Did you see a ton of cool stuff at your company holiday party this past month? I know we saw quite a lot since we were working at so many amazing events. Obviously we’ve seen a lot more interest in more elaborate photo booths, and people have been booking our slow motion photo booth (Slo Mo Booth) a ton. It’s really caught on, and I think part of that might’ve been since the iPhone 6 started having slow motion video, people are just really addicted to it, especially in a more fully fleshed out experience like we have been doing for our clients.
So that kicks off our top ten list of event entertainment ideas for 2015!
1) Slow Motion Photo Booths
Our Slo Mo Booth (or version of our original Slow Motion Photo Booth) has really been picking up steam. Even though we first launched it two years ago, a lot of folks still haven’t seen this or played in one. It’s a truly memorable experience and one that gets shared a ton by event-goers. There’s also a lot of latitude with how you can customize it to fit your theme, and how else can you legitimately do things like a dunk tank, color run dust party or other fun and messy ideas? It doesn’t have to be messy, but if you wanna really make a statement, there’s a lot of crazy ideas you can pull off with this!
2) Personalized Experiences
People really love something personalized. It’s probably why caricature artists are so popular as well as photo booths. Another option we really like is personalized poems. These are written on-demand on a variety of subjects. You can force the subject or have it open ended as well and many of these poets do them on vintage typewriters which adds another nice touch to your event.
3) Adult Proms
Bailey Nakano, Private Event Sales Manager for The Regency Center noted that adult proms are a growing trend with several being booked at her property. In San Francisco this is not a surprising trend with all the young tech types not wanting to grow up. It’s also a great excuse to get cheekily dressed up and dance to 80s music.
4) Themed Parties
This is a more general category and over the holidays we saw a lot more themes for holiday parties. This doesn’t just mean winter themes, but beyond that. According to Natasha Miller of Entire Productions, Prohibition/20’s, Masquerade, Beach Party, Cirque and Casino themes have been trending up and provide a lot of flexibility with the theme. Entire is able to program talent and entertainment very specifically to the planner’s vision and theme. She adds: “Everyone’s looking for what’s not been done before which is difficult, but with costuming, choreography, music selection we can keep it fresh!”
5) Dueling DJs
We got this from Jamie Snively of Associated Entertainment who says: “The Dueling DJ’s is an interactive, energetic and engaging live performance where the crowd becomes the main attraction! By utilizing social media, The Dueling DJ’s puts the power of picking the next track into the hands of the party goers. This incredible experience is the brainchild of DJ CoryLive from American Idol, The Voice and Dancing with the Stars. The Dueling DJ’s team is made up of an exceptional group of DJ/MC’s featuring DJ Kelly Dlux , DJ Dre and DJ Sean Patrick along with DJ CoryLive. The Dueling DJ’s transcends the DJ/Crowd environment and creates a unique live event experience.”
These were just five we know of that are trending in the San Francisco Bay Area – if you have other thoughts please share them in the comments section below.
