Hello everyone, welcome to today's webinar. I'm your host Ryan, and I'm delighted to be back here for another episode of our Headbox Revenue series, dedicated to putting the revenue into your venue.

So, I know what you're all thinking: Christmas in July? Can't be serious. But my years in the industry have taught me that when it comes to Christmas bookings, you could actually start sooner than July. What you do now makes or breaks your September, October, and November. At Headbox, we've already started to see Christmas party bookings rolling in, and this year, we're here to help make sure you're fully prepared to make the most out of silly season.

In today's session, we will share insights and strategies to help you maximize your Christmas party bookings. From creative event planning to effective marketing tactics, our goal is to provide you with actionable tips and fresh ideas to make your Christmas party packages stand out from the crowd. So get comfortable, and before we start, please add any questions you have into the chat. Our team is on hand to answer any, and if we have some time at the end of the session, we will try and discuss some of them.

Also, as always, we'd love to see where you're tuning in from, so snap a picture of your setup and post it on LinkedIn or Instagram. Make sure you tag Headbox. To provide insight and expertise on today's discussion, I'm thrilled to be joined by two industry experts who will share their valuable knowledge and experience with us.

First, we have Doug, Commercial Director at WISE Productions. Hello, Doug.

Hey Ryan, thanks for having me.

Of course, we're also joined by Dean, Event Sales and Marketing Manager at Frameless. Welcome, Dean.

Hi Ryan, nice to be here.

Thank you both for joining us today. I think it would be great to introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your experience, especially within Christmas events. So, we can start with you, Doug.

Yeah, I've been at WISE for 14 years. I joined as a junior project manager, and before that, I worked at a venue, the Natural History Museum. I've run the gauntlet from many Christmas parties, from small intimate dinners to packages we put together, to huge bespoke installations, and of course, not forgetting our little foray into virtual events during Covid, which I'd quite like to forget now.

Yes, I think we all would. That's great, thank you. And it's great to have you here, Dean. From a venue's perspective, why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself?

Sure. I am the Sales and Events Manager at Frameless. We opened back in October 2022 as the UK's first permanent immersive arts venue. Rather like a lot of venues, we are open to the general public, but events are a very important and lucrative secondary revenue stream. Prior to that, I was Head of Events at the Royal Opera House for 14 years. I've always worked in venues where events are not the core business, so I understand a lot of challenges around fitting events around a core activity.

Absolutely, and I would imagine probably, you know, scant diary availability and how to best manage that.

Always a challenge, yeah.

Absolutely. Thank you, Dean. Doug, what common challenges do you face when working on Christmas party events, and how do you overcome them?

Yeah, you got a few different challenges. Firstly, a lot of the time, Christmas parties are not always organized by an in-house planning team or by an agent. It can be an office manager, an EA, a PA, and so this isn't their primary job. They're trying to organize a Christmas party while looking after the myriad of other things that their role entails. Especially when it comes to production, which is a bit of a dark art, because people know what food they like, what flowers they like, what buildings they like. It's our job to really help educate people and make that process as easy as possible for them to understand and wrap their heads around.

Absolutely. They might have an idea, so how can they get the most out of AV? Moving on from there, over to Dean. What strategies have you found most effective in attracting and securing Christmas party bookings?

Plan early. We think about Christmas next year while Christmas this year is still happening. Make sure that when you've got Christmas parties happening, you're there taking photographs. You can start building up a portfolio and start marketing pretty much from the 2nd of January onwards, which is when we took our first Christmas inquiry. Think about packages. Clients like a one-stop shop; they like to know exactly what they're paying for, and that includes drinks packages, food and beverage, venue hire, theming—everything that goes into making a Christmas party successful. Make sure your collateral, your website, case studies are all up to date so you can start talking sales pretty much as soon as this Christmas is over. It's all about forward planning. Quite often, if you are planning in advance, you will get better terms with a venue. If you're first in, you'll get your first pick of dates. The Christmas season is really only about two weeks, so if you're looking for a Thursday, everybody else is going to be looking for a Thursday come September, and there's scant availability. So as much as it pains me to say, think about Christmas in January if you want a good venue; that's what you're going to have to do.

Yeah, absolutely. And of course, Frameless is blessed with an incredible USP to create memorable experiences. But I kind of wanted to shift back to Doug. For those venues that aren't fully kitted out with projection mapping and state-of-the-art AV, what are the most critical production elements that can make or break a Christmas party event?

I still think that you don't need to have projection mapping to really bring things to life. That's not going to be in everyone's budget, or it's not going to work in every venue. Some old-school techniques, like lighting to set the tone of the evening, really work. I love using sound effects to transport people to the North Pole or Narnia. Little touches like that can make it really fun for guest experience.

Yeah, absolutely. Sleigh bells take me to Christmas anytime you hear them. You have that in the background, and it's like, "Oh, I'm in the North Pole now."

Yeah, and I mean, budget is a massive thing. Frameless, you need to have the budget to book into Frameless, but a lot of people are given £50 a head, £70 a head. Really great tips for how to stretch £70 per head, which, as we know, isn't a lot once you account for F&B, etc. Dean, sort of the same question: How do you ensure a seamless, enjoyable experience for clients, not just on the day of the event, but from the initial inquiry?

Key is from the initial inquiry. Quite often the brief, when it comes through, is the bare bones: a date, a number of people, maybe a catering option. At that point, you need to have total clarity about pricing right from the get-go. Again, getting them down for a site visit. We're quite clever at Frameless; we play around with our availability. We try and get people down before we're open to the general public because it's far easier for them to envisage what their event is going to look like when it's not full of 500 kids running around from a school. Part of that process is sharing clients' custom content. It's easier for them to understand what the nuances of custom content are about. We also, at that point, introduce them to Rhubarb, who are responsible for not only delivering our events but also for planning. So they start that relationship very early. Once they have contracted and the planning begins, we almost insist, certainly for large events, that they have an events meeting with all the stakeholders involved, including the end client, WISE production company, the caterers, Ops, etc., so it forms a seamless delivery. When the client actually walks through the door on the day of the event, they have those introductions. They know where to turn to if there is an issue, and that goes right the way through into after the event when the follow-up is always with the salesperson that has actually made that initial sale.

Absolutely right. Being upfront with pricing from the start and having those tiered packages so you can say, "This is what you get for this, this is what you get for that."

Absolutely. The market has moved on from a traditional three-course dinner, so having different options—Bowl food and canapés, Bowl food and stalls, and more immersive dining. When you come to an immersive venue, they like to latch on to that theme. Make sure you have something for everybody when you start compiling your Christmas packages in January.

Absolutely. The aforementioned average spend per person is found to be £70 per head. For venues working with limited budgets or clients with limited budgets, what are some further cost-effective AV solutions that still deliver a high impact?

Firstly, if you are a corporate that has had a good year and you've got some money to spare after paying all your staff fairly, then don't be afraid to splash that cash. It could be the one opportunity you get to reward your staff throughout the whole year, and it's an industry that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country, one that is still suffering the after-effects of Covid. But that wasn't the question. The question was, how can we make it more viable for people working on budgets? We've touched on packages before. It's great if you can leave kit in. If there's some storage, if you can rig stuff, that makes our live hire easier and can bring down costs slightly. Even if you can't do that, speak to your suppliers about different tiers of packaging, even if it is just going in nightly. Get some sample quotes, and you can then pass that on to your clients. In terms of being an actual

producer, what can we do to really make that Christmas event shine without spending the earth? Lighting is a huge factor. We've touched on lighting. Theming, something as simple as snow-tipped Christmas trees in the reception area is a very small touch. Just think about what it looks like when your guests arrive. You can theme without spending the earth. It's just about being creative and thinking outside the box. You don't need to project Narnia on the walls to create that. Just be creative with theming.

I totally agree, and we've seen some fantastic things in your Instagram stories from the snow machine. One key thing from today's discussion is thinking ahead of time. I hope you all took away some great insight and tips for your own venues. Again, thanks to Doug and Dean for sharing their knowledge with us today. Do either of you have any last-minute tips you think everyone should know?

Plan early, plan smartly, and keep thinking of new ideas.

Take risks. If you have some money to spend, don't be afraid to take risks. Be daring.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Feel free to drop any remaining questions in the chat or reach out to our team directly. Have a fantastic day, and let's get ready to make this Christmas season unforgettable!