New York City Team Building Event Supplier

HOLD IT!

Before you submit that request for a trivia team building, corporate entertainment event or private party inquiry or proposal, I need to make sure a few things are clear right from the very top.

First and foremost…THANK YOU for reaching out! I don’t want you to think I’m not appreciative, when I most definitely am. If you’ve made it all the way to my Website’s contact form, that means you’ve either:

• Found me through an online search
• Been referred by an existing client
• Heard about me through the media
• Attended a previous event as a guest, and now wish to host your own event

Regardless of how you found me, I want you to know how very thankful I am for your interest. I realize that the services I offer are probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, let alone experienced firsthand; you are therefore taking a chance on not only a new vendor, but a new activity as well. This can understandably be a bit scary – but hopefully, a bit exhilarating, too!

Before we go any further, I need to ask you a few questions. You may have noticed that my contact form has a few different fields to fill out, some which are required, and some which are not. The reason for this is so that I may have as comprehensive an understanding of your event needs as humanly possible right out of the gate. Even though my offerings are quite specialized – I ONLY produce trivia events for corporate and private audiences – I still have a wide range of services within my area of expertise; preparing and presenting only the most appropriate offerings for YOUR event will save significant time and effort on your end.

As such, I am going to encourage you to fill out the ENTIRE form to the best of your ability – all of the fields, not just the required ones. Please be as specific as you can – again, this will help provide me with the most complete information possible right from the start, the better which I can serve you with once we get off of Email and onto the phone to discuss your event in detail.

In addition to the required fields (your name, Email address and phone number), here’s the other information I request with your original inquiry, and why:

Company Name

Please let me know which organization you are writing on behalf of, as this will help me in several ways. For one thing, I may have already worked with your company previously. If you are reaching out on behalf of a multinational Fortune 500 firm, it’s entirely possible I’ve already produced an event or events for your colleagues in different parts of the country; likewise, if you’ve just joined a small company and have been charged with arranging a NYC team building event or finding employee party entertainment, I may have worked with your group previously (which happens more often than you might expect, actually – especially in New York City, where I’ve been running events for almost ten years).

It’s also possible that you’re a planner with an event production company, and would have no way of knowing that I actually have a preexisting relationship with one or more of your colleagues. In any case, if I’ve worked with your company before, that’s an important thing for us both to know. Not only will that mean I have experience working with your audience (or even specific group), but I can easily connect you with colleagues who have hired me previously, who can then provide you with a glowing recommendation. It also helps make for a more “warm” introduction, and takes some of the apprehension out of approaching a new vendor cold.

Event Date

Knowing when you are planning on holding your function is critical. Because this is live corporate event entertainment, I will be sending actual, live humans to your party or program to deliver the team trivia experience. As such, my availability is limited by the availability of my staff – particularly the professional game show hosts and emcees whom I work with to deliver these programs.

I could have EXACTLY what you are looking for in a team building event, however without knowing precisely when you are seeking to retain my services I can’t guarantee I will be available. If I have this information upfront, I can at least check against my calendar after your initial inquiry comes through, and let you know right of the bat whether I am or am not going to be able to work with you. Doing this saves both time and aggravation on your part; why would you want to have me call you up and spend 10-15 minutes explaining my various service options, only to discover I’m not even available on your date of choice?

Please – whenever possible, include your event date in your inquiry.

Number of Participants

Knowing how many people will be at your event is critical for several reasons. For one thing, I need to know whether it’s even feasible for me to produce the gig based on your expected audience size. My group bonding trivia game shows are designed as full-room shared experiences, and as such it requires a minimum number of participants in the room to generate that energy. While I can do events for as few as fifteen, even ten participants, once you start dipping below that then my services just don’t become practical.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I can produce events for as large as 1,500 participants (I know, right? That’s insane!) however, audiences definitely can get MUCH larger than that. Much as I would love to deliver interactive trivia game show for large audience at conferences, conventions, sales kickoff meetings or other similar gatherings, I am realistic as to what can confidently deliver – currently, anyway. If you’re looking to engage your massive audience, I DO have several compelling formats and highly experienced emcees, however honestly, it’s going to be limited – I may in fact not be the right team building vendor for you.

There’s also the budget to keep in mind here as well (more on budget to come below). Like most other corporate entertainment and team building vendors in NYC and Los Angeles, the number of participants is a factor when determining my fee. If your budget for the event doesn’t match up with the number of people you’re expecting, that’s something I’ll need to flag right at the top – again, the reason is to save as much of your time as possible. If you’re looking to entertain 200 people but only have a budget more appropriate to an event for 50, that’s something which we’ll need to address before we schedule a call (here’s a recent case study about an inquiry I received, where somebody wanted to entertain a LOT of people, but really couldn’t afford it based on their allocated spend).

Event Location

Where will this event be held? This was less of a concern during my early years, when frankly 99% of my clients’ events were being held in New York City and the surrounding region (and of those, I’d say about 95% were in Manhattan). However, ever since TrivWorks opened a West Coast office two years ago in Los Angeles, California, demand for my company trivia parties and corporate game shows nationwide has skyrocketed.

To determine my availability and what I can offer, I now need to know not only when your gig will be and for how many people, but WHERE it will be held. Knowing this from the start will help me understand not only if I’m available and what the rate will be, but who your emcee should be based on geographic proximity. I obviously want to keep the travel expense to a minimum, and will always try and send the nearest emcee I have to your event (generally speaking, my NYC-based emcees service the Eastern half of the country, while my Los Angeles-based talent services the Western states).

Additionally, my “Special Talent” emcees whom I partner with (NY1’s Pat Kiernan, professional comedians Ophira Eisenberg & Christian Finnegan, trivia “guru” Gene Jones, illusionist Ryan Oakes & musical improv troupe Broadway’s Next Hit Musical are all located in the New York City area. While they can and do travel nationwide to emcee TrivWorks events (Christian was just out here in Southern California a few months back for a gig in San Diego, Broadway’s Next did an event with me in South Carolina not long ago and I’ve got a gig with Ryan booked for St. Louis in a couple of months), by and large those hosts are more feasible if your event is in the NYC area, or at least  on the East Coast. That way, we’re talking at most a 1-2 day commitment, rather than 3 – which can be pretty demanding from a scheduling perspective, but also from a budgetary one.

Event Type

I’d mentioned at the beginning of this post that I have a wide range of offerings, and in fact I cater to a wide range of event types as well: employee and client entertainment, group bonding activities, staff and holiday parties, galas/fund raisers, membership entertainment, networking, intern entertainment, onboarding programs, conferences, conventions and so much more. As such, it is very helpful to me if I know what kind of needs you have BEFORE picking up the phone to call you.

This allows us to be on the same page from the get-go. If you’re looking for interactive after dinner entertainment for a conference, that’s going to be a different need entirely than if you want, say, a brand engagement game show. Knowing exactly the type of gig you are holding will guide me to leading the right type of conversation when we speak, and ensure I am presenting the most appropriate options for YOUR event.

Budget

Ah yes, here it is – the all-important budgeting question. Knowing how much you have to spend on your trivia entertainment supplier – even a rough estimate – will be a huge factor in determining just what I can and can’t offer you, depending upon the other variables described above. I realize budget isn’t always crystal clear. So many times, people will just leave this field with the default setting; maybe they have no idea, or they’re just “shopping around” and looking for price comparison.

While I of course understand that, I’m here to tell you that it’s much more efficient and effective if you tell ME what you have to spend, versus what the best rate is I can give YOU.

I attended a lecture years ago while working at the 92^nd Street Y in Manhattan, given by a celebrity chef. Among several other tangible lessons I learned from this insightful evening, one which stood out was when an audience member asked the chef what we restaurant patrons can do to be better customers (it’s a really smart and interesting question, right? Alas, it wasn’t me who had the brilliance to ask it – but I still reaped the benefits! Follow this link for more).

The chef’s answer was fantastic. He said, “Look, nobody wants to spend a fortune at restaurants. However, any place that’s worth its salt WANTS to impress you, genuinely WANTS you to have an enjoyable experience, even if you’re not ordering the most-expensive thing on the menu. And so, tell your server or sommelier at the start what your budget is. Don’t be embarrassed, don’t be ashamed – I assure you he or she will then bend over BACKWARDS to do the very best they can to please you. You’ll be happier in the end, rather than scouring the wine menu trying to find the ‘deal.’”

I thought this was so brilliant, and realized it had immediate implications outside of a restaurant setting. When I have no idea what your budget is, my hands are tied; I can give you my entire “menu” of service options if you will, however if you’re just looking for the “deal” I may or may not be able to help you, since my events aren’t cheap. However, if you ARE able to give me a realistic budget estimate or range before we even speak, I can then know what we’re talking about as far as not only what’s plausible, but what the various options might be for us to discuss.

How Did You Hear About Me?

This is another way for me to establish whether you are approaching me “cold” or “warm.” If I know before our call that you found me online and likely have no prior exposure to my brand, I know that I will likely need to provide you with my brief (yet still comprehensive) overview of services. If you’ve been recommended by a friend, or attended a previous event, I know that you already might know what TrivWorks is about, and thus can save you time with an abbreviated pitch.

Describe What You are Seeking

This is the open-ended field at the bottom of the form, where you can explain exactly what it is you are looking for – and why you’ve contacted me. When prospects fill this out minimally – or sometimes not even at all – it doesn’t provide me with any kind of useful context about the event, other than what’s been submitted in the above fields. Once again, the more information I have about both you and the upcoming gig, the better I can service you from the outset with appropriate information and options for us to discuss.

If you have already taken the time to complete the rest of my contact form, I urge you to please take an additional moment to provide me with any other info you can about your event. Even a brief sentence or two is better than not providing anything at all.

In Closing

All of these above factors are intended to work in conjunction with one another, to provide me with a complete “snapshot” of your event. I don’t rely on any one piece of information, but rather take all of them together collectively to determine the feasibility of the event based on the information you’ve provided to me, as well as what I can realistically offer to you.

And so, before you hit “Submit,” please take a moment to ensure that you’ve completed my contact form as much as you possibly can. The more you can tell me now, the less of your time I will ask later – and the better I can prepare the BEST service packages for your upcoming event!

For more on online contact form best practices, go to https://blog.hubspot.com/service/best-contact-us-pages