Tag Archive for Event

CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency | April 18, 2009
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The Cost Of Entertainment

I know I should not be, but the truth is, I still find that many people have unrealistic expectations when it comes to the cost of entertainment.

So often we get inquiries from people looking for entertainment, such as a tribute band, and quoting a budget of £250.00 or less. If you think about it you can see just how unrealistic this is. Perhaps 30 years ago this would have been a fair amount to spend and would have brought you a great act, but not nowadays. In the 1970′s you could hire a really good mobile disco for £10 – £15 for a night, the same nowadays will cost you around £300.

The cost of entertainment is now relative to earnings, in the 1970′s people maybe earnt £30.00 a week, now the average is £300.00. You could buy a house in the 1970′s for £20,000 now you will find that one will cost around £200,000. Costs do not stand still, we do not live in a time warp, and todays entertainment costs reflect that.

I often think how nice it would be if people actually were realistic in their expectations of what entertainment will cost them. Entertainment acts unlike high street shops do not have sales, but unlike high street shops the price is fairly constant. To see what I mean lets use supermarkets as an example. When you go into a supermarket you fancy a cream cake, you find a pack of chocolate éclairs that are on offer at £1.00 reduced from £1.20 this promotion lasts for say 4 weeks then when you go in and fancy an éclair you find that the price is £1.25, a five pence increase on what the original price had been. This is common in all forms of shopping, but shopping for entertainment is different.

It can be a year or two before an act increases prices and some acts prices do not increase for even longer periods. An act charges what it feels it is worth, not on what current market trends are. Yes you can find cheap acts, but ask yourself what is the quality of those acts, and why do they charge so little. When booking entertainment be realistic in your expectations of what you expect to pay, ask yourself what would you charge if you were a really good act. I asked my wife what she would expect to pay for a tribute act and she said around £1000.00 perhaps a lot more maybe a little less. This is a realistic figure and reflective of todays costs.

Before you think about booking entertainment, give some thought to what the real cost will be. Do not just pluck a figure out of the air, make some inquiries, and let yourself be informed. Being informed means that you can make a sensible choice for the entertainment that you need.

© Paul Sims 2009.

CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency

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CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency | January 5, 2009
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The Entertainment Agency And Entertainment

The Good, The Bad And The Indifferent (Entertainment)

Sounds like the title of a spaghetti western, and to be honest, it probably over the years has had as many casualties. So what am I talking about? The answer is bad entertainment.

I think most of us can relate to either a personal experience or the experience of a friend, to how the focal point of an event ruined it. The entertainment at an event is probably the most crucial part, if you don’t include inviting the guests, and when it goes wrong everyone notices. Just the other day I was in a conversation and was told about how a DJ failed to turn up at an event, that event being a wedding, and how despite repeated phone calls no one could contact the party involved. This basically ruined what should have been the best day of two peoples lives, a real shame as everything else had gone so smoothly. This is something not just confined to private events, it can also effect corporate ones too. Imagine planning a corporate event, your colleagues will be there, perhaps someone high up within the company is flying in from abroad, or you are trying to make a good impression on future clients and seal a deal worth a lot of money. Everything is in place, or so you think, then out of the blue….. nothing, no entertainment. Panic sets in, but in the end there is little you can do, it is too late. Of course the entertainment can arrive, but still let you down. A band in jeans and T shirts at a black tie corporate event, the wrong music, there are so many aspects that to list them all would become boring for those of you reading this.

So what is the solution you ask? The best solution is to use an entertainment agency. Allow me to explain. At one time all UK entertainment agencies had to be licensed, which is no longer the case, however all entertainment agencies are required to comply with the employment agencies act and it’s amendments. This gives you, the client, legal recourse, which you can exercise if, need be. Some entertainment agencies are members of professional bodies such as The Agents Association or the NEAC (National Entertainment Agents Council), if they are then these should be your first point of contact if you have a problem, which you cannot resolve. Both organisations have a code of conduct for members and also have a disciplinary process available. If an agency is not a member of either, and the complaint is serious enough, then you can make a complaint to the DBERR, formally the DTI, who have powers to act against and impose severe sanctions on rogue agencies.

I am sure there are people reading this who are saying to themselves, is this just a plug to get business, the answer is no. Although I run an entertainment agency, I am not saying that everyone should use our services, people should and do have a choice. I am saying make sure you use a reputable entertainment agency, of which there are many. So what can you expect from a reputable entertainment agency, the first is a high level of service, professional people to source entertainment to your needs. The second, if something goes wrong, a reputable agency will do its best to put it right. Third, legally binding contracts between the parties involved.

Now I am sure there are some people saying, I have a contract for my DJ/Band, he/they sent me one, or I always use an agency and have a contract. My question to those people is “IS IT LEGAL”? Just because you have a contract doesn’t mean that it is legal or that in a dispute it will hold up in court. Always make sure that any contract you have complies with the law. If in doubt always ask the person issuing it, or take independent legal advice. The good news is that a legal contract is everybody’s safeguard, and it will detail all the requirements, so you can rest easy knowing that everything is covered.

So in conclusion, to make your event memorable for all the right reasons:
Always use a reputable agency, to avoid the bad or the indifferent, and just enjoy the good.

Good luck with your next event.

© Paul Sims 2008

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CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency | December 15, 2008
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Entertainment Agencies – The Best way To Find And Book Entertainment

Most people have had or been to an event or party at which they had entertainment. How did they find it? Was it any good? The answer to the first question is they probably used their local telephone directory, the Internet or had seen the act or service personally. The answer to the second question is sometimes yes and sometimes no.

So why use an entertainment agency to find what you are looking for? Well first it takes the hit and miss out of finding what you are looking for, a good entertainment agency has access to lots of different forms of entertainment and will save you the problem of locating it. Secondly a good entertainment agency lives on its reputation, so it is in their interest to make sure that the entertainment they supply is of good quality. As the saying goes, you are only as good as your last event. Imagine you are looking for a band, you can spend ages searching the net only to find that what you want is already booked, and searching can take hours, and do you have that time to spare? If you use the phone to contact entertainers and lets say contact 10 at an average of 3 minutes a call, that is 30 minutes of calls on your telephone bill, it may not seem much but it adds up especially if the contact number is a mobile one. And if you do manage to find what you are looking for how do you know it will be any good? Contacting a reputable entertainment agency takes away all the headaches, as they will do all the work for you.

There are things to bear in mind, a reputable agency has quality acts and services which will be in high demand, so make sure you start looking at least 3 months in advance of an event, don’t leave it until the last minute. Only contact one agency, many top quality agencies work with each other to source your needs, contacting 3 or 4 of them means they are duplicating work, time which could be spent on another client. If you were that other client ask yourself how you would feel, if the agency you were using had lost time they could have been using to help you. Running an entertainment agency we often used to get enquiries from people and start looking for their requirements only to have another agency contact us looking for the same thing for the same person. Nowadays we ask if any other agency is being used and if they are we polity refuse to waste time looking for the same thing, if we are told no other agency is involved and find out otherwise then we will drop the client. Many quality agencies act likewise, so you could find yourself back at square one or using a less than reputable entertainment agency.

The next question many people ask is how much will it cost, the answer is nothing unless you cancel, then you may have to pay a cancellation fee. An entertainment agency makes its money in the form of commission from the acts it represents, in other words they pay us for finding them the work. If you cancel the agency makes no commission, which pays for its time and effort on your behalf, therefore most agencies will make a cancellation charge, after all they have staff to pay just like any business. Similarly you might also have to pay a cancellation charge to an act or service in addition to the agency charge, if you have booked them then they are unable to take on other work for the date in question.

The other question is how long will it take? This can vary, many acts and services are registered with numerous agencies and don’t always keep them informed of availability, secondly each act will charge a fee depending on the factors of the event such as getting to it, possible overnight accommodation etc, so a reputable agency will make contact with them to find if they are available and at what cost. If an act or service is on holiday or working away it may take a while for them to get back to the agency, so allow for this. If you haven’t heard anything from an agency within 3 days then give them a call and ask for an update. A good agency will always tell you if they cannot find what you are looking for or if they have been unsuccessful. If that is the case then you can try another. Remember that with an agency you will get a contract, which will state all the relevant details, and you will have a legal document to give you peace of mind.

Remember entertainment agencies live to provide clients with a service, make use of it and save your time and a possible headache.

© Paul Sims 2008

CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency

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