|
"Livin' La Vida Loca": How to hire and work with headline entertainment.
"Upside, inside out - she's livin' la Vida loca."
--from Livin' La Vida Loca, sung by Ricky Martin, words &
music by Desmond Child and Robi Rosa
Please see Tips of the
Month: A Step-by-step Guide to Hiring Headline Entertainment.
How to Book Headline Entertainment: The Process Simplified
The Selection Process
In your selection process your entertainment company should
provide you with not only a list of headliners, but also their
picture, biography, and possibly their routing information,
availability, and cost. Your entertainment company can supply
the planner with the headliners tour history, venues where
they have worked, and their typical audience size, if applicable.
Ticket prices are also available. Call today for a list of
categories to assist in starting to choose what genre of music
might be good for a particular meeting or event.
How to Make an Offer
An offer is a blueprint for the pending contract. If accepted,
you will be obligated to move forward toward going to contract.
If the offer is declined, there is no further obligation on
the part of either party. If you still want to procure this
artist, you can make an alternative offer, in writing. Remember
that everything must be in writing in order for it to form
a binding agreement.
The Contract
If your offer is accepted, the next step is to draw up the
contract. This is the part where a professional can provide
invaluable assistance. There are two parts in receiving the
contract. One would be the actual contract, the who, what,
where, when, and how much would be described in detail. The
second part includes the riders or addendums to the contract.
This can be in the form of one large rider or separate components,
broken out into a sound rider, light rider, and food and beverage
rider, etc. These riders are made part of and attached to
the contract. The contract may only be 1-3 pages with the
rider(s) adding another 50 pages.
Advantages of the Entertainment Management Company
My counsel was to utilize corporate entertainment companies.
You probably will never meet with an agent in person. After
an initial conversation with an agent, future conversations
will be with their assistant. The agent is interested in completing
the paperwork and collecting the money. Once that is done,
their job is complete. The agent would never go on the job
site, to oversee the artist's performance. This is where the
corporate entertainment company takes over. In addition to
handling the paperwork and financials, they will control communication
and will have one of their representatives present onsite.
They can also act as the show's producer and handle the rider
requirements if the planner transfers that responsibility
to them, since the entire obligation to fulfill the rider
requirements lies solely with the purchaser.
Joshua Jones, Director of Sales at Painted Desert Gold Club,
feels that "utilizing a corporate entertainment company
is beneficial. Especially if you are new to booking name entertainment
and have not had the experience of negotiating a rider. An
entertainment company can often negotiate more out of a rider
than the fee that they charge. Also, you must consider that
an entertainment booking agency has worked with many of these
celebrities on a regular basis than the meeting planner that
may book this person for a single event. The celebrities'
agents have more riding on the deal with an entertainment
company that may bring them two, three or ten engagements
a year and are going to be more flexible in their negotiations
with them."
Hiring entertainment acts, whether national, regional, or
local talent, will be the promotional vehicle of this millennium…just
look at the Super Bowl commercials in 2004! Having a headliner
at your convention or meeting can boost attendance, although
that should not be your primary goal. The combination of a
corporate meeting and headline entertainment almost automatically
increases visibility, therefore increasing sales, retail sales
support, general awareness, image enhancement, and publicity.
The entertainment must fit the company's marketing objectives
and their consumers. In short, the headline entertainment
must share your company's outlook on life.
 Mark
Sonder, CSEP is the Chief Entertainment Officer of Mark Sonder
Productions, a leading national entertainment agency providing
headline talent and production services for large venues,
corporations and associations. In addition, Sonder sits on
the faculty of The George Washington University MBA/MTA Diploma
and Event Management Certificate program. Event
Entertainment and Production is the book published by
Wiley authored by Sonder.
|
