Corporate Entertainer Rick Lewis Meeting Planner Tips for Hiring Entertainers

Rick Lewis Provides Inside Tips on How to Select the Best Act for Your Event

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Meeting Planner Tips for Hiring Entertainers

Before You Hire an Entertainer

Hiring entertainment for your special event or conference can be nerve-wracking. Getting a great act requires that you make an investment, not just of your dollars, but also of a little time and attention. Don’t cut corners on these steps. The entertainment for your event can make or break the success of your function faster than almost any other element. Take your time, do your homework, or hire an agency or speaker’s bureau that has already done that homework.

After you have narrowed down the field of potential entertainment options:

• Ask each entertainer or act for contact information for the last 5 jobs they worked. Call them all. This will give you a good sense of their track record and consistency of quality. If the last 5 jobs span a period of many months ask the act why they worked so few jobs in that period.
• When speaking with the past client ask how the act impacted the audience from the stage and ask how the entertainment scored on communication and teamwork with the production teams and meeting management staff as well.
• Pick another 3 past clients at random from the performers’ client list or testimonial list and call them too.
• Watch the acts’ promotional videos and make a list of questions you may have about their presentation.
• If the act is local ask for a list of upcoming performances you may attend to experience their presentation in person.
• Ask the entertainer or group contact person whether they are willing and able to customize their performance to your event. A first-class professional act will say “yes” immediately and will have their own list of questions to ask you that will facilitate that process.
• Ask the act what is special and unique about their presentation. This should produce an immediate and clear response. Your audiences have probably seen it all before and a professional entertainment act will have put thought and energy into impacting your audience in a unique way for your benefit. If they are not able to articulate exactly what it is they are offering, keep looking until you are confident you have found an act that clearly understands the necessity of surprising and delighting your audience.

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