Entertainers: Quality vs Price

Ok, you have the job of scheduling the entertainment for your company’s upcoming event; WHAT DO YOU DO? Well first is the event for promotional reasons/marketing or employee appreciation? It makes a huge difference in the entertainer(s) you choose.

If this is my first time planning the company event how do I know what avenues to look at in terms of finding the right kind of entertainment and entertainer in that field? Ask your boss how important is this event? Have you had a great year financially? DId the team/department just go through some major challenges and aced them all? Or is this to wine and dine clients and attract potential new clients? All important questions to start with to narrow it down to budgets and what and who will help create the atmosphere you want at your event.

If it’s a client appreciation/or marketing event; such as, a trade show booth, grand opening, product launch you might have a budget and even additional funds from the marketing department for the event to help.

If it’s for entertainment purposes and not promotional then ask several team members what they might like to see for entertainment? A comedian, dueling pianos, a roaming illusionist?

Now that you have asked lots of important questions, how do you proceed? You can do a web search for the kind of entertainers you want to consider. Look at the ones that come up organically too, Google has valued them for a reason (as opposed to those with ads.) Next send out some inquiries to the specific sites you like. Look at their videos, testimonies those are the real look into what you can expect. If their prices is many hundreds cheaper compare apples to apples? Do they have less testimonies (most likely!) Do they have any videos of them performing in the kind of venue/setting/event your company is having you plan???

Consider spending more on the entertainer so you can get the best one for your money! Value is more important than price; i.e. the entertainer might be willing to offer a special, which they still might be $300-$500 more than others, but their standard fees might be much higher due to their track record at other corporate events. Quality matters! The guests/co-workers will not remember what they had for dinner, but they will talking about the entertainment (good or bad for months to come) make sure you hire on quality:)