what's the best way to go about promoting a party ?

[DJ George Bates]

As some of you know , I am going to be doing an after work party at Funky Buddha Lounge starting this Friday from 5p- 9p...

I'm not a promoter but i'm looking for ways to ensure a nice turn out for this event....any suggestions ??

this is important to me and will help others who are beating their heads against the wall also.... graemlins/banghead.gif

[mdpm99]

For starters.....start developing a e mail and snail mailing list right away. Stay close to your friends.

d

[JMNYC]

1) what's the purpose of the party? what's the point? make your intentions clear in the beginning as to what this party is about. then don't forget it!

2) know your crowd. who do you want there? find where they are and let them know about what you're doing. if you know there's a party that is catering to you, isn't that a party you want to go to?

3) meet your crowd. meet and know the individuals who come out to support what you're doing. as david said, keep an email, phone number, fax and snail mail list. if you're playing the music, you HAVE to have someone on hand to interact with the crowd. these are your eyes and ears at the party. this is very important.

4) advertise. flyers are great, if they get into peoples hands! running thousands of flyers that never make it out of your house is a waste of money. it's worth it to co-op flyer distribution with other parties of the same vibe on different nites: 4 people handing out 1000 flyers each simultaneously for each of two parties will only take a few hours and cost each party practically nothing. make sure to get your party listed in all of the relevant publications - most of them are free but they need advanced notice.

5) make sure that by the time you walk into the party, you can honestly say "I did everything I could". Make sure whoever is helping you out during the party or in promoting it knows exactly what they need to do, has the resources to do it and understands the schedule (I get f*cked up here sometimes... we're all human). Then let go and let the music use you up.

6) be patient but persistent. if it was easy, everybody would be doing it successfully.

7) one more thing. in starting a party, plan to spend some money. at least everything you get from the party, for the first few weeks - maybe months. don't start a new party thinking you're gonna make a lot of money overnight. the only way to do that these days is with a special one-off, with a lot of advance planning and a lot of hype. that's one of the reasons why so many promoters fall by the wayside. they're in it for the wrong reasons, and therefore are not willing to sacrifice. that's kind of darwinian, now that I think about it. Maybe Frankie said it best: "only the strong survive".

Good luck! smile.gif

[ March 23, 2003, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: JMNYC ]

[YUJI-SAN]

use females to promote yo party w/flyers :D

[JMNYC]

Originally posted by YUJI BR0WN:
use females to promote yo party w/flyers :D you should promote almost exclusively to females anyway (if it's a str8 party), since they dance more and guys will come if they are there. good point I forgot to mention. you can start by offering ladies a drink special and having a few cute male friends for them to flirt with.

[DJ George Bates]

Thanx for all the suggestions so far ! A brother is taking notes ! hail.gif