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My
business has grown, thanks to the many DJs I’ve met at The
DJ Expo, like a fertile weed patch. When I decided to offer
full-production glitz for bar/bat mitzvahs, I sought the
counsel of several friends who had oodles of mitzvah experience.
Their assistance dramatically improved my “learning curve,”
and, despite my lack of experience, enabled me to provide
my clients with a high quality service and, more importantly,
avoid a big oy vey.
More
recently I unearthed in my area an untapped corporate market:
companies that employ a Latin workforce. In fact, in my
market, it’s not uncommon to see employee registries three-quarters
filled with Latin names. As a result, there’s a real need
for entertainers who can sling a little salsa in the mix.
Yet few DJs in my area are conversant in things Latin. Typical
exchange:
Corporate
Event Planner: “We have a lot of Latin employees. Do
you have an assortment of Latin music?”
Owner,
Dim DJs: “Yeah, we have lots of Jennifer Lopez.”
Fortunately
for me, I count among my friends a quartet of seasoned Latin-music
experts: Sonido con Elegancia’s Jose Gonzalez, his wife
Lucy, and Camillo and Marcy Rodriguez. My wife and I met
them at a DJ Expo, and we’ve kept in touch on a regular
basis ever since. They were glad to help familiarize me
with the music that I would need to be successful at these
Latin events. And again, my learning curve spiked like a
caffeinated EKG.
How
You Can Do It, Too
But
in order to improve your learning curve, you must network.
And yet there never seems to be enough time to do it. A
couple of DJ Expos here and there are not enough to satiate
my networking needs. So what’s a DJ to do in order to satisfy
that, you know, that itch? That’s precisely what prompted
my wife and I, and a few of our close friends, to brainstorm,
to try and devise a more in-depth networking opportunity.
The course we chose would alter the way I run my business.
First,
we thought it would be great to create a networking event
that combined business with pleasure—alright, alright, essentially,
we wanted a venue that would also provide an attractive
vacation spot. After considering several options, we decided
that the best networking should be held on the high seas,
bobbing up and down on a plush cruise ship, and thus, the
DJ cruise concept—seminars, breathtaking sunset vistas,
workshops, shuffleboard and rum—was born.
We
set a date of departure, March 25, 2000, and chose to sail
on the Norwegian “Wind,” a 50,000-ton cruise ship carrying
a crew of 620. The 754-foot liner would ferry us throughout
the Western Caribbean—with ports-of-call in Grand Cayman,
Belize and Roatan. What could be better than exchanging
marketing tips with a fellow DJ while you’re both wearing
snorkeling masks?
To
insure that our cruise was not perceived as a “clique” or
a gathering of snooty elitists, we invited any and all DJs
who wished to attend. The cost varied by the type of cabin—$850
to $1,200 per person. We booked a total of 46 people in
our group—from New York to California, and one guy reserved
a suite for his entire family.
Of
course, the biggest challenge was balancing the conference
and seminars with the shuffleboard and vacation. Some people
in our group voiced concerns that they’d be spending a lot
of money for a cruise that would be “all business, and no
play.” Other shipmates were anticipating some serious networking.
All concerns were assuaged by scheduling our conferences
on days when we were “at sea,” which allowed veryone to
visit each port-of-call.
Our
networking sessions were held in specially reserved conference
rooms. Because ours was a small group, we adopted the “group
discussion” method, rather than the traditional seminar
format. During these group discussions, a moderator introduced
each topic, and the rest of the group threw around their
thoughts, experiences and methods that have worked for their
company. It was the moderator’s job, naturally, to keep
the group on track and move on to the next topic.
This
gave us the flexibility to customize our topics, to listen
to the suggestions from the DJs who signed up, giving everyone
in the group an opportunity to participate and share information
and ideas, rather than just one person expounding on a topic.
The result was the best exchange of information I have yet
encountered.
For
example, Day Two on the ship was our first leisurely day
at sea, the perfect day for our first-ever, aforementioned
group discussion, which focused on diversifying your business
to increase revenue. We discussed upsells for weddings.
Ken Overby from Sounds Abound in Chicago described the video
montages he projects of the bride and groom growing up.
He subs the work out, owns a video projector, and sells
this for as much as $500. However, he claims that the money
isn’t as important as the positive impression of his company
it creates for the client.
We
also talked about marketing with web sites. Seems those
who are listed in the search engines are thriving, while
those who aren’t are getting little business. The old days
of getting listed for free are starting to disappear, and
in many cases you have to pay specialized companies to get
you listed properly.
Overall,
our little group discussion proved valuable. Several DJ
trade-show veterans told me that they got more out of this
than any other seminar they had attended.
In
addition to the conferences, we also gleaned a number of
great interactive ideas from the cruise ship staff. My track
record with cruise-ship staffs has been good. Several years
ago, for example, my wife and I took a cruise and were taught
a new dance. They called it the Macarena, and six months
later it swept not only the States, but the world.
For
our maiden DJ cruise, a dozen “party hosts” comprised the
cruise director’s staff, all of whom are paid to develop
new interactive games and dances to keep passengers tangoing
through the various hemispheres. Their tasks include everything
from calling bingo to instructing line dances on Caribbean
Night. If you are looking for new, fresh dances, games and
contests, watching your cruise ship staff can provide a
wealth of ideas.
Example:
One night, our cruise ship staff organized a traditional
“soul train,” where the men were lined up on one side, women
lined up on the other side, across from them. Using “Who
Let The Dogs Out,” the staff pressed the women to sing the
main verse to the men, and the men barked back while couples
danced down through the line. This was a real creative twist
on the traditional soul train, and it provided a blast for
all involved. Fortunately for us DJs, we can collect these
ideas, like treasure from a sunken Spanish galleon, and
use them in our shows—yet another advantage to networking
on a cruise ship. Oh yeah, five months after this maiden
journey, I heard “Who Let The Dogs Out” by the Baha Men
on the radio as a new release (even though the same song
was recorded by Byron Lee several years ago).
One
of the contests pitted several men against each other dressed
as women. Our own Dick Dean, from Boston’s Dick Dean Disc
Jockey’s, looked rather elegant, and boy, did he put on
a mini-show! A riot indeed.
Events
such as these fostered a true sense of camaraderie among
our DJ passengers. Friendships have always blossomed at
the DJ Expo, but a seven-night cruise enhances that factor
significantly. It seems like friendship—and perhaps a bit
of rum or tequila—is a requirement in order for DJs to network
and share business ideas. DJs who make casual acquaintances
at regular trade shows do share ideas with one another,
but DJs on a cruise who are holding margarita glasses and
wearing shades and sunblock tend to more openly share their
closely guarded secrets. I think this elevates our networking
concept to another level.
Almost
all of the feedback we received was positive. Said Dean
Lichtenwalner of Creative Imagineering: “I have attended
practically every type of meeting and conference imaginable
and the DJ Cruise is at the top of my list for networking,
meetings, and exchanging ideas with quality people in the
business.”
Ken
Overby concurred. “I usually don’t take my family to conventions,
but this trip allowed us to enjoy a nice balance of networking
and family time.”
There
were, of course, suggestions on how to improve future DJ
cruises. First and foremost, we changed next year’s DJ cruise
so that the ship departs and returns on Sunday. Our maiden
DJ cruise departed on Saturday and returned on the following
Saturday. As a result, DJs attending the cruise lost two
Saturdays of work. For some DJs, that can make or break
whether their schedule allows them to attend. A Sunday to
Sunday schedule fixes that rather nicely.
We
also plan to add more topics in the next DJ cruise by incorporating
informal “breakout” sharing sessions in less formal locations
on the ship. For example, Jose Gonzalez will host a breakout
session one afternoon on the pool deck, where he’ll offer
a detailed analysis of the pros and cons of intelligent
lighting.
I
suppose we were fortunate that we didn’t experience any
major glitches on our first DJ cruise. It’s a good thing,
too, because several of our party had recently seen “The
Perfect Storm.”
I
think everybody enjoyed our maiden DJ cruise. Who could
have predicted that shuffleboard, rum, upsells, intelligent
lighting and cross-dressing do indeed make perfect bedfellows?
When the cruise was nearing its end, there was a palpable
sense of melancholy.
I
know that I benefited from the exchanges that took place.
For example, since I had recently purchased Game Show Mania,
it was helpful to talk with other people who already own
it. After I told him how I’d market this game show to my
corporate database, Ken Overby suggested that I contact,
first, every event planner—since those are the folks who
can use the game show—and tell them that I own such a system.
Now I don’t need to mail to hundreds of corporate clients
with the long-shot hope that it falls into the lap of the
proper person in the human resources department. Because
of Ken’s advice, I booked a gig on a Tuesday in September,
three hours, $1,200—and that paid for half of my cruise!
I just hope he doesn’t want a commission.
Paul
Beardmore is the owner of Front Royal, Va.-based DJ Connection.
He’s also a Caribbean conga-line connoisseur who looks forward
to next year’s cruise.
If
you have any questions for TCB, please write to
DJ
Times c/o TCB,
25 Willowdale Ave.
Port Washington, N.Y., 11050
fax 516-944-8372
e-mail djtimes@testa.com.
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