Plan.Meet.Repeat January February 2019 Issue plan meet repeat jan feb 2019 | Page 4

5 Tips for Hiring an
Entertainer for your next
Event
T
he days of talent agencies providing
entertainment for meeting planners are largely
over. Pre-internet, many meeting planners would
form relationships with talent agencies as preferred
providers of entertainment for clients. The benefits of
this were that agencies could be a trusted source to
provide the best talent at the best price. As the former
owner of a talent agency—as well as making my living
as a comedy magician— myself, I saw the value in
nurturing long-term relationships with meeting
planners who were working with a continual stream
of corporate clients. I wanted to keep them happy for
obvious reasons.
Enter the Internet. Things have radically changed in
the entertainment industry and small talent agencies—
aside from the bigger ones that handle celebrities—are
now a thing of the past. Meeting planners can simply
Google what they’re looking for and find virtually
(pun intended) any type of act they want—and at the
ballpark price they want, as well.
Recognizing this, I wrote this article in the hopes that
the tips below will assist meeting planners in making
the process of hiring an entertainer easier. Here are
five things to check before hiring any entertainer….
1. Do they have a website? It may seem like a small
thing but credibility with any business or entity begins
online. And having a website is a no-brainer in
marketing yourself in any niche. If they don’t have a
website, “let the buyer beware.” Some acts try to get
by with a Facebook page. This is all well and good,
but it doesn’t replace a website. Acts with a website
take their business seriously and even a one or two-
page site is better than none at all.
There are also “online agencies” like Gigmasters,
GigSalad and even Thumbtack, that allow buyers to
look for various types of talent in one place. These are
usually bid sites where a buyer puts a request in and
individual acts and musical groups submit proposals
for the work. 2. Do they have a demo video? This again, should be
a prerequisite to hiring any act. Unless you’ve seen
them “live” or have gotten a recommendation from
someone you thoroughly trust, don’t even consider
them before seeing them in a live environment. When
I owned my agency, this was the first thing I looked
at. In fact, it was the 90% determining factor on
whether I would represent them or not. The demo
doesn’t have to be overly long. It should just be long
enough to showcase what they do. You’ll want to look
at two things when viewing the video:
For some meeting planners this is a great thing. They
can pick and choose from a wide variety of talent
online and negotiate directly with them. For others
however, it’s just one more thing to do in the hundred
things that go into planning of an event. Some would
lament that having a trusted advisor(agent) steering
them in the direction of an act or group that would be
a good fit made providing that service for a meeting
infinitely easier. a. The quality of the act. Are they good at what they
do within the budget you have? Are they appropriate
for your client’s audience. Case in point, I once
booked a comedian who said he would work
“clean”—and his video backed it up. That was, until
he wasn’t getting laughs. He then started working
“blue”— R-rated. This was NOT acceptable for a
corporate meeting. Be aware of things like this and get
assurances from the act before booking them.
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Plan Meet Repeat Magazine Jan/Feb 2019