this you will typically need music from the outset as part of the meet and greet of the corporate evening. A four-piece swing or Latin group is ideal with a larger ensemble for particularly large gatherings. A professional outfit can pitch the music at just the right decibel level so your guests can talk and enjoy the entertainment without it encroaching on conversations. The musicians would typically be dressed in Lounge Suits or Tuxedos (or the female equivalent) to mirror what the guests are wearing themselves. The music portrays an atmosphere of sophistication, which again hopefully reflects the evenings overall ambience.

It is rare for corporate clients to want to dance especially as clients there relationship is business not pleasure! In most cases it is more important that the band is flexible in when it is needed over the course of the evening i.e. At the top of the night for the reception, a smaller version of the band (The pianist maybe for the dinner), stopping for speeches and then after the speeches to play until other entertainment is put on for the corporate clients. In this situation give the band a clear idea of how you expect the evening to go. What to wear, when they will be needed, when they need to get their instruments in the building and be set up, when breaks will be required, let them know if it is convenient or not to feed them and then finally how they can leave when finished so as not to disrupt the rest of the entertainment.

Corporate entertainment model 2.
Company Party.
Still corporate entertainment, still corporate hospitality but a totally different set of requirements for the music. Ask yourself these questions: Are your work force the type of workforce who will want to dance at some point in the proceedings? If they are, then a professional band with flexibility is essential. My experience is that people of all ages will join together to dance to music from the sixties and seventies. Whatever background music you require earlier in the day/evening be it Latin, Swing, Rat Pack or Lounge, if you are hoping to provide entertainment that will get people dancing remember this fact. Sixties and Seventies. For some inexplicable reason this is the music that gets people up on their feet.

When choosing your music ask the band if they can cover this part of the corporate entertainment requirement. Get samples of their music if need be. There is nothing worse than an ill equipped band struggling through alien repertoire. However good the band is, if they do not play the right repertoire, the right style of music then the corporate entertainment will fall on deaf ears.

Let me at this point provide a caveat. Your workforce work together They are not always going to be the best of friends however professional their relationships are at work. Answer truthfully, will they really want to dance together or is it asking too much? I would say that in all the years of providing music for this kind of corporate entertainment / hospitality , as long as the music is right, the workforce tended to dance 30 or 40% of the time. It could be said that a workforce who will enjoy each others company in this way is a reflection on the talent of senior management to create a happy team!

Corporate entertainment model 3.
Company Fun Day.
These come in two types. The type to entertain your own workforce or the type to entertain prospective clients. Both types of corporate entertainment require music that is fun. This means that the music must be perceived as fun and the band must be perceived as fun. In both cases Jolly Dixieland Jazz or the summer sounds of Latin music are most suitable.

Ask yourself these questions: does the band need to be mobile? Meaning do you want the music to move around the site at various points in the proceedings? If so then the jolly jazz route is most suitable. A good professional outfit of four or five players can play acoustically and move around a site as directed.

If the band can be static and close to electrical power then either Jolly Jazz or Latin Music is suitable.

Is the event outdoors or indoors and do you have provision for bad weather? This is England, never trust to luck, assume the worst! Any band that needs power cannot play in the rain for health and safety reasons. At the first hint of inclement weather a band will have to breakdown their equipment. Build this situation into your corporate entertainment music decisions.

How do you want the band to dress? It is a fun day after all! In the past I and my musicians have dressed as Elvis, Cavemen, Circus Clowns, in fact all manner of characters in the name of corporate entertainment and corporate hospitality. Good bands will have suitable outfits for most situations but don`t hesitate in providing something off the wall for a special event. Most professional players have a strange urge to jump into such costumes at the earliest possibility! As someone who has played at a nudist camp and for a toga party, both dressed accordingly, take my word for it!

To draw this article together let me say this. Choose the right kind of music for the event. Brief the band accordingly but make sure you have a professional and flexible outfit, things can change over the course of the event and you want to make sure the band are both co-operative and able to fulfill your needs. Don`t hesitate to ask the band for any special requirements you have. Do it in plenty of time so they have time to prepare.

The corporate entertainment and hospitality you offer to your guests reflects directly onto your company. The music and musicians must be the type who are aware of this. Dont go for second best just to save a small amount of money. You need a well prepared, well dressed band who are both polite and charming to your guests. They need to play the right kind of music for the event in order to help make the day or evenings corporate entertainment a resounding success!

About the author
Jeff Williams is a London based trombonist and vocalist who has worked all over the world in most areas of the business. He also runs a successful, specialist, live music agency using the best of London musicians, servicing both private and corporate clients playing all over the country. He would be happy to advise you with your own event or party and offers bespoke solutions for the perfect occasion.