NYC Corporate Event Entertainers: Caution

If you work in the event entertainment field, you do so because you are passionate about creating experiences which people will enjoy, and talk about for a long time. For those of us who work in corporate event entertainment, including team building facilitators, speakers, musicians, magicians- and yes, trivia hosts – we do so because we love feeling that our efforts went towards making people happier, and towards doing their jobs better.

We’re typically a happy group, because it’s our job to bring out the best in others by doing what we ourselves enjoy the most- and who can argue with having the time of your life while at work? We’re also by and large independent entrepreneurs, who love the challenge and rewards of working for ourselves. For those of us fortunate enough to be making a decent living by entertaining and motivating others, while being our own bosses, it’s a wonderful feeling indeed.

And that is exactly why corporate event entertainers must be cautious about how they deliver their service. Precisely because we love our work so much, and enjoy being independent and doing exactly what we want to be doing on our own terms, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the majority of our clients – corporate employees – do not share these luxuries.

I’ve had to learn this confusing lesson the hard way, and perhaps you have as well. To ensure that your clients get the full benefit of the entertainment, team building lesson or positive message you wish to get across during your performance, keep this important fact in mind always:

• The event is about the client, not about the entertainer.

We all want to perform our best at each event, and to wow the audience so much that they talk about us and provide us with referrals. However, corporate events are not the same as a show, where people buy tickets and expect to be entertained; clients are hiring us to deliver a high-value, high-impact service for their attendees. Whenever possible, make the event about them. Customize events as much as possible, and make sure that there is ample time spent recognizing, engaging and incorporating feedback directly from attendees, to make them feel valued.

I do this with trivia events all the time; while the urge is there for me as a performer to be funny and make attendees laugh all night with my brilliantly sharp wit, I put my ego in check; reading out funny team names and smartass answers attendees came up with is so much funnier than any one-line quips I could come up with, and lets them feel valued as well.

When I ran corporate scavenger hunts a couple of years back, I ran into the same dilemma; teams would go around searching for clues, while taking digital photos of themselves in hysterical poses. They would then convene at a restaurant or bar, and we would upload the photos and show them on a PowerPoint projector for all to enjoy. As the event host, I had a microphone, and was constantly adding “commentary” to the photos, which I thought was hysterical. However, the attendees thought otherwise; after a few slides the laughs would grow less and less, and I felt like an idiot- as I should have. The attendees didn’t want to hear the scavenger hunt guy give creative play-by-play, they just wanted to laugh at their own antics.

It’s perhaps the hardest thing a performer can do: keep their mouth shut (trust me, I know). What are your thoughts on this? I promise, I won’t say anything…