I was just wondering, how many of you have ever/will be/are arranging your own nights and/or events. eg: You're renting out a venue, specifying the content/style of the music being played, arranging "door security", bar facilities etc, and of course, reaping the £benefits of it from the door (and maybe the bar) profits?

What pitfalls did you encounter if any? what concerns would stop you from holding a night in the future?

My self and a frend who also runs a mobile disco run a singles night between us. I do one Friday he does the next. We get the venue for free which holds 350 we supply and pay for the door man. We use two girls on the pay desk and have a guest DJ from the local radio(good for the free advertising). These night are going really well and pay well. Always a good night just wish we could do it more than once a week.

I'd be interested in this. I'm thinking about starting a 90's night in bedford.

Gav

Hi

This topic's come up at just the right time.

We're thinking of starting up an over 25's night. Daventry's got stuff for kids and younger adults, but stuff all for the older adults who like to kick back and have a good time. Sure they've got the usual pubs and clubs in Dav and Northampton, but there's a yob element that seems to like to stuff it all up for everyone else.

This would be a membership club this trying to keep out the yob fraternity.

membership would be free and you get discount on the door.

So, yes we're looking for some good advice, particularly regarding advertising and how to best create the buzz about the club.

We were thinking of having a different theme for each week so one week 80's, one rock 'n' roll, one 70's and 80's etc.

so ideas!!!!!

Darren

I was asked to run a weekly Disco at our community center last year and decided against this after hearing A youngster had filled a huge claim against the last orginiser for having a accident there, I am not sure about the legal sides of running and orginising events but it will be great if someone here shares there knowledge with us. Good Thread Gary

Unfortunately nobody can guarantee an audience, but you just have to give it your best shot, and do what you can to promote it. It may also take a few attempts to build up the night, that goes without saying, so don't just take your opening night to be an instant failure of an idea. It took me 4 weeks just to get 10 members onto this forum!, and arranging an event is exactly the same.

Some ideas for promoting are below, obviously your target age group depends on which methods you may consider to implement....

Birthday Mailouts - Get the information from the Electrol Role of those celebrating a birthday in the coming month. Have a Birthday Card printed in the name of your club / event night and personaliase it with an invitation for the Birthday Lad / Lass to celebrate at your night!. Enclose some free tickets or a voucher for a free bottle of cheap bubbly. Even with the expense of a couple of Free Admissions or a bottle, often the person will bring several paying guests to the night, and it's good for P.R.

Newspaper Advertising - Expensive but effective. Run an advert for 4 weeks prior to the event, this is far better than one advert and will work out cheaper.

Radio:- Most Local Radio Stations have a free 'Whats on' guide, just email them the details of your event and they'll probably plug it for you, when they do a local event guide, okay so you may be advertised alongside Scout Jumble sales and sponsored car washes, but hey, its free advertising! and reaching 10,000's of people.

Pubs:- Get a few local pubs to put up flyers. Target the pubs which you know mainly contain the age group you are targetting. If your event is beyond normal pub hours, then the landlord wont see it as competition and may be glad to empty his pub faster in order to close up!

Student Union:- If your event is for a younger age group, then target the Student Union Bars. Equally with Under 16 events, ask the local schools and youth groups to put up flyers for you on their notice boards.

Flyers:- Hand out flyers in the street on a busy Saturday Afternoon, also put them up in Newsagents windows, the local music shops, library, lesiure centre, Gym. If you know a local paperboy / girl ask them to include your flyer to each house they deliver to.

Text Messaging:- Bulk Text Messaging is the most effective form of advertising to the 14-28 age group, and is rapidly becoming a big business. It wont be effective from day 1 because you need the numbers. In order to do this properly, when somebody becomes a member of your event / club get their details including mobile number, put these numbers into a database and keep them informed of any future special promotions or attractions by text. Bulk Texts cost from 3.5p each, or put those Free 300 texts 02 sim cards to use

I've done quite a few of my own nights. for the past two years I've been doing them under the name of "Groovers Korner" promotions. Prior to that I'd been doing them under various other names.
These nights are aimed at a 30+ age group and the music is Soul, Rare-Groove, Funk, Jazz-Funk, Modern-Soul & Lovers-Rock.
These music styles were very popular in the area that I live in (NW London) in the 80's. For those that aren't familiar with the term Lovers-Rock, it's a form of reggae, most of which was very underground, although a couple of songs did chart nationally, such as Janet Kay-Silly Games and Sugar Minott-Good Thing Going.

Without a doubt, by far and away the most important factor is the venue. The old saying of Location Location Location is as important in this business as in any other. Apart from location other important factors are the female toilets!
For the age group that I'm targetting, the female toilet is absolutely vital. On the whole girls of 30+ sub-consciously place a lot of importance on the state of the toilets; the cleanliness, size & facilities. The ladies toilets must be of a good size, clean and modern as well as the rest of the club being appealing and in a good location.
The mens toilets are of little significance as long as they're useable and reasonably clean.
Of more importance to the men is that you can get served reasonably quickly and that there is a good ratio of women to men. If these two factors are good then men will attend. Women though are much more demanding.

Of the venues I've used, none has been exactly what I'm looking for and this has been my biggest obstacle.
The more that I write the more factors I remember that are also important!
Others are:
Ease of getting taxi's/minicabs at the end of the night.
Is the venue easy to find, is it on a backstreet or major road?
Does it have a clean sound; no broken speakers or distortion.
Are the door staff friendly or intimidating?
Is there a friendly atmosphere in the venue or is it tense as if somethings about to kick off at any time?
Are there cloakroom facilities?
If tickets are available in advance how easy are they to purchase?
What is the finish time, will punters feel they are getting good value for money?

The factors I have listed are of importance to the age group that I am targetting and will not be so important to younger age groups and maybe in other parts of the country some of these factors will not be a concern.

You also have the catch 22 situation of when you do the first one, you have to decide beforehand whether it will be a regular event, i.e. monthly, quarterly etc and if so it is vital to have fliers printed containing this info that can be given out to everyone who attends your event so that if they enjoy the night they know exactly when the next one is.
The problem is though, that you have no idea of how successful your first event is going to be and so it can be risky planning the second one before the first one has taken place, but it is vital to capitalise on the success of a good event.
It may take a while to establish a reputation and therefore your first few gigs may not actually make a profit, even worse you may make a loss. Just because you make a loss on the first few, this does not necessarily mean it will always make a loss, it could just take a while for the word to spread, and by accepting the loss in those early stages you can eventually reap the rewards when people start flocking in by say the 5th or 6th gig.
If the gig is being done less frequently than weekly or fortnightly it needs to be done on an easy to remember time-scale, i.e. if it's monthly then always the last saturday in the month for example. If it's quarterly then always near the beginning of the month maybe.
Consider whether to have a membership scheme and if so what benefits membership will provide. Having such a scheme can give you a good database of names/addresses which is great for promoting your future events but can also reduce your profits if for example one of the benefits of the scheme is a reduced door charge. Catch 22 again though; To get a big database of names you need to provide good incentives to want to become a member.

You need to negotiate with the venue regarding door money and bar takings.
If you're bringing in a lot of people this should mean that the venue will be making a lot of money behind the bar (especially for an over 25's crowd). Do you get a percentage of this?
Will you have to pay to hire the venue? if so what do you get for your money? does it include door staff?
It's always easier to negotiate from a position of strength. So for example for the first few events you may pay to hire the venue and only receive the door money, but once the event is regularly packing the crowds in, you then become important to the venue management/owner so you can re-negotiate to not paying anything for the hire of the venue and maybe even a percentage of the bar takings. The threat of moving your very successful night to a rival venue can be a strong card.

Most good venue's will already be busy and so maybe not available for hire. If a seemingly good venue is available for hire, especially if it's on a saturday, ask yourself why?
It could be that it's new and no one knows of it yet
Maybe the manager/marketing is inexperienced/poor.
Negative location/Impossible to get home from, no cab firms nearby
Bad reputation, i.e. known for trouble
Neglected facilities inc toilets
Low quality sound equipment/cowboy DJ's

This is a subject that covers so many things and involves so many variables that it's impossible to give a clear answer in just a few paragraphs.

It usually involves a LOT of work but can be VERY rewarding, especially if you're playing a style(s) of music that you love, and obviously can also bring in potloads of dosh

Hi

Wow, couple of excellent responses there!

Regarding the venue, in our case we're looking at using at using a local hotel function room, the loos are fine, we've yet to talk about price of hiring the room.

The only sticking point may be the size of the room, it hold 200 to 300, if you only get 20 people turn up it's going to look a tad empty. However, it's the best venue in the area. pretty much all of the other venues would attract totally the element we're seeking to keep away.

Hey ho.

Darren

Organise a lot of nights here and promotion is the main prob, bad promotion= bad night. Always use proff staff and good locality and things should go well. Will add that in Norway things are slightly different than in the uk so the problems arent the same.

Excellent responses, great stuff Eskie - a response which can be compared to Garys in size and content!

PARTYCHRIS and I are right in the middle of planning a fundraiser in London village, so a very timely topic. I will let you know how we did the day after (26th Feb 2005)

Of course, you could always come and witness the event

I've often though about running an event like this for kids but it looks like someone local to me has already pitched me to the post and I wouldn't like to tread on his toes as he is a nasty bit of work.

He has a tendancy to walk into the venue he normally does his gigs in and hassle other DJ's who have been hired there. Also he will go out of his way and quote riduculous prices to make sure he gets 100% of the booking in the area.

He is always phoning me to get quotes aswell. Grrrr!