How Much Are You Worth?

In the first week of January we were asked to pitch for the entertainment on a virtual awards evening for a massive multi-national conglomerate (& their clients), which we did, and won over 3 other pitches. We were fore-warned that the budget wasn’t going to be big at all so we needed to factor that in when coming up with realisable ideas, CHECK. We also knew that we weren’t the only ones asked to pitch for this so needed to: 1. Think outside of the box ideas-wise yet make the event look a million buck$£€¥ (despite the budget), CHECK, and 2. with so many cultures & demographics involved a certain sensitivity would be required, CHECK. Oh, and 3. include the host company’s mission in the pitch, CHECK. Without wanting to blow our own trumpets the client said we blew everyone else out of the water. Yay, happy! The event is scheduled for mid-February so well-scheduled project management is in order. Once the ideas have been accepted by the client it should just be a standard case of planning: checking to see where, or if, we need to outsource and who we might need to contract into the event/confirm availability, risk assessment bla bla bla. A good amount of work done within days (not including the time taken to come up with the pitch). Several days later, we're informed the budget has been lessened somewhat and could we “adjust our ideas to suit”? We figure we can squeeze a couple of things a little without altering the scope too much, so Yes. Client again “thrilled”. Jump ahead several more days, negotiations with third parties confirmed, virtual backgrounds being worked on, artists narrowed down to a select high-end few and the client comes back to us once more, someone new in their team (new to us, anyway) and tells us that the budget is to be cut again. Literally to approximately 60% of the original, already very tight figure. At that point we freeze everything and take a step back to assess the situation. Adaptability is a non-negotiable quality in the events industry. There are a hundred & one things out of a hundred that might need to be changed at some point so if you’re not able to adapt, even at the last minute, you’re in the wrong business. That’s not saying that with careful planning, clear communication & management you might not have the smoothest ride, but everyone in the events industry, especially the bespoke end, knows that clients are notorious for spraying on your ideas like a dog marking it’s territory around the neighbourhood - my event, my way. And that’s fine. It truly is. They’re paying, after all. And sometimes their ideas are great! But when they insist that your compromise becomes sacrifice, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth doing at all. Invitees at the event won’t know, nor care, that you’ve jumped through hoops, they’ll just see the end result and assess for themselves if it worked, or not. And if it doesn’t, your hoop jumping accounts for nothing. In fact, it only adds to your failure as clearly you weren’t, what? Adaptable. Or creative enough. Or, let’s face it, good. All of this, of course, is the ultimate risk assessment. Weighing everything up, it was very clear that any results from such a pitiful budget would only damage our own image. We let them know immediately that we were stepping away, within the hour, actually. We notified all the third parties we’d engaged and let the artists know they can now free up those dates.

There appears to be a trend re. tightening virtual event budgets, and consequently getting poor end-results. So it's no wonder a lot of people aren’t very eager to participate. I get why that is, too, after spending so much work time in front of a screen these days, the idea of partying, or socialising, in front of that same screen (& more than likely in the same room, too!) can be about as appealing at eating cat sick. But that classic image of the serpent eating it’s own tail rings very true here (I don’t mean rebirth) - if you think you’re being smart by making further savings on a low budget then maybe you’re smarter than the rest of us, but you wouldn't expect much luxury at a budget wedding so why would you expect more from a budget event?

Another trend is to come running back at the 11th hour, begging the creatives to “Please do the gig!” We don’t hold grudges (ever), but we do factor in that we won’t be getting as much sleep at that point, nor will any potential third party contractors, so yes, it will you cost you more…

We need entertainment. We need variety. If you've managed to impress your clients, and bosses, with entertainment that matches the pitiful figure on that balance sheet then lucky you, you got the best boss in the world! I invite you to jump on board and to think outside of the box... We've added some fun components to our virtual events that have resulted in "We all felt like there were 30 people in our lounge rooms!". You have no idea how easy that was to achieve, it just took some planning. We have had a couple of complaints, though, that several clients at one event were sporting hefty hangovers the next day, but hey, we took full responsibility and apologised profusely.

Tell whoever's organising your next work function, whether it be virtual or live, that you expect great things! You work hard for the company. Be merciless... you're worth it!