My least favorite holiday party

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tunes4046

tunes4046

DJ Extraordinaire
ODJT Supporter
Jul 24, 2008
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Fennimore Wi
for the last 10 years I've done this companies party, pay is good easy load in, about 175 people in attendance, couple hours of holiday classics for cocktail / dinner music, then a speech, welcome new employees, acknowledge retirees, Then the hard part , The Owner is pretty proud of his "MC" skills and thinks it's his job to entertain the crowd with games and gifts, all well and good except it's about every half hour for almost the entire night, so 15-20 min of dance music, start to build the floor then, WAMO more gifts and repeat this cycle for 3 hours finally I get an hour at the end of the night and the 20 drunks that are left after the last of the gifts are given out have a great time.
He is extremely generous to his employees, he gave away 20 Ipad airs, a whole slew of big screen TV's and other large gifts, same jokes and games every year, I have offered to "help" him plan a couple of times, my offer is always respectfully turned down. oh well he already booked me for next year
 
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Some clients are just like that.......be thankful you've had the gig that long. IMO, that party is about the employee's, all other considerations are secondary.......but I do see your point......since you've done it so long, you clearly know what they like and how to keep them happy.......so THAT is your golden lining even if it doesn't necessary meet a standard flow you'd desire to present to other clients.
 
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Had a run like that. Holiday party (parties) for a construction company for 6 years in a row.
They booked the ballroom for all night, and most of the employees booked rooms to stayed over. (so they could drink)
The owner was quite generous with prizes and a money tree (BIG $$$)...and was very generous to me.
Worse than stopping to give away awards or prizes every half hour, he would do it all at once, in the beginning of the night.
It was worse because these people DID. NOT. DANCE.
So, I'd play everything I could think of, with very limited success.
The same old guy would request a "belly rubber" every hour, other than that...I was by myself.
So, after four hours of torturous boredom, the owner would walk up and offer me $100 cash for another hour.
And he would do that every hour for 3, 4, sometimes 5 hours.
I'd walk out with more cash, than I got from the original payment.
The guests were not bored. They stayed and drank, talked, joked around, drank, had fun...and drank...
and as long as there were a few employees in the room...he'd keep paying me.
 
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kittmaster said:
Some clients are just like that.......be thankful you've had the gig that long. IMO, that party is about the employee's, all other considerations are secondary.......but I do see your point......since you've done it so long, you clearly know what they like and how to keep them happy.......so THAT is your golden lining even if it doesn't necessary meet a standard flow you'd desire to present to other clients.
Click to expand...

Kitt is right. Just be glad they are happy and DO stay until the end.
If the owner was so bad that he chased them away, it would definitely affect your bottom line.
 
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tunes4046 said:
I'm sure they stick around to try to go home with one of the big gifts, less than 5 min after the last one was presented all but 20 exited
Click to expand...

I've seen a lot of bosses hold on to the biggest prizes until the very end...for just that reason.
But...less than 5-minutes after THAT....
 
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Be thankful they have stuck with you this long!

It sounds like the company is doing VERY well. Most companies are fairly tight with their expendable income these days, and don't go all out on gifts.

I have all new clients this Christmas season. It's good though...my clients last year that were repeats either wanted the same rate, or a discounted rate to re book me again for their party. Those were agency clients, and the agency hadn't re booked me on any of them come end of August, so I booked all of my own holiday clients this year from my google advertising I was doing.

My wife is thankful she works with a small company that still gives out Christmas Bonuses to it's employees. The bonus is based off of tenure, and it's in cash. We are hopeful she will get close to $900 to $1,000 this year as her XMAS bonus. Her first year was $200, and it's climbed about $100 to $200 a year ever since. Unfortunately, this is the first year ever, the owner decided to forget paying the Mansion Hall for their holiday party, and is having it at his house. It's cocktail style, and not a full buffet with appetizers. ...A Bit concerning, but I know the mansion they had been having their party at. They have gotten pretty expensive in recent years, and the owner probably decided the price increases were too much to bother with it any longer.

They also changed from a Thursday night party to a Friday night, so I can't go this year...already booked.
 
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I clearly get your frustration and it does suck when you're in the middle of a great set and the floor is packed to have this happen. Not much you can do but bear and grin with it. If this gig bothers you that much you could always turn the gig down. But you did say the gig pays well. So it's up to you if you take the gig or not next year. Sometimes it sucks when we don't get to show off our talents that could possibly gain us more bookings.

Have you gotten other bookings from this gig in the past? If so that might be your comfort zone even though personally this gig to you and for you.
 
Makes me appreciate the one I did this year... Cocktails. Dinner, awards for 30 minutes or so after dinner (longevity, star employee, above & beyond, etc.), no gifts or door prizes, and then I had a couple hours straight for music. Only a few announcements, but not many dancers. It was mostly socializing, and about half started leaving after the awards. Easy gig and I have it booked again for next year already (Thursday night).


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