event planner

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Why You Should Leave A Review For Diamond Sonic

Why You Should Leave A Review For Diamond Sonic

Nothing motivates us quite like a good review except a bad one. In other words, we truly thrive on the feedback we receive from clients no matter what they have to say.

One of our goals for 2020 is to increase the number of reviews we receive and that’s why we’re talking about reviews today. However, we also think it’s important to make people aware that their reviews help people in the same position they’re in.

When you’re looking for an event vendor, trust is a massive factor. If you can read client reviews, you can make decisions with more confidence. Our next great client could be inspired by your review.

Why Reviews Matter

No matter how much information we try to provide to prospective clients, they know we have a vested interest. It’s much more natural for people to trust reviews left by clients we’ve already worked with. If you’re a former client, you have first-hand knowledge to share and no reason to lie.

Of course, we’re not lying either, but it’s hard for people to know that until they work with us!

So not only does your review really matter to us, but it also matters to other people in your exact position.

How Reviews Help Us

In addition to everything we just said, reviews help us because they illustrate that we did a good enough job to motivate someone to spend time commenting on it. That goes above mediocre or good-enough service and rises to excellent service in our eyes.

Your review fosters trust between Diamond Sonic and clients we haven’t worked with yet. That’s huge.

People tend to leave reviews when an experience is really great or horrible and not in between.

Furthermore, if you’ve had a negative experience with us, we hope you’ll let us know directly. We aren’t discouraging you from leaving a review as well. However, it’s important to us that we have a chance to make it right with you directly.

How To Leave A Review For Diamond Sonic

If you want to leave us a review you can do that in two places – either helps us and others! Our Yelp page is a great place to leave a review of our working experience together. You can also leave a review through our local Google Maps listing.

Where To Find Our Reviews

We’ve highlighted some testimonials on our home page so it’s easy to see client feedback. If you’re on the fence about which company to trust with your event, check out the scrolling graphic toward the bottom of our home page for some valuable feedback.

A Huge Thank You For Taking Time To Leave A Review For Diamond Sonic

Since we’re talking about reviews, we want to give a big thanks to anyone who has already taken the time to post their thoughts about our relationship! We absolutely crave the feedback. It helps us give better service and truly understand where you’re coming from as an event professional. That’s key for us.

 

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Run Of Show – A Vital Component Of Successful Events

Run Of Show – A Vital Component Of Successful Events

This technical term is something that event planners and anyone hiring an event team must be familiar with to ensure optimal success. We want to educate you about this term today so you can take a proactive approach. With a proper run of show, your vendors will have a detailed, big-picture view of what to expect.

Planning is crucial! We can’t control everything, but we need to anticipate as much as possible to make sure your event is as awesome as your initial concept.

What Is A Run Of Show?

The term run of show refers to a very detailed roadmap of everything that you’ve scheduled for your event. It walks all the vendors and fellow planners through your vision.

It’s a sequence of events within your event and you share this document to make sure everyone is on the same page. You might also hear this called a ‘rundown,’ ‘show flow,’ ‘cue sheet,’ or ‘event rundown.’

The terms are interchangeable.

Your cue sheet or rundown must detail everything happening both on and off stage. That means it includes the behind the scenes stuff as well as what your guests will see specifically.

Why Do You Need A Rundown?

It’s probably fairly obvious why you need one of these event maps. It leaves very little to chance. It removes any assumptions between you and your team and, instead, clearly defines expectations.

It helps vendors prepare and deliver the appropriate gear, plan out their staffing needs, and also helps planners visualize how the event will progress. It’s good for you and your team.

Having a run of show doesn’t guarantee that nothing will go wrong, but it does put you in the best position to avoid problems. It particularly protects against accidental omissions or miscommunications.

Creating A Run Of Show

Your event vendors might have a run of show template that they like to use, so ask them if they want to provide a framework for you. If you want to create the document yourself, you can use whatever format feels natural to you.

This might be something created in a spreadsheet, something that looks like a flow chart, or a simple table that lists times in one column and activities in another beside it.

Check out an example at UNCC.edu. A Google image search or regular search for ‘run of show template’ will also provide more visuals and even templates for you to work with.

As you fill out your rundown, mentally experience your event. Visualize the experience first from your perspective and then from a guest’s point of view. This will help you catch any things you may have missed.

It’s a great idea to go over your cue sheet with your vendors in a meeting if possible. This way, you can talk about any issues they see or clarify things as needed.

Here’s To A Smooth Event!

This little piece of the event planner’s toolkit will help anyone who is hosting an event. You want to crush this and deliver the best experience possible to your company, your guests, and yourself.

We hope this helped you in your journey toward great future events.

 

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Event Services For Corporate Theme Parties

Event Services For Corporate Theme Parties

Corporate theme parties are a great way to add a little creativity to your fundraising or team-building strategy. It’s easy to fall into a mindset that favors formal events. However, if you want your guests to establish relationships and remember your event, try going casual.

Since we are on the heels of Halloween, this feels like a great time to talk about incorporating a corporate theme party. Your event services team can help you add some finishing touches to your plan. We’ll talk about some basic ideas here and we encourage you to continue the discussion with your vendors.

Corporate Theme Parties Are Fun

The first obvious benefit of throwing a theme party for your business is that it’s fun! Even if you decide to keep the event formal, adding a theme establishes cohesion. It gives you and your guests a focus.

Having this focus can drive your event to new places. For instance, masquerade events have a long history that rises from the balls royalty once held. This means that event planners can dress this kind of party up or down as needed.

They have a luxurious feel when guests don custom masks. Conversely, they’re casual and comfortable when they revolve around a simple Halloween theme. Your light and sound vendors can probably help out with some fun additions like a fog machine and color-coordinated lights.

Your guests will participate and remember more if they’re having fun at your event. Because of this, a theme party can make an impression.

Before we move on, don’t forget about theme parties like “80s Night” which don’t involve costumes, per se, but do encourage people to dress the part.

Corporate Theme Parties Can Inspire Action

Sometimes, picking a different kind of theme is the best for your goals. If you’re fundraising, perhaps establishing a ‘gratitude’ theme is a good idea. It will give you a focal point to use when conceptualizing speakers, events within your event, and even your promotional materials.

All of this helps your guests think more deeply about why they’ve gathered together. That can inspire more involvement and more generous giving.

Theme Parties Force You Outside Of Your Mental Box

If you’re worried that your events are becoming stale, a theme of any type will reinspire your creativity! Jump over to Pinterest and elsewhere online to see what others have done and expand on their ideas. Theme events are easy to search for.

A great brainstorming tool is to do some free association with lists or diagrams like mind maps. Let your inspiration run wild and branch off your theme to come up with truly unique approaches.

Choosing The Right Event Services Team For Corporate Theme Parties

When you’re brainstorming ways to drive your theme home, ask your light and sound vendors for their ideas. They have the benefit of attending a huge number of events in the course of their job. They also know exactly what equipment they have that could create the ambiance you need.

Your video and photography team can also help keep your theme on track. Their input will show in your post event deliverables like videos and photos. You’ll use these in your social media and future marketing campaigns so it’s worth exploring ways to improve the final product.

If you’re holding an event in the San Francisco Area, get in touch with us to find out how we can enhance your theme events!

 

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Event Strategy: These Qualities And Actions Are Valuable In Event Planning

Event Strategy: These Qualities And Actions Are Valuable In Event Planning

Even though I roll isn’t to actually plan your event, we work with event planners every day. We absolutely love to see successful events and the people who work hard on them truly shine. Because of this, we really enjoy occasionally sharing some insight or tips that we’ve picked up along the way or learned from others. This is one of those articles, about event strategy and the things you can do leading up to events and even when you aren’t planning anything currently to keep your head at the top of the game.

Event Strategy #1: Don’t Avoid Metrics

Some of the best event planners have an intuitive knack for sensing trends or exactly what their audience wants to hear. The very best event planners, however, couple this with a close view of their mattress.

It’s essential that you monitor data from past events in order to strategize effectively in the future. You want to look at things like the cost of the events how are ticket sales were and what the overall Revenue was for the event. How many people attended?

Your online engagement is another excellent metric. Did you have good engagement leading up to the event? How was your engagement right now?

The more you keep your finger on the pulse of this information the more effective you will be.

Event Strategy #2: Prioritizing

Things are coming at you fast and furious. You need to check your metrics. you need to reach out to vendors. At any given time you’re talking to donors, venues, coworkers, company stakeholders, your sales team, your marketing team …

It’s easy to get lost in your daily tasks. Prioritizing is crucial. Some people like to use Simple lists in order to get an overview of what they have going for the day or the week. Other people enjoy using a digital task system like Microsoft Outlook offers or any number of other apps and clients including Google. Still others enjoy using an old-fashioned reminder system where they write things in a planner or even have a daily set of cards that they pull with the task for the day.

Throwback Tip: Tickler Systems

By the way, lawyers call the card system a Tickler system and it can actually be very effective. that fits regular size index cards, get a few separators that indicate the month and day of the week, start putting physical cards in the slots in order to remind you of what’s doing any given day. On the day in question, pull your cards and you’ll know all of your tasks.

You can use file folders instead if that’s easier for you.

Once you have all of your tasks outlined, time to work on the most important ones first. If you aren’t sure, reach out to your coworkers. Talking amongst ourselves can really help solidify what’s most important. Deadlines for things like venues and vendors are also important to know because these will affect your priority list.

Event Strategy #3: Incredible Communication

Speaking of vendors you spend a lot of your day talking. Communicating effectively is extremely helpful in your line of work. You want to be able to be friendly but still synced. When you communicate with vendors, you need to be sure to cover all of the bases like the date of the event size of the venue and any other information they might need.

One of the easiest ways to facilitate great communication is to ask a lot of questions. While you’re asking questions, invite your vendor or clients our co-workers to offer their thoughts. You may have several vendors and clients but there’s only one of you. Just like our kindergarten teachers told us if you advocate for yourself and they advocate for themselves you’ll get all the bases covered. 

Event Strategy #4: Stay Trendy

Most of what you’ve already read in this article is probably more of a refresher than cutting-edge information. Its next tip, however, is easily overlooked by far too many Professionals in general especially event planners.

Because we deal with technology and music and video Production Services, we know it’s important to stay up-to-date on current trends. We need to know all about the most cutting-edge technology, interesting things that our colleagues and competitors are doing if anyone we know has been to any awesome events in San Francisco recently.

Our line of work lends itself to this but with yours, it could be easy to overlook. However, you will glean the same benefits from keeping up-to-date on what’s trendy both in your field and outside of it.

By keeping up-to-date with current trends you can avoid the bad ones.  you can also be extra creative by borrowing bits and pieces that might work for you. For instance, hashtags work for everyone. It’s simply a great way to drum up organic attention for your business event or client.

Looking For A Vendor?

By the way, before we go we just want to remind anyone in the San Francisco area that we are a robust Event Services Company. We are here to be a valuable part of the team for any event planners for looking for comprehensive Event Services. Our team can save you some time by handling several of your needs and this should make you more productive overall.

We can record and edit videos for you, handle your on-site light and sound services, provide rental equipment, and take high-quality photographs during your event.

Let’s talk today!

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Corporate DJ For Events: Our Successful Formula

Corporate DJ For Events: Our Successful Formula

Every DJ is as individual as each event they work. They have different go-to songs in their playlist arsenal, they’ve enjoyed different experience and they probably have different levels of professionalism. Here are some things we’ve learned and the lessons we take with us to every gig we book. We believe that these factors inform our approach and result in great events for our clients.

An Outstanding Corporate DJ For Events Knows How To Cater To Corporate Clients

We love working weddings and private parties, but understand that corporate functions require different kinds of skills and services. Because a brand’s identity is linked to events it throws, we have to get to know what our corporate clients are all about. Understanding their culture is one of the finishing touches on our full-service approach.

We also like to learn what the client’s goal for the event is. Are you raising funds, fostering culture, networking or announcing a product launch? When we know this, we can tailor your music and business presentations to align with those goals.

An Outstanding Corporate DJ For Events Participates In Pre Event Staging

Because many events rely heavily on their web presence, we’re prepared to participate in your website staging. You’re probably enticing people to visit your site, either to learn more about the event, donate, or sign up to attend.

Sometimes, our corporate clients want footage from the last event we worked for them. Other times, we can provide a musical soundtrack. We can help you prepare this media to make a great impression on visitors.

An Outstanding Corporate DJ For Events Obtains All Necessary Details

Obviously, we request detailed information about the actual logistics of your event as soon as we meet. We learn the date, time, duration and location of the event, and immediately block out time in our schedule. By doing this right away, we minimize scheduling mistakes. We also ask questions that may prompt you to realize you need to devote more thought to something that falls under our wheelhouse. We’ll talk about mood and goals at this time as well.

An Outstanding Corporate DJ For Events Discusses Your Playlist

We invite our clients to come up with ideas for their playlists or provide us with a strictly closed playlist that doesn’t require our input. However, we also love creating playlists that suit corporate client events from scratch. Out experience informs how we discuss music selection with your clients and we can guide them toward the best fit for them.

An Outstanding Corporate DJ For Events Dig Dress Codes

Whether your event is formal or casual, we’ll ask about the dress code so we can show up in a style that melds with the spirit of your event. This is a detail that we consider a serious part of our corporate service package.

An Outstanding Corporate DJ For Events Creates Advanced Programming

We create corporate event programs long before we arrive. This helps us eliminate last-minute snags and factor back up plans into our approach. Furthermore, the program is something we can share with event planners who want a hands-on role in our part of the event.

When possible, we prefer to defer all MC duties to a business representative. However, if you need one of our team to make announcements, we’ll block appropriate time for that in the program. We don’t take any spotlight unless you need a hand. This is all about you.

An Outstanding Corporate DJ For Events Welcomes Communication During Events

Event planners are busy on event day, but we’re always available for open communication on the ground. Check in with us at any point and feel free to make reasonable suggestions about improving our role. If we can work together to make something better, we’re all for that!

Experience Is Our Best Teacher

These are just some of the tools and skills we’ve learned are important to our corporate clients. Diamond Sonic has worked corporate events for nearly a decade. We know what works, but also welcome client suggestions and al learning opportunities along the way.

Together, we’ll make your event something special.

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How To Brainstorm Fresh Ideas For Events: Inventing Wow Factors

How To Brainstorm Fresh Ideas For Events: Inventing Wow Factors

Whether you’re slightly stuck on how to plan your first event or feeling the burn out as a busy event professional, wow factors matter. Once you have the essential structures taken care of, you’ll want to spend time inventing a way to set your event apart.

You can accomplish that in several ways and we are here today to fire up your inspiration. This quick read will hopefully get your creative juices flowing!

Find Fresh Ideas For Events: Work With Vendors With A Reputation For Excellence

No man or woman is an island. Holding a successful event takes a team and each member of that team has insight that the others may lack. This is one reason that choosing vendors with stellar reputations is crucial.

When you select a professional vendor for your event, they have experience that breeds insight. Maybe they’ve seen the fun a photo booth can bring to a corporate event. Perhaps they know about a killer rental company with the most amazing seating arrangements for a steal. You won’t know unless you pick a leader in the field and foster an open, communicative relationship with them.

If you aren’t sure how to find these types of vendors, ask your colleagues, your venue, or even use online review systems like Yelp to narrow your search.

Find Fresh Ideas For Events: Go Beyond The First Page Of Google

While the idea behind Google’s ranking system is to give you the most accurate results for your query, sometimes it delivers the most popular results. That leaves you with the exact same ideas as everyone else who searches.

When you’re hunting for event planning inspiration, don’t be afraid to skip the first page of results. After all, you want bold ideas that are fresh. There could be something really special lurking a little further down the search page. This is a good area to be a trendsetter in.

Find Fresh Ideas For Events: Attend Events Yourself

Do you have the time and budget to attend a few local events yourself while you’re planning? This is an awesome way to get ideas! Event planners can regularly sneak in a few here and there- many are even low cost or free.

Don’t be afraid to take notes while you’re there and feel free to take contact info from vendors you see doing a great job. You can follow the event on social media to see how they campaign, too.

If you are planning your own wedding, you can still try this tactic. Ask the venue if there are any events coming up that are open to the public. For instance, wine tastings, silent auctions and charity events give you an opportunity to see how the venue ‘works’ in person and pick up all kinds of valuable tips from other planners.

Find Fresh Ideas For Events: Take A Tip From Marketers: Imagine You’re An Attendee

Marketers often create something called a customer persona or ‘ideal avatar’ to help them get inside the minds of their target audience. You can modify this tactic for your event as well.

Make a list of the types of people who will attend. For instance, “Professional Women In Their 30s” could be one group. Another could be “The Groom’s Family.”

Now, brainstorm separate interests these people have. Sure, you’ll be doing some guessing but it’s a more educated guess than a shot in the dark. Hopefully, you’ll see some patterns or easy ways to incorporate a few things from each persona that your guests will remember for months, if not years, to come.

If you’re really stuck, don’t forget what a valuable resource crowdsourcing can be! Your potential attendees can give you their own ideas for events- ones they’re likely to enjoy.

 

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Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions

Bonus Event Promotions Content Below!

We teamed up with guest writer, Camille Moore, for an interesting perspective on email marketing for all of you event promoters in the audience. We hope you find some valuable information here to help with your event attendance!

Thanks, Camille!

Leveraging Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions

Email is still one of the most effective tools for event marketing. However, you have to do more than just land your emails in the recipients’ inboxes if you want to have success.

You have to focus on email best practices, like segmenting lists, tracking key performance metrics, and sending your messages to a verified email list. Not only that, but you also need to develop an event email marketing strategy and compose emails that will compel readers to action. Here’s how you can successfully use email to market your upcoming event.

Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions: Optimize the Sender Name

The sender name can be one of the most significant factors when running an email campaign. According to Campaign Monitor, 68% of Americans decide to open marketing emails based on who sent it. For event emails, you either want to set the sender name as the name of the event or that of the organization holding the event.

Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions: Write Compelling Subject Lines

The subject line is another important element for boosting the open rate of event emails. With 35% of recipients saying they will open an email based solely on the subject line, it can have a considerable impact on the success of your campaign.

A good subject line will let the recipient know what the email is about and get them interested in opening it. The following are examples of good subject lines for event emails:

  • Register Today!
  • Get Your Tickets Now!
  • Start Planning for this Year’s [Event Name]
  • Check Out the Event Schedule!

Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions: The Body of the Email

Once the recipient opens your email, you want to share content that will encourage them to participate. Images can be a good way to create attractive email content, but you don’t want to overdo it. All images should be relevant, and you don’t want to include so many that it distracts from the text in the email.

The email text is your opportunity to explain the event and sell it to the reader. You should provide basic information about the event and include value propositions. Try and keep this around 150-250 words. If the reader wants to learn more, you can direct them to a website page with more information.

Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions: The Email Footer

The footer is at the bottom of the email, and provides another important opportunity to share information. The footer should include the physical address of your organization and additional contact information. If you have social media accounts, you should also include social media buttons. This will offer further opportunities to connect with potential attendees.

It is also smart to include an unsubscribe link in the footer. If a person does not want to receive your emails, it is better to make it easy for them to opt out. Otherwise, it will have a negative impact on your open rate. If recipients really get fed up with seeing your emails, they might even mark them as spam.

Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions: Call-to-Action

If you want people to be able to RSVP, register, or buy tickets from the email, you need to include a CTA button that makes taking action easy. Emails with a CTA see a 371% increase in clicks, so this can be an effective way to increase engagement.

When adding a CTA to emails, make sure it is highly visible and test different versions of the CTA button. Furthermore, you should try to stick to just one CTA per email. With multiple CTAs, readers can get confused; they might not take the desired action if there are too many options to choose from.

Email Marketing Strategies for Event Promotions: Send Thank You Emails

Sending thank you emails can be a good way to show appreciation. When people register or buy tickets, let them know that you appreciate them. Along with that, you should also send post-event thank you emails. It might not help with the current campaign, but it is a good way to further your relationship with attendees. Sending these messages could pay off when you promote future events to the same audience.

Designing the perfect event email marketing campaign might not be possible the first time out, but you can use these tips to move in the right direction. With every campaign, you should test your emails, compare different CTAs and subject lines, and use the results to improve your future campaigns.

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