Ready !?!?!
Looking to tune up your swing!
ARENA/Full Swing Golf Simulator
Staff Included w x d x h 15’w x 22d ‘x 13h’ Power Required: 1-20 amp / 110v INDOOR USE ONLY! CANNOT BE IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT NEAR WINDOWS
BURGESSAMUSEMENTS.COM
amusement games for special events
Feature Films and Television
Burgess Events & Special Events has provided attractions and equipment for use in many Feature Films, Television Shows, Commercials, Advertising Campaigns, and Music Videos. Some of our attractions and equipment have been featured in: “Teen Wolf”, “The Originals”, “Revolution”, “The Walking Dead”, “Vampire Diaries”, and feature films including “Term Life” and “Killers”.
Stay tuned for more information. You never know where Burgess may be popping up on your big screen or television. In the meantime, if your production is in need of camera ready amusement equipment please do not hesitate to contact us!
How to Select the Right Date for Your Event?
Choosing the date(s) of your event is one of the first steps when starting its planning. A step that is pretty often wrongly underestimated, however, an important element that might predetermine the success or failure of your event. Choose the perfect date for your event and your marketing and PR efforts will be gracefully complemented. Choose an inappropriate date and don’t wonder why you are struggling to fill the event hall.
Selecting an appropriate date for your event is never a coincidence. It’s the result of a proper research and some strategic thinking. You don’t just open the calendar, close your eyes and point at a random date relying on your good luck. Or that’s exactly what you would do if you don’t take into consideration some important factors. That’s why we’ve tried to list the most common don’ts and dos when deciding the date for your event.
Don’ts
Pretty often the best way to select the perfect date for your event is by starting off with excluding the worst options. It’s like a tricky multiple choice question where if you’re not sure of the right answer, the first thing you do is ignoring the ones that you know for certain are wrong. So when scheduling your event, first try to avoid the following ‘event-ruiners’ dates:
- Your Competitors’ Event Dates
Your event might be unique in many aspects but it’s definitely not the only one in your industry and the sole that might be of interest for your target groups. Surely you’ve got competitors and even if you are positive that you will outshine them, just remember one thing: you will definitely achieve better results if the dates of your events do not clash.
- Official Holidays
Both, religious and public holidays are usually a bad choice when it comes to scheduling your event unless your event is not organized on the occasion of the holiday itself.
Religion plays an important role in many people’s lives, especially in some countries. So scheduling your event for Easter in a Christian country or Hajj in a Muslim country is a no-win situation for your event. For religious people, these are holy days and they will definitely prefer to celebrate them than to celebrate your event.
It’s a similar situation when it comes to national days or public holidays such as 14th of July in France or 4th of July in the USA. These are non-working days and people are usually not inclined to go to an event unless it’s a concert or entertaining outdoor event devoted to the public holiday itself.
- Important Political and Public Events
Scheduling your event on the day of national elections, referendums or other important political, public events is also something to avoid. Such public occasions concern everybody’s life and lots of people might easily opt out of your event. Not to mention that you will surely lose the media attention. And in case you hoped for a speaker, special guest or a patron for your event who is a political or public figure, you could almost certainly forget about him/her.
- Mondays
Is there a person on earth who loves Mondays? Probably yes, but most people certainly hate it. People are simply not in the mood or state of mind for going anywhere (but preferably back home) on Mondays. Even if you deal with workaholics, they would prefer working in their offices, doing their weekly to-do lists, arranging their working week, then coming to your event. In short, Mondays are usually like Friday, the 13th for your event so even if you’re not superstitious, it’s generally better to pick another day of the week.
- Holiday Seasons
Summer and winter holiday seasons are another poor choice when choosing a date for your event. The reason is quite obvious: people will simply be away on their deserved holidays. Be sure that your event will not be more tempting than lying on the beach with friends and loved ones. For most of Europe, those periods would be the whole of August (summer holiday season) and the end of December (winter holiday season). Of course, these would be different in Latin America or Asia, for example. So that’s another aspect to consider and research, especially if organizing an event abroad.
Dos
Now that you’ve eliminated the dates that might “blow off” your event, try to pick the ones that could only flatter it and work to its advantage. Here are just some suggestions:
- International Day(s) Related to the Topic of Your Event
If you schedule your event on an international day related to its topic, that’s definitely a win-win situation for you. That will not only assist your marketing and PR efforts but will also help you easily engage officials or public figures as speakers/patrons at your event and will provide you with more ideas for your program such as parallel events or campaigns. If organising a medical conference or healthcare expo, for example, and its opening is on the Worlds Health Day or World Blood Donor Day, you could organize a blood donation campaign as a parallel campaign which apart from the obvious benefits for the society, will surely help you get more public and media attention.
- Anniversaries
Anniversaries, such as the 20th anniversary of your organisation or an anniversary of an important historic event/date for a specific industry, are another occasion your event could benefit from.
- Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for Business Related and Educational Events/ Weekends for B2C and Entertaining Events
When wondering about which day of the week is the best option for your event, start off with defining the type of your event. If it’s a B2B, business related, educational event, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday are really good choices. On the other hand, if it’s a B2C, entertaining or experiential event, weekends are usually your best option.
Most often it’s impossible to comply with all the tips above. In other cases, the specifics of your event might require taking into consideration different factors and completely ignore the ones we’ve listed above. As everything in the event management profession, there’s no strict formula for success. My advice is to always “do your homework” in the form of research and SWOT analysis when selecting your event date in order to do what’s best for your event.
We’re curious to learn about your best practices in selecting the date(s) for your events. So feel more than welcome to leave a comment below.
Image: Flickr| Some rights reserved
Spring training !?!?!
Spring training is just not for the ” Majors”. Tune up your swing at your next event!
Batting Cage
STAFF INCLUDED w x d x h 18′ x 35′ x 12′ 18′ W x 35′ D x 118X18X35X12 Power Required: 1-5 amp / 110v
WATER BLASTER 22ft GAME TRAILER
Have this classic carnival game at your next event!
16 Participants, See who has the best aim! Shoot the bulls-eye with your water gun to see who wins. 12ft Clearance needed (11ft actual height) 8 ft wide trailer 16ft wide with awning out 22ft long trailer and hitch is 4ft long
BURGESSAMUSEMENTS.COM
The 4 Essential “E”-s for Designing Enchanting Events: Experience, Evolving, Experiment, Engagement
As we love to say: “No event deserves to be mediocre”. Events are meant to enchant! They need to enlighten, connect, surprise and delight and to ultimately bring along progress, inspiration and enjoyment. There is no strict recipe for achieving that but we believe there are four invaluable ingredients you should always mix to prepare a mind-blowing event: create and experience, keep on evolving, never stop experimenting and always engage your attendees.
These E-words are quite easy to remember: all four of them begin with the favourite letter of any event prof – “E” like in “event”, but their introducing into your events require lots of skills, know-how and creativity. See why you should always bear these four E-words in mind when designing events and how to wheel them into your events, below.
Create an E xperience
If you ask someone what his/her most thrilling memory or biggest dream is, it’s quite unlikely to get answers like: buying a Ferrari or getting a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes for my birthday. Most answers would be something like: a trip to the Maldives, a visit to Walt Disney World (for every child out there and the kind of people who always stay kids like me), attending a concert of a favourite band/singer or parachuting (for the adrenaline seekers). People cherish and remember experiences, not things. Only experiences stick to our minds and hearts for good. To organise an exceptional and memorable event, you need to do just that – create an experience.
Experiences are the best (if not the only) means to achieve the ultimate goals of your event: from educating to inspiring or entertaining your attendees, there is no better teacher, guru or entertainer than the personal EXPERIENCE itself. For an event to become a real experience it should feel like an individual encountering for each and every attendee. That means that your event needs to evoke emotions, stimulate all the senses, engage (more about that below) and amaze every single attendee at your event. More on how to turn your event into experience read here.
Keep on E volving
The key to organizing better and better events is evolving: every new event you organize needs to surpass the previous one. To achieve that there are some basic steps you should follow:
Analyze your events
Your event might be over but not your work on it. Now is the time to make a thorough analysis of your event: evaluate its strengths and weaknesses; review the attendees’ feedback paying attention especially to the negative remarks; discuss the difficulties, oversights and accomplishments with your teammates; etc. Not doing so will doom your future events not only to boredom and lack of progress but also to making the same mistakes over and over again which a much more wiser person than me, namely Albert Einstein, called insanity.
Embrace your mistakes
We all make mistakes, it’s human and unavoidable. What’s important is to learn from them. They are the hardest but the best lessons you could get. So don’t be harsh on yourself about the little blunders and slips you’ve had during your last event. Instead, examine them carefully and think of ways to avoid them next time. Thus, from stumbling stones they might turn out to be the stepping-stones to your next great event.
‘Upgrade’ yourself
It’s not only your events that need evolving. It’s you who has to constantly work on yourself as an event professional in order to organize better events. Because you are the driving engine behind your event! Learning new skills and hacks and keeping up with the trends in the industry is the best investment you could make for your event. Whether you will attend different events for event profs, event management masterclasses and trainings or you will simply read Genioso Event Magazine, just never stop learning and improving yourself as an event prof!
E xperiment
Another essential E-word when it comes to events – experimenting. Trying new event formats, technologies, services, gadgets, approaches or unconventional venues is what will make the difference in your next event. Even small changes and innovations like a new image or а video on your website or a funky throwable microphone (like Catchbox) to use during your event could completely change the look and feel of your event and eventually its final outcomes. Yes, not all try-ons might be a success but your biggest mistake will surely be not going after new things! Stagnation and repetition are like seppuku for events. Enchanting events thrive only on creativity and innovation. So if there is one thing you should never be afraid of when organizing an event, that’s experimenting!
E ngage your Attendees
Long gone are the times when the event audience was just a passive spectator during the event. The Millennials need and demand more: they want to be active participants during your events, they’ve come to network and exchange experiences and know-how and will not put up with less.
To adapt to these changes, the event industry has undergo immense transformations the last decades: new interactive event formats have emerged; event technologies have encompassed the whole event management cycle – from the designing and marketing of the event to its conducting and follow-up stage, making our work as event profs not only easier but so much more exciting; moderators have become key figures in events, modelling the events like stand-up comedians and finding diverse and creative ways to include the audience into the dialogue; speakers have greatly changed their ways of presenting: (more and more) discarding pp presentations, actively interacting with the audience, discussing real case studies including ad-hoc ones coming directly from the attendees and so on.
Engaging your audience has become the number one priority when designing an event. The more creative and interactive ways you invent to do so, the better and more memorable your event will become.
Are these E-words the pillars of your wow-factor events as well? We will be delighted to hear how you turn your events to real successes.
Image: Flickr | Some rights reserved
For your next Birthday Party, Wedding or Corporate Event!
For your next Birthday Party, Wedding or Corporate Event!
Hollywood Photo Booth
w x d x h 34”x67”x79” Power Required: 1-20 amp / 110v Proper shelter from sun and rain is required. Protective tent can be provided at an additional charge
BURGESSAMUSEMENTS.COM
LASER TAG IS HERE!
Spring is around the corner! Have your own Laser Tag battle at your next event.
LASER TAG WITH BUNKERS
Fast paced action! It is like playing paint ball…without the paint. This system is versatile and can be played outdoors or indoors. The arena field is made up of various shaped colorful inflatable bunkers. The gaming system can be adjusted…
BURGESSAMUSEMENTS.COM