Party planning

I’m not sure about your location, but I’m guessing its the same for most countries…

there is a F*CK LOAD of laws.

You’ll need security too if your gonna be charging.

Since I have no idea how big this is and whether you plan on doing this in a big city or a rather small village, I’ll just post what I do when I’m organizing an event. Could be that you already did/knew all of this stuff or that it doesn’t apply to your area, but who knows : )

1.) Crew
You need people who sell the tickets and who check if the people who want to enter have a valid ticket (or wristband) with them. Usually you can’t get securities to do this, plus securities are expensive and you want to keep their amount as low as possible.

I guess you’ll need people to give out drinks as well, unless the bar isn’t super small you need at least two per shift.

2.) Venue
If you’re renting a warehouse you probably can’t rely on some infrastructure like a bar, definitely check out what kind of stuff you need to bring for yourself. Don’t forget about stuff like cups (you don’t want to give out bottles), probably you need some lights for the bar too, otherwise the people there will have a hard time working.

3.) Office
It’s always good to have some space where you can safely keep your stuff, like the cash you collected from the entry/bar during the night, documents you need to have with you if somebody shows up who wants to see them, etc.

4.) Security
As mentioned above, if the event grows larger you definitely need to have securities. Check with the local authorities how much they require you to get. Also, if this is a private event, it’s never a bad idea to show up at the closest police station beforehand and tell them what you’re going to do, maybe give them your phone number if they want to. Showing that you’re a responsible guy saves you from trouble induced by locals close to your event ; )

5.) Laser
We had a laser once which was pretty expensive, but the most annoying thing about it was that we had to pay somebody who was supposed to look after the laser (you need a special training to be allowed to do that). Definitely check if you need somebody like that and how much he’s going to cost.
What is easier to accomplish and cheaper are video projectors, get a VJ or two and you’re set. Usually projections entertain me more than lasers : )

6.) Check-in / Crew Briefing
Okay, this usually really comes into play when you have a medium to big event, but I think it’s never a bad idea to have that in mind.
Do a list with all the people working on that evening with their respective phone numbers, so you can easily reach them (don’t forget to tell them YOUR phone number as well if something goes wrong during the night and they need you). Call them the night before to make sure they didn’t forget that they have to work at your event the next day and tell them to show up one hour before they have to start working (people are always late anyways). Once they show up, tick their name on your list so you have control over the spots you need people to work on and where you maybe have to replace someone. Get at least two persons who are willing to replace someone on the main spots like bars in case somebody isn’t appearing for work.

Put together some short instructions of how the work at the bar/entry has to be done and place them on the respective spots, plus tell the bar guys to check out where all the stuff they need is BEFORE the event starts.

Dunno if that helps you,
good luck with your event anyways : )

Cheers

One thing I forgot to mention, make sure to get change for the bar and doors. One would assume that this would work out on itself by enough people having the correct amount of cash ready, but that’s actually never the case. The last event we did was for about 200 people and we got EUR 2.000,- in change in advance, and at the early point of the evening we were almost running out of it because people paid only with 10 or 20 Euro notes at the bar.

Besides that, Hee Won Jung definitely got a point here with what he said.