Tag Archives: events

Does your business need promotion?

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Many businesses now enjoy and thrive off shop promotion. Whether it’s opening the shop for the first time or your first year anniversary shop promotions can attract new customers and keep existing customers. It can also help increase sales which is probably the most positive factor of all businesses. Shop promotion entertainment can help with every of these aspects… if done properly.
Shops always have the same monotonous music playing in the background so why not switch it up a bit and hire a DJ. The public will hear different music and will also experience first-hand a DJ playing live in a shop, now that’s not something you see every day. Get the DJ to play various styles of music to attract different types of customers but also make sure it suits your shop. If you have a unique boutique then trance music would not exactly match the surroundings. Your shop will have that wow factor compared to others around it so it is definitely worth a try!

Street performers are a great idea to entice people of the street and into your shop. The performers will attract attention to the facade of the shop and can even hand out leaflets to the public. Once your street performer starts performing and letting everybody know about the shop, then how can the customers resist not going in for a little look. Various street performers could include acrobats, stilt walkers, fire performers, dancers and even musicians. This is a very cost effective way to add excitement and positive chit chat around your shop.

Food is well known to be the way to anybody’s heart. So why not have some sort of unique catering outside your shop to attract customers to your front doors. A few ideas which are very simple yet very effective include hiring a fish and chip van for the day. It could be packaged in a traditional box with your brand on it, so when your customers sit down to enjoy their food they are reminding on your company. During the summer months you could hire an ice cream van or cart and if they spend a certain amount in shop then on their exit they get an ice cream. It may be a simple idea but this can be very effective. To finish up, your shop just needs to be jazzed up a bit. Make it fun and intriguing and do your research. As I said before, don’t hire entertainment which doesn’t match your shops style. And shop around and hire local artists of possible, this will reflect very positively on your shop.

Maritime Party Theme ideas

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Here’s just a few ideas of maritime venues and party entertainment that seem just made for each other!
HMS Belfast, London

Yes, you can hire this iconic WWII battleship moored on the Thames. Hold an intimate drinks party in the Admiral’s Quarters, or enjoy great views of London from the Quarterdeck with 450 of your closest friends for your wedding reception.

Appropriate acts: Greet your guests with the sounds of the 1940s. Then, dance the night away to a 1940s style big band playing hits by Glenn Miller.

Party like a Lottery winner for your hen night on your own private luxury yacht, sailing from the famous Albert Docks in Liverpool out into the Irish Sea to the iconic Anthony Gormley statues (weather permitting). Perfect for you and your very own Ocean’s Twelve (i.e. 12 people max),
Appropriate acts: Save the dancing for your return to Albert Docks, where you can hire a variety of venues for an all-night, bop ’till you drop party. Save money by booking a rock and pop function band.

Manchester Party Barge

Manchester barge The Bohemia can whisk you and up to 60 guests along the hidden waterways of central Manchester for a birthday party or anniversary celebration with a difference. With space to enjoy live music on your travels, and a route that takes you past the iconic Old Trafford football ground, this is an evening to savour. Other iconic waterways offering party barges including the Tiverton Canal, Lancaster Canal and the city with more canals than Venice – Birmingham!

Appropriate acts: for smaller venues such as a barge, opt for a compact duo or trio that play all your favourite hits with the minimum of kit.

Packet Boat Trips, Bristol

Charter a boat to party on the River Avon as it flows through the Avon Gorge, under the Clifton Suspension Bridge and out to sea. The Bristol Packet Boat Company offer a choice of boats, including a traditional river steamer, an Amsterdam sightseeing boat, and an all weather cruiser made for parties. All boats have a full bar and food can be provided.

Appropriate acts: Although there may not be too much room for dancing, you can still pack your packet with your favourite tunes from an experienced DJ.

80’s themed ideas

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The eighties appear to be everywhere at the moment and we thought we’d help you out in looking to hire party entertainment for an 80s themed party by accumulating a few fab acts inspired by the decade that brought us Bananarama, The Bangles and Bros.

Retro Games

Let’s be honest, if you’ve arranged an eighties party and there’s no Pacman, Dig Dug or Galaxian, then someone’s going to have to apologise! Yes, some of those games may very well have been created in the 1970s but the 1980s are when they really took off. With our Joypad retro game hire, you’ll be able to play all your favourite 8-bit hits including Super Mario, Sonic, Tetris and more!

80’s Circus entertainment

Nothing quite says the 1980s like questionable facial hair and the rise of the shell suit, which dominated high streets for some bizarre reason. Did nobody have a mirror back then? Go for an eighties-inspired theme by hiring some circus entertainment at its very best.

Canapé Girls

There’s just something about the 1980s, isn’t there? When it comes to picking a party theme, it has the right mixture of questionable cool alongside the ridiculous and with that idea firmly in your mind. Why not hire some Canape girls. Available to present your guests with a variety of flavoursome foods, the Canape Girls will look right at home at your event with a flamboyance that wouldn’t look out of place in a Peter Greenaway film.

Speed Rubix Cuber

Alongside video games, the Rubik’s Cube is a classic image that embodies everything we remember about the eighties. Rigid corners and sides (see those 8-bit games we talked about earlier), incredibly dull colour schemes and a finale that’ll leave you amazed and overjoyed. Yes, speed cubers don’t just solve the blasted puzzle but do it so quickly that you’ll be desperate to learn the tricks of the trade! You get to mess it up and less than ten seconds later, you’ll get it back in perfect condition! How? We have no idea but it’s crazily impressive entertainment to have at your event!

Eighties tribute bands

There are lots of eighties party bands that we are happy to promote that can play music from a variety of decades, but if it’s the 1980s you’re after then it’s probably best to just ask for tunes from the era of Michael Jackson, WHAM! and Madonna. If you’re looking to hire a band from the 80’s, you can’t go wrong with our advertised bands.

Threats to the event industry

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The rest of 2016 and 2017 are set to be quite disruptive. Technology and political changes will shake up the event industry as we know it. Are you ready to embrace the change? There is a lot going on in the world. The last 6 months have been quite dramatic, scary and exciting at the same time. It seems we are going through one of those cycles of intense change that happen every 10 years.

There are two main areas of disruption: Security and Technology. The way we react to these profound changes is going to define our profession for the next 10 years.

Security and Terrorism

There is a very volatile situation involving security and terrorism related threats. Looking at the facts of what has happened and is currently happening in Europe, U.S. and Africa, events are increasingly exposed to such threat.

Going over what has happened and revisit the facts is too painful. One thing for sure. We know several events have been targeted. Lives have been taken away. Security at events is under scrutiny. It seems that most of these attacks want to strike wherever there is a gathering of people having fun, learning or simply enjoying life.

Technology

While we were growing tired of using hashtags on Twitter, a disruptive change happened on major social networks that impacts on the event industry.

Only three weeks ago, the Pokémon Go frenzy started. All of sudden hundreds of thousands of players are using augmented reality to play a game outside in the real world. What we tried to do for years in events (live streaming and augmented reality gaming) is happening in the most mainstream way we have ever seen.

So What’s the Biggest Threat?

The biggest threat at the moment for our industry, our event company, our job is how we react to these changes. If you think we are talking about a stupid game, you are not getting it. That’s a threat to how you do business.

If you think that the terrorist threats are a distant problem, you are not getting it. You are endangering the lives of your attendees.

We don’t believe there is such thing as ‘hype’ anymore. Probably 15 years ago, we could have talked about hype but social media proved that hype is no more. There is no time to think whether a new tool is hype or not. We just need to embrace the change and understand what is happening.

BE CAREFUL.

We are not saying you should start playing 90s retro games or lock down your event altogether because you read it in the news. What we are proposing here is that we get deep into understanding what is happening around us.

Smart event professionals look into the recent terror events and understand what they can do to protect their event going forward. They start a conversation with local authorities to have a clear image of potential threats. They invest in extra security if they have established that there could be problems with their event.

No Excuses, Keep Up

Change is around us and recently is happening faster than we’ve ever experienced. Developments are faster and we need to keep up. No excuse. If you want to be a good event professional, you need to keep up. Get the facts, read, think, strategize, protect your attendees, understand your attendees. Think how they are changing. Your attendees will thank you for that.

Things you don’t need at events anymore

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Times are changing and so should our habits. Join us at looking at some of the things we can do without nowadays at corporate events.

Paper Badges

Badges have traditionally been the biggest lost opportunity in events. Printouts of very un-useful information that generate awkward looks at one another. Of course you can get them sponsored and of course you need them for security, but there must me a better way.

Things to try instead. Mobile Apps, beacons, RFID, NFC badges. The possibilities are endless. Badges become the remote control of your event. They let you check into places by just walking by. You can purchase merchandise, drinks, food. You can participate in games, you can quickly share content on social media Smart Badges offer powerful real time analytics and they offer incredible feedback mechanisms.

2. PowerPoint

Used at events since being created 26 years ago, that alone should tell a story. Slides in general can be a great visual tool to give some tangibility to a talk, but what is the percentage of good slides you see at events?

So what can you do? We won’t suggest a list of alternatives to PowerPoint. Get creative and think about other ways to get speakers to illustrate their point. Mix the types of media you can use: video, images, sounds, objects. In some types of events slides will always be necessary, they are almost expected by the audience. You can make a difference as an event professional. You can give precise guidelines or even coaching to your speaker as to how they need to use and not abuse the tool. It takes a lot of charisma and experience to talk without slides and experience. Get the speakers to use slides as part of the new speaking mix – mobile app, live interaction tool, or app powered mic, props, music.

4. Business Cards

For ever it has been expected that if you go to a networking event you must take a lot of business cards as it is the “done thing”. Do we really need a business card to connect with people? There are so many better ways to exchange information at events. Smart event professionals make sure that whether you have card or not, you can still network.

Why not invite attendees to take advantage of social networks and optimize your network with the existing technologies? Use smart badges, contact business cards, beacon business cards. You name it. The alternatives.

Of course there will always be some people that will use them. The thing is that you, as an event professional, can encourage attendees to use better ways to connect rather than producing an incredible amount of waste.

In Conclusion

As event professionals we are always short on time and will sometimes rely on traditional solutions as it seems like the quickest or easiest thing to do. Maybe we have always done it that way and taking the leap to do things differently fills you with fear. But so we can focus on the important content and real experience of our event, rather than the admin and logistics, now is the time to make the change.

Push your boundaries and you will realize that the power of your content can be amplified if you update your tools and choose the best modern solutions to support your organization.

It’s the Knockout

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For years, It’s a Knockout – Undoubtedly the wettest, wildest, and wackiest competition on TV in it’s day. It combines the game’s traditional format with our own unique sense of fun to create the ultimate example of a motivational team-building event.

This is a great idea for team building because it’s:

BIG, bright and crazy fun
Something completely different
Everyone involved
Great head-to-head team competition
Amazing inflatables in a huge arena
A chance to be big kids again

So what could happen?

With everyone in the right frame of mind, teams of 8 to 12 people will be established, and the games can commence in earnest! Competing against each other for points and to avoid the dreaded booby prize, players will accept a range of unusual challenges to a relentless varied soundtrack.

Party Games ideas.

PENGUIN PURSUIT – Wearing giant penguin costumes you’ll race against other teams to catch the most fish!
THE SWEEPER – Taken from the famous Total Wipe-out TV show, teams must be quick to jump and avoid the rotating sweeper arm.
TROPICAL SCRABBLE – Teams race through an inflatable obstacle course collecting letters, the quickest team to spell a word wins!
BUNGEE RUN – Run as far as you can down an inflatable bungee runway with a large elastic cord tied to your waist. See who can get the furthest.
GLADIATOR DUEL – Knock your opponent off of their podium before they knock you off of yours!

So there you have it, fuel for thought. Amazing fun and will see your staff in a different light!

The wonderful world of Roald Dahl

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

What a wonderful party this would be! There is no doubt a brilliant opportunity for caterers to get imaginative and conjure up all sorts of delicious treats for guests but it also presents a brilliant theme for entertainment as well. Hire a Willy Wonka costume, hire dancers for your event to be oompha loompas and can no doubt put together a magical repertoire of acts to truly make you feel as though you’ve stepped into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Matilda

The Natural History Museum’s Hitze Hall would be a wonderful setting for a Roald Dahl themed party, certainly a large enough room for some of the magic that will undoubtedly take place as a Matilda event reaches its peak. A digital graffiti wall would be a wonderful addition whilst magicians would be an obvious addition to the occasion. Illusions on the stairs amongst Dippy the Dinosaur will surely be a must see! Just make sure you avoid Miss Trunchbull, the scariest of all costumed characters!!

The BFG

Imagine attending a party where everything is giant-sized! That’d certainly make Roald Dahl party games more fun! From the chairs made out of cotton reels to a scone the size of a table, this is sure to be a 2016 party theme to celebrate the release of the Steven Spielberg film! Wouldn’t that be fun? Giant pencils and mugs can function as theming props whilst the BFG himself can lurk outside a window. But what of the entertainment? With some sneaky production, it’d be possible to magnify the image of a band or circus troupe so that giants are really performing at your event! That’d be a must see as you munch on the snozzcumbers.

James and the Giant Peach

As far as we’re aware, there isn’t a venue in London or the rest of the UK that’s been hollowed out from the inside of a peach but no matter, we you always create one. Okay, perhaps not a real peach but for a James and the Giant Peach party, we think repurposing a circular venue such as the Royal Albert Hall, the London Planetarium or the Round House will be perfect. After that, we can then work on the entertainment.

The Twits

For a final idea, we thought we’d go for spectacle over practicality. You see, as any fan of The Twits will tell you, there are a number of moments in the story that stick out to a reader, not least the finale where The Twits believe they’re upside down. As such, how about sticking everything to the ceiling of your venue and having an ‘upside down’ party? With bird pie on the menu (or not, as the case may be), various practical jokes provided by top comedians and hired party magicians and a few wonderful costumed characters to play the titular characters, there is more than enough here to create a brilliant (albeit highly expensive and unsafe) event. But hey, The Twits themselves would probably enjoy it!

It could be magic!!

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Using the latest technology and what’s around them to wow people is something that a good Magician will always look to do and with smartphones and tablets being everywhere nowadays, it’s a great way for magicians to further impress their subjects.

Magicians like Dynamo and Derren Brown made the art of magic very cool again. It’s an art that constantly re-invents itself with the best magicians always adding more complex and up-to-the minute methods to keep audiences mesmerised.

IPhones have now become an integral part of any illusionist’s act. Using it to create magic involving coins and other items adds an extra layer to their performance. There’s a whole host of occasions where this type of magic can be used – Weddings and Parties, Corporate Event entertainment or Product Launches where it can be absolutely relevant to a product that might be being promoted. Being able to take an item that people can see digitally on the device and transfer that into a physical item from nothing is a really popular form of magic to guests.

Using an iPhone is probably preferable to an iPad because the illusionist can keep it in his pocket while performing in a mix and mingle style with guests, however tablets are often used too depending on the event.”

Corporate and Trade Shows are proving particularly popular for this type of magic where there are hundreds of stalls all vying for attention and where there’s a real need to add something that will stand out. Digital Magic is clearly proving very popular.

Some magicians perform street magic on a London street, which involves use of the phone to magic items – including making the phone appear from a magazine advert. The reaction from passers-by shows the effectiveness of bringing the traditional styles of magic together with technical innovation is a concept that will remain popular amongst Magicians and the people that love to be in awe of it.

Like all forms of entertainment, each Magician is different. While not all Magicians have this in their performance routine, Red Masque has some of the UK’s most exciting magicians and can help to find the perfect magician for your event.

Time to start planning New Year’s Eve

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Plan your New Year’s Eve party this year and make it something truly amazing by booking from Red Masque entertainment directory. You will be able to use a lot more imagination than you thought possible – making 2017 come in with an even bigger bang!!!!

The celebration of New Year is one of the oldest annual rituals, observed globally for thousands of years by all the ancient civilizations from the Egyptians and Mayans to the Chinese and Maoris.

It is possible to take part in a New Year celebration almost every month of the year as our own western observance of New Year’s Day on January 1st only came into practice around 400 years ago.

Most of the older traditions base their new year around important social or astrological activities; the Egyptians celebrated the feast of Opet during the Nile’s inundation, the Mayan New Year varies Chinese New Year changes annually with the year of the Monkey starting on January 22nd 2004 while the Celtic celebration of Samhain is held around Halloween.

Did you know? The first people to make resolutions were the ancient Babylonians over 4000 years ago, in the belief that whatever they did on the first day of the year would affect their entire year.

The ancient Babylonian New Year was dated to the first new moon (visible crescent) after the vernal, or spring, equinox (usually March), so if you need an excuse to party, Red Masque entertainment can offer a whole year of new and unusual opportunities!

Most New Year celebrations incorporate the ideas of fertility and good luck with reviewing the past year whilst hoping for a better year ahead. The customs we follow in the UK stem mainly from old Scottish traditions of Hogmanay, whose roots date back to the pagan mid-winter practice of sun and fire worship which later linked with the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia, a decadent and uninhibited feast of food, wine and fun. So get stuck in and have a very Happy New Year!

The new Selfie Mirror

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Have you heard of the new ‘Selfie Mirror?’

Featuring a new twist on the ever popular selfie pod / mirrors that have come before, this new addition to a new range of Hi-Tech equipment for corporate events and parties and is sure to entertain, as well as capture, the fun at your event.

The Magic Selfie Mirror not only takes your photos and prints them out instantly, but also features new software that allows the mirror to interact with some fun randomised responses, both verbally and animated on the mirror itself! You can even personalise your photos with a message across all the prints!

A standout at any event including weddings, corporate functions and exhibition / promotional events, the Magic Selfie Mirror will attract the eye of any guest and entertain as they can pose with friends or family for four photos. Choosing from a fantastic selection of fun props, strike and check your pose in the mirror – or check your make-up if there is a queue for the bathroom – and have fun as the mirror decides if you’re a beauty or just maybe, you’ll crack the screen!

Using state of the art software as with our range of Photo Booth’s and Graffiti Walls, the Magic Selfie Mirror is a great way to keep guests entertained and allow them to take a little something away from your event.

And remember … The mirror does not lie!