When you work in corporate event planning it is never too early to start preparing for corporate holiday parties and conference dinners. The right venue can immediately set the tone for the rest of the event, and help create an immersive experience that party guests will not soon forget. The diverseness of Southern California provides many non-traditional venues for corporate holiday parties, sales meetings, and conference dinners. If you want to plan an over-the-top corporate party event that guests (including your VIP clients) will remember, check out some of our favorite unique SoCal venues:

1. Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center (Santa Barbara, CA)

The Cabrillo Pavilion offers exactly what you are looking for when hosting corporate holiday parties in southern California. Built in the 1920’s the building has the white stucco exterior and terra cotta roof that Spanish-style buildings are known for, and the best part – it sits directly on the beach. Guests can enjoy the sound of the waves crashing on the ocean from one of the beachfront patios. And, minimum decorations are needed as the center’s art is displayed on the walls. A few white twinkling lights would stand out nicely draped against the beautiful wood-beamed ceiling and wrought iron chandeliers.

The ballroom holds up to 200 for a seated event and the freedom to choose any caterer you desire. The center does not provide food or drink, but you are able to bring in both, including alcohol. The Cabrillo Pavilion offers you the stunning venue you need to get the party off on the right foot.

2. Maritime Museum of San Diego (San Diego, CA)

If you are looking for a one-of-a-kind venue in southern California for a corporate holiday party the Maritime Museum of San Diego has exactly what you are looking for. Choose one of the four ships that the museum has for rentals, including the Star of India, which is the oldest ship in the world still sailing. The smallest of the ships can seat 30, with the largest seating up to 300.

The museum has a list of approved vendors, assisting you with the selections of everything from catering to photo booth fun. Do you have your own favorite vendors in mind? No problem, with approval from the museum you are welcome to bring in your own vendors and entertainers.

3. Ponte Winery (Temecula, CA)

The Ponte Winery is the perfect place for elegantly rustic corporate holiday parties. Located in the Temecula Wine Country, Ponte Winery sits on around 300 acres, painting a stunning vineyard landscape that party guests will not be able to get enough of.  The winery has multiple rooms to choose from while planning and the Restaurant at Ponte are very highly rated and has all the catering options that you could ask for.

There are multiple rooms at the winery to provide you the perfect venue you are looking for. The Barrel Room allows 100 guests to enjoy the evening amongst wood barrels full of aging wine and the Vineyard Pavilion has everything from beautiful views through massive picture windows to a dance floor that guest can use to dance the night away.

4. Andaz San Diego (San Diego, CA)

If you are looking for a trendier and hip venue, than the Andaz San Diego is what you are after. There is 18,000 sq. ft. of event space to choose from, including the largest rooftop event space in the city. It makes for the perfect location for corporate holiday parties in the southern California sunshine, or with the shining lights of the city at night.

You can take advantage of the dedicate catering staff to create a menu that is sure to wow. They will work with your theme and budget to create a customized menu that will help take your corporate event planning to a new level.

5. Santa Anita Park (Arcadia, CA)

What could be better than celebrating an evening with stunning views of the San Gabriel Mountains, lush gardens, and enough room for any size corporate party – large or small? If this sounds like what you are looking for then Santa Anita Park is the venue you’re after. Home of horse racing legend, Seabiscuit, Santa Anita Park is filled with over 100 years of horse racing history that will fascinate and captivate your guests.

Whether you have a party of 6 or a party of 600, Santa Anita Park is the perfect place to host the event. There are rooms to accommodate all size parties along with cuisine to fit any budget. Options for outdoor seating is also available. This is truly a historic event venue that can be found nowhere else.

6. Regency Ranch (Palm Springs, CA)

If you are looking for a truly fun and unique venue, head back to the wild west at Regency Ranch in Palm Springs. This unique outdoor venue is set up as an old western town, with plenty of “Instagramable” photo ops. It has a saloon, church, jail, and hotel among other buildings. It’s the perfect setting to be dressed up with the popular outdoor event trend of pallet signs and burlap centerpieces. Tables can be set up in the town square and there are a dance floor and stage that can feature live music, a DJ, or an after-dinner show.

The Palm Springs location makes Regency Ranch a unique off-site dinner event space for conferences and sales meetings taking place at some of the larger Palm Springs resorts. It gives attendees a chance for a casual evening of “wild west” fun.

While most of these popular venues will have limited availability left for 2017, it is the perfect time to get a headstart on choosing your date for 2018 and beyond. Once you have that perfect venue secured, you will be one step closer to creating a totally memorable company party.

Once you have your amazing Southern Californa venue reserved, contact our office to see how Chris Linn can provide an evening of unforgettable clean comedy magic that will fill that perfect venue with laughter and cheer.  We have first-hand experience helping to provide entertainment for dinners and events at the above venues, as well as hundreds of other convention centers, ballrooms, and banquet spaces across California.

Jimmy Buffett famously sings, “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane”.

Laughter is continually proven to be one of the best ways for employers to help their employees let off some steam, and planning in some comedy into a holiday party should be as important as picking a venue or hiring the caterer.

In fact, hiring comedians and comedy entertainers to entertain at corporate celebrations are among the top holiday party trends for 2017.

As the stress of work, politics, and news of the world piles on, there is no doubt that we will all be able to benefit from a few good laughs, come December.

Bringing the Comedy Club to the Party

Instead of offering employees an outing to a comedy club following a company holiday party, bring the club atmosphere to your celebration by inviting a comedian to emcee the evening and provide a short performance.

The idea of building humor into corporate gatherings coincides with another current trend affecting the workplace year-round: recruiting and retaining employees by paying attention to what they want.

One thing today’s millennials want is happiness at work according to an April 2017 report in Forbes. The magazine notes that this generation born between 1982 and 2004 values “benefits and atmosphere overcompensation.”

Forbes indicates that achieving this happiness requires good communication throughout a company and a “big-picture” sense of corporate direction. It also may depend on the company atmosphere that values a good, clean laugh that harms no one.

A February 2017 article in The Wall Street Journal noted that humor is an important element in creating this atmosphere and building “a stronger, more effective workplace.”

Seeking Clean Comedy

Whether chatting with coworkers on a regular day in the office or selecting a comedian when planning a company Christmas party, the challenge is to keep the humor clean.

Writing at The Muse,  Jennifer Winter says to “steer clear of comments that can make someone feel uncomfortable.”

Winter, who worked in the corporate world for many years, and often writes about how to navigate its wild waters. While working as a manager, she boiled down her rule for workday humor to this nugget: Keep it PC and PG.

So, when hiring comedians for your company holiday party, consider whether their material would pass muster with the audience you must please and the Human Resources Manager you will have to pass in the hall in the morning.

Keeping Your Party Lively

A comedian can do a lot to entertain guests at a holiday party. But to create a lively atmosphere that builds corporate comradery, you need to give guests the opportunity for humorous interaction with each other. This includes icebreakers and fun interruptions within the flow of the event.

Planning Pod, a software company that focuses on the events industry, reports that one of the biggest trends and challenges for gatherings in 2017 and beyond will be how to compete with people’s cell phones.

The digital company predicts that rather than chiding party-goers into turning off their smartphones in 2017, event professionals will find ways to build technology into shared party activities by using the phones as controllers for games, polls and other content on overhead screens.

One digital ice-breaker to consider is the Just Dance 2017 program that allows players to use their cell phones as controllers that communicate their moves to video screens. It connects to screens with video game devices and can be manipulated by cell phone through a Just Dance app.

Here’s another digital idea: When it’s time for a speech by the CEO or another company leader, the talk might conclude with a fun quiz — including questions about the corporation — presented on a large video screen. Quiz software similar to kinds used in education and at corporate meetings lets participants use cell phones to answer questions.

Icebreakers can also be the old-fashioned kind that gets people talking with tablemates. For example, at a sit-down dinner, place a fun, unusual question beneath each person’s glass or tableware.

The party emcee can get the conversation rolling by announcing where to find the questions and explaining a few rules for the activity. You may want to provide a small timer for each table so everyone gets a turn to speak.

The Balance provides a long list of questions to stir conversation, such as, “If you were a city, what city would you choose to be and why?”

Controlling Costs

Not every company has a budget to host a big holiday “extravaganza”, but activities to keep guests entertained and laughing should not be ignored.

Something as simple as a “white elephant” gift exchange can be a fun and funny activity for smaller groups. In a “white elephant” gift exchange, each attendee bringing a “white elephant” gift costing less than a set amount, such as $5, to share with someone else. Traditionally, the gift is something funny or silly, but they can be something practical or unique.

When considering live entertainment at your event, you may not be able to afford to bring in a national act to entertain your holiday party guests, but you may still be able to find a local professional within your budget. NOTE: While you may be able to find “cheap” local entertainment, is important to still find “professional” entertainment.  You don’t want to risk your entire party on “uncle Dave” who tells a few jokes and does a few tricks.

You can also control entertainment costs by booking the entertainer directly with the management company or through their official website. This will help you avoid online agency fees and “finder fees” that are associated with many large online event planning websites.

Hiring a professional comedy entertainer is an investment in your event. After all, the funny memories are what people will remember and talk about at the office long after the party is over.

Do you need a banquet or convention facility that is sure to be a draw?  If so, there is no other option in Southern California quite like the Disneyland Resort hotels.

Over the years, the Disneyland Resort Hotels have been home to some of the most memorable meetings and events that corporate comedy magician/entertainer, Chris Linn, has performed at. The events at these venues run smoothly and there is happy energy to the meetings that go beyond what you normally see at a corporate or association conference.

The reason for these successful events comes down to one word…”magic”! After all, Disneyland is known as the “Most Magical Place On Earth”. Disney meeting planners know how to bring all the magic and top-tier customer service people expect from a Disneyland vacation, and weave it into an unforgettable meeting experience.

The Disneyland Event Planning Advantage

Although Disneyland is a place that brings smiles to the faces of millions of children (and just as many adults who are kids at heart), the list of amenities and services offered by the Disney meeting planners is definitely not child’s play.

World Class Meeting Assistance

Disneyland has you covered if you need assistance with planning your meeting. Here are just a few of the services they offer to help you pull together a conference that will draw a crowd:

• Content Development & Speech Writing – If you need assistance creating killer content that will engage attendees, Disney has it available to you.
• Entertainers – When planning a conference at Disneyland you can bring it up a notch by bringing in Disneyland’s live performers. Disneyland offers everything from improv actors and musical performers to the famous Disney characters.
• Stage Design and Décor – Take full advantage of Disneyland event planning by utilizing a warehouse loaded with stage set options and décor to dress up your event space. This gives you the opportunity to create some true one-of-a-kind theme nights and gala dinners.
• Full Audio and Visual Support – State-of-the-art audiovisual equipment is available for your speakers, breakout sessions, and after-dinner entertainment.

3 Magical Disneyland Resorts With Conference Space for a Company Event

Disneyland offers many options for hosting a company event within one of their two parks, however, we are going to focus on all the options offered by their three hotels. Each of them includes the amenities that you look for in a hotel, such as pools, fitness center, and dining options. But, the Disneyland Resort hotels also put you within walking distance of the other hotels, including the Mandara Spa located at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, the Downtown Disney District for great shopping, Disneyland and California Adventure.

Choosing a Disneyland Resort hotel in Anaheim, CA for your next company event venue also gives you access to the unique and creative culinary skills of the Disney chefs. They will work with you to create the perfect menu to fit your event and your budget.

Disneyland Hotel

The iconic Disneyland Hotel is a AAA Four Diamond Award Winning Hotel. It boasts modern luxury-contemporary décor and features 970 guest rooms for your conference attendees. This hotel has the largest amount of flexible meeting space available at 136,000 sq. ft., including 52 separate breakout rooms.

From ballrooms and conference rooms to the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion, there is a space to fit any size conference that you have. If you are looking to enjoy some of the beautiful California suns, plan an event on the Magic Kingdom Lawn. It features ambient lighting and a built-in stage to create a one-of-a-kind experience.

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

The Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is home to the Mandara Spa and a AAA four diamond award winning hotel. The elegantly beautiful American craftsman-style hotel hosts 940 guest rooms for guest accommodations. The hotel has big and bold décor to match the theming after the National Parks. Every detail is accounted for and conference attendees will surely take notice.

You can choose from 20,000 sq. ft. of meeting and event space to hold your event. If your conference will include breakout sessions there are 18 separate rooms that you can use.  This space includes conference rooms, ballrooms, meeting rooms, and 3 separate courtyards to bring your event outdoors.

In early 2017, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa began a major renovation that includes updates to all the guest rooms, lobby area, as well as the pool and recreation facilities. These renovations are expected to be completed by the end of 2017 and promise to bring some exciting new magic to this magnificent resort.

Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel

This AAA three-diamond award winning hotel celebrates the fun and relaxation of popular southern California boardwalks from the 1920s. There are 480 guest rooms and attendees can enjoy watching the Disneyland firework show from the rooftop swimming pool.

Paradise Pier Hotel boasts 24,000 sq. ft. of event and meeting space for your conference at Disneyland. For an indoor event choose from several ballrooms and meeting rooms with 8 breakout rooms. If you want to enjoy some of the warm Anaheim, CA weather, you can host your event at one of the hotel’s two outdoor event locations. Outdoor locations include a picturesque pier side pavilion, and a patio area with 3,200 square feet of space and the ability to accommodate hundreds of guests for cocktails or an al fresco banquet dinner.

A Fourth Resort On The Way

In 2016, Disneyland got approval to build a new luxury, Four-Diamond resort hotel on the Disneyland Resort property.  Scheduled to open in 2021, the initial concept plans for this hotel include 700 guest rooms and an upscale rooftop restaurant that will no doubt offer amazing views of both theme parks and the nightly fireworks show over the iconic Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. No details about conference facilities for this new venue have been announced yet.

With all the features of the Disneyland Resort hotels and meeting services offered by Disneyland Event Planners, there is no other place in the world to hold your company quite like these venues. Disney is the king of storytelling. The key to their success is because they use a combination of discovery and collaboration. It pulls people in, engages them, and leaves them with a great memory in the end. Let the Disneyland Resort Hotels help you tell your next great story!

Once you have your event and venue confirmed, you will want to hire entertainment that is just as amazing as the event location that you chose. Corporate comedy entertainer, Chris Linn, has extensive experience performing for corporate and association meetings of every size at all 3 Disneyland Resort Hotels. Contact us today for an entertainment quote and to check availability for  Chris to provide after-dinner entertainment at your conference or banquet.

Many of us think of play and work as being like oil and water; they don’t mix. But a bit of play during the workday or at a corporate meeting oils the mental wheels that keep productivity flowing.

Like kids in a classroom, adults attending business sit-and-get gatherings may begin to feel a crazy mix of restlessness and lethargy. Feet stir restlessly or eyes cross sleepily as participants struggle to make sense of what speakers are saying. Instead of getting the news, you get the snooze.

But a bit of corporate humor, laughter, movement, and face-to-face interaction can wake up participants in business meetings.

Studies About Workplace Humor

Three reports published in January 2017 indicate that corporate event planning should consider how humor improves productivity in the workplace.

• Robert Half Finance and Accounting commissioned a survey of corporate financial officers from a random sample of companies nationwide to learn about viewpoints on employee humor. Results showed that 79 percent of the CFOs rated sense of humor as being an important factor in determining an employee’s corporate fit.
• According to an Australian study, it appears that employees may be more likely to persevere at difficult tasks if they can take an occasional break to watch funny video clips. It appears that short mental breaks improve performance and persistence.
• An article in Scientific American detailed a study about workplace humor by academic researchers in Amsterdam and Nebraska. The study is titled “How fun are your meetings? Investigating the relationship between humor patterns in team interactions and team performance.” Scientific American noted that instead of distracting meeting participants, humor encouraged problem-solving and discussions of procedure and goal setting.

The idea that laughter and fun improve function is one that managers and meeting planners for all sizes of corporations should — ahem — take seriously. As Scientific American states, “Americans collectively spend time in an estimated 11 million meetings each day….” That figure represents a massive challenge to keeping people alert.

In addition to opportunities for laughter, breaks for movement and interaction help keep participants paying attention.

Movement & Interaction

As the publication Meetings Imagined notes, “No one likes to sit in the same place or hold the same posture for too long.” It adds that movement speeds up learning, aids retention of learning and promotes creative thinking.

Similarly, leadership curriculum designer Shirley Milgrom says that adults lose focus while sitting still too long in meetings. Milgrom suggests breaking meetings into chunks no longer than a TED Talk (18 minutes) and offering options for movement during, as well as following these presentations.

For example, Milgrom suggests that after making a point, a speaker can ask people who want to ask questions to walk to one side of the room. No questions? Then move to the other side of the room. When the talk is over, she suggests directing participants to move to a different spot, find a partner and share thinking about the presentation.

A Funny & Professional Emcee

If the meeting budget allows, you may want to hire a professional comedian or corporate entertainer to handle transitions between different speakers and to help lead movement breaks beginning with icebreakers.  Hiring a professional emcee or comedian can also take some of the burdens off of your event planning team and help you focus on other aspects of your conference.

Insurance & Financial Meetings Management magazine notes note that “meeting planners can use professional comedians to reinforce meeting goals by blending humor with key themes and topics.”

The publication also mentions that improvement of the economy has made it possible for more meeting planners to get the green light to hire comedians as performers and emcees for corporate gatherings.

Ways to Get Your Group Laughing, Moving and Learning

Here are some movement activities and corporate comedy strategies to keep your meeting attendees on their toes.

Salt and Pepper. As with charades, this is a good activity for honing questioning skills. It’s also a useful icebreaker for the beginning of a meeting. As attendees enter the meeting, tape a single word that is part of a pair (salt and pepper, light and dark, leaf and flower) to each person’s back. They can’t see their own word, but they can see other players’ words. The goal is for players to determine their words by asking other people questions and listening to the clues they provide.

Speed Meeting. This activity is modeled after speed dating but is focused on networking within the company rather than finding people to date. Each speed meeting lasts only two minutes, so participants must scramble to become more familiar with fellow employees and their work.

Human Knot. Ask participants to form circles in groups of eight. Each person grabs hands with two other people. Then, as a team, they need to work to unravel the knot.  Watch the YouTube video below to see how the human knot is played.

Improvisation 101

Improvisation is stand-up comedy without a script. Many of the exercises involved in becoming an improv comic are also useful for teaching important corporate skills such as acceptance of outcomes, working together to improve outcomes, listening closely, taking risks, responding speedily and supporting members of your team.

For example, a simple improvisation might involve a group of five or more people standing in a circle and rapidly telling a story one person and one word at a time. It takes cooperation to keep the story going. No one gets to hijack the process.

Hiring a comedian or a comedy troupe to provide corporate improv training has become a standard practice touted in business publications. Learning improvisational exercises not only gets everyone laughing but also sharpens skills that are just as valuable in business as on stage.

Clean Comedian, Comfortable Humor

No matter how you decide to add humor to your event, it is important to remember that you want it to have a positive impact on your attendees. Keep the activities lighthearted and the humor clean and good spirited.

In its blog, the Robert Half corporation advises avoiding “negative humor, which can be defined as any joke that is at the expense of another person, organization or group of people.” It emphasizes that “race, gender, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, religion and disabilities” are topics that are off limits.

So bring on the laughs, but be remember to keep your HR manager happy!

Setting up a hotel conference room or ballroom for a successful live entertainment performance requires some pre-event planning and coordination with your event planner. It is time well spent, however, since common setup mistakes can very easily put your entertainer or speaker at a disadvantage before the show even begins. We have seen many top speakers and comedians struggle in corporate event settings where the stage setup did not allow them to deliver their best possible performance.

Many artists will provide a setup rider with their preferred performance setup. If they do provide one, try to follow it is as closely as possible. A rider will outline exactly what you need to do to help create a performance environment that will help you get what you paid for…a great show!

If you are not provided with a rider, there are still things you can do to help guarantee the success of your event entertainment. The following suggestions are easy to implement and can dramatically increase the enjoyment of the entertainment at your next conference, meeting, or dinner.

SEAT THE AUDIENCE CLOSE TO THE “ACTION”

Probably the most common mistake corporate event planners make is putting the stage too far away from the audience. A dance floor, or any large empty space between the audience and the stage creates an instant invisible barrier between the presenter and the audience. It can be very hard for a presenter, no matter how engaging they may be, to close this “gap” and fully connect with an audience. This, of course, does not apply if your entertainment is solely a live band, and people will be dancing.

Therefore, when you are setting up the room, try to arrange the stage area in a way that allows the audience to be as close as possible to the stage. We always suggest that clients start their first row of tables or chairs about 12 feet from the front of the stage. This puts the audience close, while still allowing a little room for servers to get to the tables if a meal is being served before the performance.

If your event is very large, video screens with live camera feeds of the performance can help make a big room feel smaller and help give more of the audience the feel of being up close to the show.

Sometimes, if it is absolutely unavoidable to have a dance floor in front of the stage, the venue will setup chairs in “theater style seating” on a dance floor for audience seating to fill the empty space, with the idea that people in the back of the room will come up and sit in front. This is a great idea, if people actually fill up the chairs. If you give people the “option” to move up to seats on a dance floor or stay at their tables, they will stay at their tables 99% of the time. Then you have an even bigger problem of the performer in front a sea of empty (or nearly empty) chairs.

If you are going to put chairs on the dance floor or in a space in front of the stage, you should have enough chairs for EVERYONE. Then, don’t give them the option to move. “We now need everyone to please find a seat on the dance floor so we can get started with the second half of our evening. We do need everyone to move up, as the servers need the tables cleared.”

KEEP THE AUDIENCE TOGETHER

In addition to keeping the audience close the performance, you also want to keep the audience closer together. People laugh out loud more and applaud more when they are in large groups and in close proximity to one another. Laughter, applause, and excitement are contagious.

The best way to encourage your audience to sit together is to try and only have enough seats for the number of people who will be attending. Many event planners will try to “fill” a big room by putting up way too many extra tables and chairs. In reality, all the empty chairs end up making the room, and your event, seem smaller. It also leaves your guests wondering why so many people did not show up.

If you are not sure how many people will be showing up to your event, put “RESERVED” signs on the BACK half of the room to gently force people to sit together in the tables or seats up front. You can then remove signs and open up tables if needed. A row of empty tables in the back will be less noticeable and distracting than a row of tables up front, or a room full of tables that are only half full.

This “reserved sign” strategy for getting the audience to sit together is also great for conference retreats, sales seminars, and employee dinners, as it encourages more socializing and will noticeably increase the energy of the room, as well as make your event seem bigger.

MAKE SURE THE AUDIENCE CAN SEE THE SHOW

It may seem like an obvious statement to make, but the audience should be able to see what is happening on the stage. But, many times event planners don’t realize there is a problem seeing the stage until it is too late to do anything to correct it.

Pillars or supports in a room can easily cause sightline issues. Make note of any potential obstructions as you consider event spaces and begin planning your room layout.

The biggest culprits for making it difficult for audience members to see a show are centerpieces. Big, tall, showy centerpieces are nice, but also easily block the view of the stage for 50% or more of the audience. If you must have a centerpiece, keep them short. This not only will help your audience see the show, but it will make table conversation easier for your guests.

A poorly lit stage can also make it hard for people to see that is going on. The stage area should be as bright as possible during the show. Stage lighting, if available, is always the best way to light a stage. Many venues can arrange for stage lighting or spotlights for presentations. If stage lighting is not available, be prepared to turn up the room lighting in the area over the stage during the entertainment portion of your evening..

If you have questions about whether certain parts of the audience will not be able to see the stage, take a moment to sit at the table or in the seats in question and see for yourself if there is an issue. Try to do this early in the room setup, when you have time to move tables, adjust centerpieces, or rearrange decorations.

HAVE A GREAT EVENT

Most event managers at conference centers and banquet facilities will be more than happy to work with you to plan a room setup that works for the entertainment, meal and any other activities that might be happening at your event.

The above tips are not just for hiring professional entertainment. The setup suggestions can be easily implemented for your next company awards dinner, sales meeting, or your CEO’s big speech at your holiday party. You are almost certain to find that your audience will be more engaged and excited about the presentations.