Events Plus - In the Media

In the Media

"Inexpensive Holiday Ideas"
News 12 New Jersey
October 15, 2008

"Dining Spaces 2008"
My 9 News
October 23, 2008

"Fun For Hire"
DailyRecord.com
February 4, 2009

Why did you start the business?
I essentially fell into the business. I was attending the University of Maryland and my brother was working at a local radio station, also in Maryland. He had a small mobile DJ business back in music's disco era and I would fill in for them on weekends at "shotgun" weddings, nightclubs and small parties. I bought my own equipment and advertised in the local papers with the slogan "band nonaffordable."

If you could do it again, what would you do differently?
I would have taken more business and accounting courses in college. Most of the things I've learned over the years have come from trial and error and using intuition.

What's the best business advice your parents gave?
My father always told me to be able to do things with my hands. I am not sure what that meant, but I certainly have worked my fingers to the bones. Also, hire the best person you can find, and let that person do their job.

What personality trait helps you the most?
Being outgoing. I have always been the clown type rather than shy or introverted. We are in the service industry and I truly believe that it's all about a personal relationship you must build with your clients. The trust you earn allows you to entertain them, their family and friends at the most important events in their life.

What's the hardest part of the job?
The long hours, evenings, weekends, equipment repairs, quirky staff and the ever-demanding clients.

The easiest?
When everything goes smoothly. When staff and equipment move exactly to plan, my job is straightforward.

What's your least expensive product or service?
Web photo gallery: Our digital photographer roams the crowd, taking candid photos of you and your guests throughout the night. A card is handed to them with our Web address. Within 24 hours, this special photo gallery is available for anyone in the world to see.

The most expensive?
Dance Heads. Not just lip-syncing, not just karaoke. Dance Heads superimposes participants' heads on professional dancers' bodies while they sing along to some of the greatest hits of all time. The outrageous effects are complete with fully animated backgrounds.

Describe your most unusual customer, job or work experience.
There have been so many over 33 years, but here is one: years ago on a Friday night, the vans were packed for the weekend, the staff all had their assignments and everything was on schedule. The phone rang, and the person on the other end wanted a balloon delivery for the next morning. I said no, it wasn't worth it to do on such short notice. Then they told us it was for Whitney Houston, and I quickly changed my mind! This turned into a nice little job as they added other equipment and services. The next morning, I found myself in Mendham, in Whitney Houston's garage, filling balloons.

When you leave the business, what will you do?
Travel, read and spend more quiet time.

In one sentence, tell us why customers should shop here.
Rather than the brokers, agents or other event planners, we own all of our equipment and have our own staff, which allows us to offer better prices and service.

"Cutbacks Include the Liquor, Ice Sculpture and Roulette Table"
NJ Biz Magazine
November 3, 2008

David Warner, owner of Events Plus Entertainment, the list's No. 1 company with 1,000 events last year, can't say the same. We've lost one small party, a 100-person company Christmas party," he says, attributing the withdrawal to the battered economy.

"A lot of planners don't like to admit it, but we're seeing signs of hurting. Events are a luxury item. You don't have to have holiday parties. You don't have to have that big outing." The company, based in the Whippany section of Hanover, has not seen revenues dip year-over-year after years of growth, Warner says.

Cancellations remain the exception, not the rule, but "we definitely see people cutting back on the big stuff. Maybe just doing a dinner and no entertainment, like the casino nights we put together," he says.

One bright spot has been fundraisers, which "haven't really been affected by the economy," Warner says. Events Plus Entertainment's client makeup is evenly split between companies, charities and people; "diversification helps" weather the storm.

"Setting the Table"
NJ My Way
March 17, 2008

When the special events planners hold a special event for themselves, you know it's going to be special!

We first heard about the North Jersey chapter of the International Special Events Society (www.njises.org) a year ago, when Livingston's own bubbly planner Joan Rothbard (www.recreationpicnicservice.com), a loyal NJ My Way fan, sent us photos of the group's 2007 Dining Spaces event. This year's was held at Pines Manor in Edison last week.

The evening is actually a competition; each designer is given a table and ten chairs, and is judged by fellow event planners for creativity and style. You can watch the video and judge for yourself on NJ My Way.

All proceeds from Dining Spaces go to the Valerie Fund (www.thevaleriefund.org), the New Jersey organization that helps fight childhood cancers and supports patients and their families.

With dozens of party planners donating table settings, ideas abounded for creating an unforgettable themed party. A huge Monopoly board that featured the best of Jersey's famous and infamous. Bubbles, champagne, and designer shoes on table tops as elegant dinner companions. A kid's party where eye-popping candy décor surrounded a glass table of bubblegum balls. And the biggest setting of all: a mystery dinner, complete with "dead" man under the table, a rich suspicious wife, and an annoying butler.

The art of table setting - it makes the party fun, no matter what's on the menu, or how the hosts behave!

"Holiday Mix and Mingle"
The Star Ledger
December 14, 2007

BY GREG SAITZ
Star-Ledger Staff

Whatever you're thinking about accountants, just stop. Stop it right now.

Because while you're sitting through yet another holiday office party with limp shrimp cocktail at the table and Schlitz at the bar, the accountants at Wilkin & Guttenplan in East Brunswick will be belting out the karaoke tunes at their party.

"It's really about enjoying people's company outside of work," managing shareholder Edward Guttenplan said. "The staff doesn't really look for an opulent event. They look for a night out with their co-workers that's more than just a slice of pizza."

This year, companies both large and small are providing more than a cheese pie at holiday parties, ranging from extravagant, themed affairs to employee gift giveaways. In fact, holiday office parties are enjoying "unprecedented popularity," according to a survey conducted by BNA, a group of business and government trade publications based in Arlington, Va.

Another survey by executive search firm Battalia Winston found the number of businesses having a holiday celebration would actually drop 9 percent this year. So much for surveys.

A small and wholly unscientific poll of New Jersey companies and event planners found no drop in party plans from last year.

"We've definitely increased about 15 percent and last year wasn't bad at all," said David Warner, president of Events Plus Entertainment in Whippany. "Every day this week we've got (events)." On Wednesday, his company worked a corporate party at the Birchwood Manor in Whippany, where about 280 guests listened to a deejay and played at 15 casino tables.

Warner said he's spoken with industry colleagues who complain it's been a slow year, but his company is handling about 80 holiday office parties this season. While the majority of those soirees are the straightforward cocktail hour and dinner, Warner said others opt for casino themes or game shows.

The parties he's working range from 30 people to 1,500. At Ricoh Americas, the copier and electronics firm based in West Caldwell, 625 employees gathered earlier this month at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Fairfield.

"Plan B"
NJBIZ Meeting and Event Planner Guide 2007-2008
November 5, 2007

by Mary Jasch

So your event is in full swing and everybody's happy. You've chosen the freshest cuisine, trendy table fashions, a mesmerizing speaker, hot entertainment, and brought in the latest audio-visual gear. Accolades, we hear you coming....

But bad-news surprised show many disguises like the speaker's evolving off-color jokes, rising room temperatures and, even worse, the wrong entree. But it doesn't stop there. Your laptop locks up; the digital projector is fuzzy. And the band, now playing for hours, is tipsy and playing loudly.

Comedy of errors? No- imminent devastation. But not to worry! Professional planners and producers are saying "No!" to inebriated entertainers, dining debacles, poor service and bad-taste jokesters. You can, too, with a few solid trip from two New Jersey experts. Planners, take note. Quell these killers with alternate plans, immediate action, backups and a little grit.

"You have to have a Plan A and a Plan B," advises Christy Bareijsza, CMP, CMM and president of The Red Carpet Events in Jersey City. She sees most problems in technology, food and beverage and services.

During one conference where most presentations were Internet-based, a virus blazed through the hotel and Internet service was shut down. But Bareijsza made sure her client was prepare with backup Power Point presentations. "It wasn't as effective, but we still had to make it happen, " she says. She also advises renting equipment from a reputable company, and make sure you rent or bring enough. Last-minute needs such as an extra microphone or replacement computer might be impossible to get.

One-site requests often go unfulfilled, she says, because no one is there to help you to reach the right person or get that person to do what you nee- for instance, medication for a guest with a headache or water from a waiting-to-be-refreshed beverage stations. What to do? Hopefully, those details are outlined in the Banquet Event Orders (BEO's), which make the venue accountable and should eliminate surprises. But what if the BEOs are not followed? "We go up the chain," Bareijsza says. "We go up to the general manager and the situation is basically dealing with an 'on-site behind-the-scenes' to ensure that everything happens correctly."

Being a watchdog becomes second nature to Bareijsza to the point of monitoring toilet paper and hand towels. "In the venue's defense, they can't be on top of every aspect at every single moment. So I'm on the hotel radio, so if I need something, I radio in. I have immediate contact and it's done," she says.

Meetings perhaps suffer the most when things go wring in the food and beverage - cold food, wrong menu, just poorly done. People become distracted, unhappy, and talk to others about it and the company ends up looking bad. What to do in the middle of a food fiasco? First, appoint someone to watch the food as it comes out of the kitchen and to handle problems immediately. If the food comes out cold, stop it in the kitchen and make sure the rest comes out hot.

Now picture this: Everyone is served and the CEO, among others, gets salmon instead of the sea bass he ordered. It happens often, Bareijsza says. Venues sometimes plan poorly and run out of the agreed-upon food, replace is it with 'allowable' substitutions for anything from salad dressing to the entree. Solution? Talk to management immediately. If they have the correct food, arrange to have it serviced. If not, they should offer a concession - either a percentage off the bill or extra courses. Meanwhile, to keep attendees happy "call another caterer to bring the right food in-house. Venues don't like that, but in that situation they have to accommodate you," says Bareijsza. She advises planners to establish a good rapport with the venue. "If they like you, they tend to do a lot more for you."

David Warner, President of Events Plus in Whippany and President of the International Special Events Society, Northern New Jersey chapter, has experienced almost every event monster in more then 31 years of business - most of it in entertainment.

So what to do with those babbling speakers and intoxicated entertainers? "If the person is bad, they shouldn't go on at all - now way," he says. Have a backup plan - a movie, another speaker, another subject or cancel it completely. If a speaker goes too long or keeps talking, "Pull the plug," advises Warner. "Pull the microphone plug, shut off the power. First, give them a cue - for five more minutes, give them five fingers - then four minutes, three minutes....and if they don't adhere to it, give them another minute and that's it. At the Academy Awards, when an acceptance speech goes too long, the band starts playing right over them and they're whisked off the stage."

If the problem is a speaker with bad taste, tap him and say "I'm sorry. This is not appropriate" or it will continue. "You've got to just cut it," add Warner, "turn your mike on and say, 'Thank you! Let's have a nice round of applause!"

Having a great event under a tent? Warner warns that Mother Nature sometimes brings a few wolves to your outdoors event, too - especially rain. If you are on ground prone to flooding along one of New Jersey's lovely rivers, have a backup plan to go indoors or cancel, or be ready to buy plywood to make walkways for guests as Warner once did.

"Some things are in your contract and some are not, but you'll be blamed for both" chuckles Bareijsza. "I've accepted that I'll be blamed if it rains. But if something doesn't go right with food and beverage, look for compensation. Don't accept it for what it is. Know that you don't have to accept something that is not written in your contract."

"Macarena Nuts"
Daily News
July 21, 1996

Your step by step guide on how to do the hot new dance
By DENENE MILLNER, Daily News Staff Writer

She's, like, bigger than the hokey-pokey.
Catchier than a conga line.
More caliente than a karaoke machine in a Japanese bar at 1 a.m.

It's La Macarena, the booty-shakin' Latin song about a flirtatious woman named Macarena that has inspired a global line-dance craze a phenomenon sure to go down right next to the Harlem Shuffle, the Chicken Dance and the Electric Slide in the annals of dance history.

Girlfriend is workin' it at weddings, bar mitzvahs, cruises, Club Meds, day-care centers and senior-citizens' homes alike from here to L.A. and everywhere between. All a deejay needs to do these days to wind her up is play the first bar of the song, and the floor is overrun with dancers from 8 to 80 putting the Macarena moves to the test.

A hand movement here, a twist of the hip there, a jump up and down and bam! Macarena is in the house.

David Warner, President of the New Jersey-based party and entertainment company Events Plus, says revelers regard it a sin not to play it at least once during a deejayed jam.

"It's a necessity," explains Warner, whose company plays parties throughout the tri-state area. "We play it at every party no matter if it's for little kids, corporations or adults. The Electric Slide and the Chicken Dance are out. It's the Macarena all the way."

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622 Route 10, Whippany, NJ 07981
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