Case Study: Conference Entertainment – Aboard a Chartered Yacht!

By David | February 2, 2017 |

conference.entertainment.activities.San.Diego.jpgConference entertainment activities San Diego

This week, I was fortunate enough to participate in something really, really cool: a conference entertainment event in San Diego, aboard a massive luxury chartered Hornblower cruise ship!

This is actually something I’ve had in mind to do for quite a while, and I’m thrilled I was actually able to see it “in action” this past week. I’d actually been approached a number of years ago about the potential of producing a semi-regular trivia party for tourists aboard a sightseeing boat; that never panned out, but the idea was planted, and has been percolating in the back of my mind ever since.

As I’ve written about extensively here ever since I began blogging six years ago, group bonding and team building activities are most effective when they are built around a positive shared experience. While corporate party entertainers in Southern California like me clearly play a part in creating such an environment (or at least I would hope we do), the venue is also critical to achieving this goal. One of the recurring requests I receive – especially from repeat clients – is to try and foster a different type of experience by changing up the venue.

There’s just something about being out on the water which people love. Being on a massive Hornblower ship – some of which are capable of accommodating a thousand guests or more – is something most people don’t get to do every day. As such, the combination of a fun, laugh-filled activity such as team trivia with the complete uniqueness of being on a huge, gorgeous ship, sailing around a harbor with the wind in your hair and spectacular views all around, well – from a group bonding standpoint, what’s not to love?

This past week’s event was for quite a prestigious client indeed: Training magazine’s 40th annual Training Conference. Considered the must-attend function of the year for those in the professional training and development industry, experts from all over the country and world descended on San Diego this week for several days of lectures, workshops, breakout sessions – and, of course, some social and networking opportunities. The big social event on the agenda was to be the Yacht Cruise, where upwards of 700 participants would get to mix and mingle after the conclusion of the conference while aboard the luxury yacht.

The Training 2017 Conference team graciously invited TrivWorks to be a part of this cruise, and I made sure that I would be on-hand to personally produce and emcee this very special event. The thing that makes conferences, conventions, meetings and other such gatherings different from, say, company parties or team building events is that by and large, those gathered don’t really know each other. However, the key to creating a highly successful and enjoyable shared experience is customizing – tailoring the function for the specific group in attendance, as well as the exact goals which the organizer has set. This becomes a challenge when working with big, diverse crowds who are acquaintances at best, but are most likely to be complete strangers.

Even when working with such an audience , I still wanted to try and personalize this event as much as possible to those whom we were expecting to be there. I held a customization call with my client, and got a general “snapshot” of what the attendees looked like from a demographic and psychographic perspective. I also was provided with some fun facts, key messages and themes from the conference itself, which could easily be worked into the material we’d be using.

Relying on the expertise of the Hornblower events team, as well as the Training Conference planners who know their audience best, it was assumed that roughly two-thirds of the estimated 600-700 guests would opt to remain on the main deck and rooftop deck of the ship once underway. The remaining 200 or so would most likely migrate to the lower deck, where we could set up our team trivia contest. Very manageable indeed!

The morning of the gig, I loaded all of the materials and my large-scale sound projection equipment into my car, and drove down from TrivWorks’ West Coast office in Long Beach to the docks in San Diego where Hornblower’s massive charter yacht, the Inspiration, was docked. I loaded everything onto the ship, got the gear set up (making sure to securely tape everything down, in anticipation of the ship’s motion). The Inspiration was actually docked at a different site than where the passengers would be boarding, so we cast off and made the leisurely 45-minute ride up the harbor.

At that point, I looked outside to find…fog, lots and lots of fog, suddenly engulfing the ship, the harbor, and in fact the entire city. We were delayed getting the yacht moored due to the fog, and the captain made the determination that we would need to keep the yacht dockside, rather than venture out into the complete abyss. But this crowd of conference attendees took it in stride, just happy to be together and to enjoy a fun party after a few long days of the summit. They all boarded, got themselves acquainted with the vessel, and then…show time!

Because the fog had reduced the visibility to literally zero – plus the temperature had unexpectedly dropped about fifteen degrees – our assumptions on where the guests would choose to spend their time on the ship proved to be a bit inaccurate. In fact, we had close to 300 folks now wanting to be down on the lower level, where the “action was.” All the better – we always come prepared just in case something like this happens!

Once we got all 300 people situated into their teams, I flipped on the microphone, started my shtick – and that was that. The group was FANTASTIC, enthusiastic and into it from the very beginning, right through to the end when we announced our winners. It was originally supposed to last about 45 minutes, but I think it wound up going about an hour and half, all told. It was a total blast, and I was just so thrilled to see them enjoying themselves as much as they did!

Once the event officially concluded, everyone disembarked the ship – I loaded up my car, said goodbye to the client and ship’s crew, and made the journey back up to Long Beach. It may not have gone EXACTLY as we had planned it, but in the end a positive experience shared among the group was indeed had – and that’s all that matters.

For further reading on selecting conference entertainment in San Diego, visit https://trivworks.com/2012/03/5-questions-to-ask-when-choosing-a-corporate-conference-entertainment-activity/

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