Helpful Tips On Booking Comedians For Your Next Corporate Event

If it is your job to book entertainment for your corporate event, a popular entertainment choice is a corporate entertainer. Corporate comedians are experienced in providing comedic entertainment at business events. They can provide your attendees with lots of laughs that can, if requested, be focused on business. Humor can liven up a corporate event, bring employees together, and bring new energy to the team which can carry over to the office. An experienced corporate comedian will inspire joy and laughter which is shared among employees attending the event and can last long after the event is over and everyone is back at work.

It is important to carefully select a comedian for your corporate event. You need to make sure the comedian's presentation will fit the theme of the event and the comedian will connect and engage the audience. To help in your search for the right corporate entertainer, here are a number of tips on booking comedians for your next corporate event.

Not Just Any Comedian: It is beneficial to hire a corporate comedian rather than just any comedian.

A corporate comedian is familiar with the variety and team building that can be achieved from a comedian at a corporate event. You will likely not have to explain to a corporate comedian about appropriate humor and what you hope to achieve from the performance.

Tasteful Comedian: The comedian chosen should be really funny, but corporate events will have an audience that is business orientated and the audience will be very diverse so it is important to hire a comedian that provides clean and non-offensive entertainment. Most corporate entertainers know that they must keep it clean. If you want to check their background, view some of their website videos or go see a performance.

Connecting to the Audience: A professional comedian knows how to connect to, and engage the audience. A corporate comedian will not use objectionable (offensive) language in their performance. They understand that their job is to get the audience to laugh and have a good time. As well, they know how important it is to respect the professionals in the audience. They will tailor a presentation that helps an audience to relax and have fun. Their job is to make the attendees feel comfortable, not embarrassed and uncomfortable.

The purpose of a corporate comedian is to entertain and make people laugh. When the audience is relaxed and feeling good, they will become reinvigorated and will return to the corporate part of the event more refreshed and ready to get back to work. There are many corporate entertainers available today that have specific industry knowledge. For this reason, it is a good idea to hire a talent booking agency to assist you with finding and booking the right corporate entertainer for your particular corporate event. When you do find the perfect corporate comedian, he or she will inspire, build up motivation, and promote better communication in an audience. New ideas can emerge from laughing and feeling good.

Travel Risk Management: Are You Ready for a Crisis?

Introduction

If you know that business travel is not without its risk and the potential for crisis, then you need to read this article. In this article we are going to talk about the management and containment of crisis as it relates to travellers and travel managers. The objective of this article is to share with you the collective knowledge on managing crisis and significantly improve your ability to identify and manage a crisis but also improve your business travel efficiency.

During this article I am going to discuss travel risk myths, crisis management, plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department.

Crisis by definition is something you didn't have a plan for or something in which you are unprepared. Additionally, it can be a series of events that in concert create a crisis. Events or issues that occur, to which you have a plan and strategy, is merely an incident.

Crisis Management/Leadership

The first thing is to clarify what is the difference between crisis management and leadership. More importantly, which one is the more important?

Crisis management relates to the response to event/s that threaten your business, travellers or travel activity. The event leads and you follow with plans, decisions and actions.

Crisis leadership, on the other hand, is more about getting ahead of the events and issues to prevent, management and even contain the impact to your business or business travel activities. While management is a portion of the leadership demand, your actions and involvement lead the outcomes rather than a more passive wait and act approach with pure crisis management.

Crisis leadership is the less practiced of the two, but the most significant in terms of results and reduction in risk and impact. If you take nothing else away from this session, it should be that your focus should always be on Crisis Leadership, not crisis management.

Myths

There are many myths and half-truths about crisis, disruption and threats within the travel management sector. Much of this misinformation has originated from travellers themselves, media, travel managers, friends and family or so called "experts".

For example, many travellers and planners are focused on terrorism. The reality is, you have a very, very small chance of being exposed or affected directly by a terrorist act. It doesn't mean you should discount it as a threat altogether but it shouldn't dominate your plans or processes if not a proportional threat to you and your travellers. Conversely, almost everyone overlooks motor vehicle accidents. Yet, they happen far more frequently, can have devastating affect on travellers and are the least common plan contained within company travel management departments.

Travellers and travel managers must be prepared, educated and have supporting plans for any event that has the potential to delay, disrupt or harm the traveller or the business.

The most common events include:

• Motor vehicle accidents


• Airline delays or cancellations


• Airport closures or disruptions


• Transport delays


• Bad weather


• Sickness and illness


• Petty crimes


• Hotel fires


• Political disputes


• Demonstrations and gatherings

Motor vehicle accidents within your own country can be stressful and dangerous but on an overseas business trip they can be 100 times more challenging and dangerous. Consider language, local authorities, first responder, standard of healthcare, families and support in your plans and initial response.

Airline delays and cancelations. They happen all the time but they are not just an administrative response. You may need to consider safety, transport, quarantines, security threats, government response and wide spread suspension of services to overcome the issue and maintain safety of your travellers.

Airport closures or disruptions. Failed systems, electrical problems, threats, weather, construction and so on can prevent you even getting to your flight. Consider the impact this has on your plans and how your traveller will need to possibly extend stay, move to alternate airport or find accommodation.

All other transport delays and disruptions can create crisis when everyone no longer has access to trains, buses, key roads or even water transport. Have a plan and add it to your immediate decision making process.

2010 and the commencement of 2011 has seen travel of all kind affected by natural disasters and weather. Weather and natural forces have and always will impact travellers. It does and will continue to occur. It is highly concerning how unprepared travellers and companies are for volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, earthquakes and general bad weather.

People get sick or feel unwell all the time. This is compounded significantly when travelling. Standard of care, language, access, cost, complications, choice and numerous other location based concerns will determine just how at risk your traveller will be. A single, "one-size-fits-all" plan or solution will fail and you need to be aware of these issues immediately with the onset of an affected traveller.

Crimes are a reality of any city in the world. However, travellers seldom know the risks and may be preyed upon by thieves and criminals. The loss of phones, money, and other items may seem less likely to constitute a crisis but when overseas, injured or not able to speak the local language, all these simple events can create a major concern for your business travellers. This can be amplified if you have a senior executive or a group of executives affected.

Hotel fires and emergencies are more common than most people think. The immediate threat to an individual is fairly obvious but the impact that the lack of accommodation choices can create from the temporary or permanent closure of a hotel is a much bigger concern. This was graphically displayed during the Mumbai terror attacks (as extra ordinary as the event was) when most of the best/preferred hotels were now unavailable in a key part of the city. This removed thousands of rooms for business travellers and forced many to cancel or significantly alter travel plans just because there were a lack of suitable accommodation options, whether affected by the events or not.

Any event that alters the political stability of a location or region or results in thousands of people out on the streets constitutes a risk to your business travel plans and travellers. They can happen spontaneously or take time to develop. The immediate dangers and the ongoing disruption can have a major impact on your business or traveller.

Again, plans, preparation and thought to these issues will greatly reduce the impact and improve your business too.

Now that we have removed the most common misconceptions, let's focus on the management and containment of a crisis.

Crisis management

The key to successful crisis management is planning, training, plans, decision-making and adaptability.

Planning

Given the issues previously covered, you now have a better insight into how and why planning is important to remove the more emotive issues from the realities of real business threats and events.

Planning needs to include multiple departments and perspectives to be truly effective. One of the greatest weaknesses I see regularly is that departments continue to manage the risk of travel through multiple departments with multiple plans. The input and plan needs to be unified. Depending on the company, it may include travel managers, security, HR, finance, marketing, C-suite and operations.

All plans need to be continuously updated, location specific, aide in the decision-making process and modular enough have elements extracted quickly and effectively. Modern, effective plans embrace technology. Rapid, efficient access to information, along with running updates is the hallmarks of a modern sustainable plan, regardless of the size of the issue or the company.

Training

No plan is effective without training and rehearsal. Training, whether through simulations, drills or live, full-scale exercises are vital to the success of any crisis situation. Such sessions don't need to be boring or overly complicated but must include travel managers and planners along with the more common crisis and emergency managers.

Increasingly, training is becoming a mandatory requirement for key positions and roles. It can be linked to internal HR processes but must support the business objectives and measurable on how it reduces the risk to people, business, brand and travel demands.

While the plan creates the framework for crisis decision-making, teams can learn a lot from training on how and when to adapt their plans. How the team interacts, strength, weakness, leaders, followers, limitations, tools and many more planned and surprise outcomes are possible with effective training.

Adaptations

No plan will completely script all the events, issues and options available for every plausible travel delay, disruption or crisis. You need to be able to adapt and evolve from the original plan and intention. This can only be achieved with planning, plans and training.

Solutions So what do I need in my plan?

Here is the best travel risk management content for your plan:

• Objective(the single most important part of any travel policy)


• References


• Scope


• Legal


• Insurance


• Finance


• Reimbursements


• Limits


• Priority/precedence


• Management Authority/ies


• Situations

Procedure will likely cover:

• Planning


• Resources


• Tools


• Authority


• Executive Decision making


• Limits


• Budgets


• Training


• Compliance


• Pre-trip admin


• Providers


• Booking


• Accommodation


• Airlines


• Ground Transport


• Safety and Security


• Health and wellness


• Emergency


• SOP/Actions on


• Insurance


• Travel Monitoring /tracking


• Reporting


• HR


• Entitlements


• Threat/risk levels


• Shelter in Place


• Relocations/evacuations


• Management Authority


• Review

Don't forget your risk assessment will need to include the key elements:

• Traveller


• Location


• Activity


• Support/Resources


• Response

Conclusion

There you have it. Now you know what is required, how do you rate your current plans and preparedness?

You now have the most relevant issues and areas to focus upon that will reduce or contain the majority of incidents you may face your travellers will be safer, your business more profitable and your costs will be contained by reducing your exposure to expensive crisis events.

We have debunked popular travel threat myths, identified the difference between crisis management and leadership, outlined plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department. Review your plans and make the immediate improvements.

You will know when you have an effective crisis management system for your travel risk management strategy when you have little to no crisis.

You may have numerous events or incidents but you have a plan, you're prepared and your decision making is fast and consistent. If not, you have failed and you will run from crisis to crisis on a regular basis.

A Brief Introduction to Describe a Corporate Magician and What He Does

A corporate magician makes use of magic to communicate and to sell which is different to the conventional use of magic. Most conventionally magicians perform their tricks to entertain but a corporate magician usually has a background of commerce or business and will also perform their tricks at conferences, meetings and even at the launch of a product. Such magicians will also run their own workshops and will often also be present at a trade show where they will patter and perform illusionary tricks to help in enhancing the presentation of a product that is being offered by certain corporate sponsors.

Eddie Tullock was a pioneer corporate magician. In any case, such magicians are mostly used at corporate galas, parties and at sales meetings as well as hospitality suites and corporate conventions and the like. Most such magicians are thorough professionals that are well dressed, usually in a black tailcoat as well as bowler hat (for males) and in white tailcoats for women.

They will perform various acts including close up strolling magic while the guests entertain themselves with cocktails or are having their dinner.

These magicians make use of certain apparatus which include items such as money and cards, rings, silks, credit cards, ropes as well as other objects meant to amaze and delight a corporate audience. Interesting tricks will keep the guests baffled and puzzled when they find that their costly watches are being stolen and then returned in the most mysterious ways.

The best part about watching a corporate magician is that they will use very innovative styles including those of silent magic comedy that easily helps in overcoming all kinds of language barriers. A good magician will generally use a tactful approach and will be very friendly and also very interactive. When using the services of such magicians at a trade show, the main aim is to help in attracting greater number of visitors to a booth.

In addition, these magicians can create a warmer and friendlier atmosphere between visitors and the sales staff. They are also very good at communicating your companies marketing message in the most informative, captivating and unforgettable manner. All this means that by employing a corporate magician at a trade show you can increase your sales potential significantly.

Such a magician can also help in drawing bigger crowds to his customized magic and he will also help the sales staff in zeroing in on key visitors by helping to qualify the prospects while conducting his show. He will also succeed in collecting business cards while performing his round the clock show which allows the staff to concentrate more on other important activities such as helping to build relationships with prospective clients.

Of course, a good corporate magician needs to possess more than good sleight of the hand expertise because they must also have good public speaking skills and they should be excellent communicators as well. He must also have experience in magic and marketing as well as in sales as only then can he succeed in creating magical presentations that will help the company shine out and shine even when faced with stiff competition.

Cruise Liners - The Best Corporate Events and Wedding Functions Venues

The idea of hosting corporate events and wedding functions in unique venues seem to be a common trend today. The world economy is booming and thus a growing set of people are ready to spend for a one time surreal experience.
People are trying hard to come up with new ideas and concepts to celebrate various events. One reason to emphasise on the exclusivity of the event is to make it even more memorable. Important functions like the wedding need extra planning and attention. Special care is taken to make it even more memorable for the newly wed couple and the guests. The wedding functions venues play a very important role in making the wedding memorable.

The idea of choosing a cruise as the wedding functions venues is one of the most popular concepts today. It is not only the newly wed couple but also the guests who enjoy cruising. It also helps the newly weds to save on money and time as they can combine their honeymoon along with the wedding on a romantic cruise.

If you are planning to get married on a cruise then you will have to start preparing months in advance. To begin with you will have to find a cruise liner that has a wedding department. But if you are only planning a reception on the cruise then you can go for any cruise liner that is without a wedding department. But if you want to get married on the ship then apart from the wedding department you also need to ensure that there is someone to perform the legal wedding ceremonies involved.

Apart from the legal authority to get you married, if you want to get married on a foreign port then you need to get prior approval of the local authority there. You will have to check beforehand with the cruise liner about the stops of the ship. Then accordingly you can decide which port you want to get married on. Hence prior preparation is must if you want to choose a cruise as your wedding functions venues.

The cruise is also often used for hosting corporate events and parties. The corporate events or functions are held either to reward the employees or to boost their morale. Earlier these parties were held in the hotels. But gradually the idea of hosting these events on a cruise liner is catching up. There are many reasons for choosing a cruise ship to host corporate events.

One of the most important reasons is the fact that it is a great stress buster. It is not easy to relax and enjoy when you are surrounded with your office colleagues. So it is very important that the atmosphere and the surrounding are such that it helps you relax. Especially when you think of locations to relax with your office colleagues around nothing could be a better arrangement than a cruise liner. Thus cruise line can not only help in creating the right atmosphere for both corporate and wedding events but is also cost effective.

The Importance of Corporate Entertainment

Corporate entertainment is not an excuse to have a good party on the company budget; it's an essential tool for any business in the modern world. Done correctly, and with the right levels of attention to detail, it is an opportunity to engage with new clients, reward the loyalty of current clients and forge relationships.

When developing your budgets and strategies for corporate entertainment you should factor in the benefits that these opportunities will have to your bottom line. The value of networking cannot be underestimated. Spending some time with your clients, both new and old, will help to build trust and empathy. These qualities will further enhance your business dealings and relationships.

Developing loyalty in your client base is particularly vital in the current economic climate. Prospective clients want to know that you will look after their interests and that your existing base is both loyal and steady, it gives an excellent impression. A well designed corporate event will facilitate communication and discussion between you and your clients so as to bring greater depth to your relationships.

Using a well established and respectable organisation to achieve the ultimate event is also essential. You want to hire a company that will deliver a seamless product so you don't need to spend time worrying about the details. Instead, you are free to use the opportunity to your own advantage.

An organisation that boasts well trained staff and facilitators will ensure that any problems or mishaps are quickly dealt with and that all factors surrounding your event move to an exact timetable. You don't want to have starving clients as the dinner is two hours late, or perhaps discover that your sound system doesn't work as the guest speaker steps up to the podium.

Corporate events are not only for developing client relationships, though. They can also be used to improve the morale, loyalty and focus of your staff. A well timed event that has staff mingling with all corporate tiers and learning new things about themselves, and others, can have a profound impact on your company. Happy staff are productive staff and a well designed event can deliver superb results.

These events can be scheduled for evenings, weekends, mid-week breaks and more. You can create two days of team building activities along with social engagements and entertainment. These can also include internal refresher courses to keep staff up to date with policies and new improvements. A reward system could also be put into effect to support staff that go the extra mile.

Overall, a solid corporate entertainment strategy has the potential to remarkably improve your bottom line. It is an investment in people, and what those people can bring to your business. You can brand each event in your corporate colours, develop internal strategies, network and explore new ideas. In short, it is an essential tool for any organisation.

New Wedding Planners - 7 Items You Can Include in Your Wedding Planner Portfolio

If you are a new wedding planner and have only planned a few weddings, you might only have a few photographs from them and be hesitant to start your portfolio. But you can't just hand potential clients a stack of photographs. You want to be able to nicely present your photos to brides and vendors who can refer you. So go ahead and start your portfolio anyway. Just get a high-quality binder or album that lets you add and subtract pages whenever you want so your portfolio can grow and, when you do have a lot of photos, you can pick and chose which ones you want to include at a meeting with a potential client.

Here are 7 things you can include in your portfolio when you haven't yet collected a lot of photos:

1) Certificates

If you have completed a wedding or event planning course and received a degree or certificate, put a copy in your portfolio. Also, wedding and event planner associations issue certificates of membership that you can put in your portfolio to let potential clients know you are well-connected in the industry.

2) Licenses and permits

A copy of your business license will show potential clients that you are a serious business person, not someone engaged in a hobby. If you also offer catering or other services that require permits or additional licenses, you should include them.

3) Publicity

If you had a press release written when you launched your business, add it to your portfolio. If it got you some publicity, perhaps in a local newspaper, put that in also. If a wedding vendor has written about you in their blog or allowed you to be a guest blogger, print a color copy and show it off.

4) Samples of your organizational skills

Include any floor plans you sketched, checklists, budgets and timelines you created so brides can see that you are well able to organize their weddings. (Hide or black-out any clients' names that might be on these forms.)

5) Testimonials and thank you notes

Include any notes previous clients (even ones you worked for without pay) have written to you thanking you for your work and complimenting your wedding and event planning skills. If vendors have written to you saying how much they appreciated working with you, include those also.

6) Photographs of anything you created for a wedding

If you created gift bags for out-of-town guests, favors or any other items, be sure you have photographs of them in your portfolio along with the weddings that you planned, they are examples of your creativity.

7) Photographs of your wedding day emergency kit

Let a bride know how prepared you are by showing her photographs of your kit and talking about your ability to anticipate and handle emergencies.

Please leave out photographs of your own wedding. That is a red flag to potential clients that you do not have experience working with other brides.

4 Keys to Successful Event Promotion

In this age of information overload, it is becoming harder and harder to get people to attend your events. The same person is receiving invitations to say 20 different companies. Thus, it doesn't really matter whether you are organizing a fundraising campaign or a business dinner; your ultimate goal is to attract maximum people to your program and get them to actually show up for the same. Let's discuss the R.S.V.P. approach. It is one smartest tool available by which you can innovatively promote your events.

R - Repetition

You have to repeatedly hammer your message to the target audience. Most people are extremely busy nowadays; they ignore or simply delete emails from unknown senders. But if you send it a couple of more times, they may just become curious enough to open and check what it's all about. Thus, if you have the money and the staff, try to include a series of effective communication strategies to market your program. You can simply start with a mini teaser promo and then send out a "Save the Date" message. Your email headline should be eye-catching plus the text should be short and to-the-point for people usually don't have much time to sit back and read a lengthy emails.

S - Simplicity

You should incorporate the simplest way to approach and invite people to participate at the event. The probable ways can be sending an online invitation, placing a "Register Now" button on each email. Let potential attendees click on the link and be directed to the registration page. Now they can instantly complete the online registration process online, in literally a few minutes. You can also have an online payment solution in place to make it easier for the people to pay you via a range of online payment options. You should only include the most important "fields" or "sections" on the online event registration forms to make it easier for the attendees to fill it up and submit the same quickly.

V - Variety

Your event promotional strategy should include a variety of options and definitely the most popular ones used by most event organizers today. In addition using email communication tools to blast your mail campaigns to your potential participants, it is equally important to communicate with them via social media plus using offline routes such as: adverts on newspapers and magazines. You should post details of your upcoming event(s) on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and such other popular social networking sites. Additionally, don't forget to add the details on your business website and the blog to let the readers be aware of the event.

P - Packaging

If you want to draw the attention of your target audience to your program, you have to pay attention to detailed packaging. Try to adopt an interesting and appealing promotional tactic. Make it a point to explain why your event is different from others? Write about the major benefits of participating in your event. Include a point or two that will easily catch the interest of people. For example, "You will get to meet Mr. X, Y, and Z - the 3 top experts of the industry once you attend our seminar."