Disc Jockey News

Day three is now officially over and it was another great three days for the 80+ DJs who attended.

What a packed three days of great information. I don’t know why but before I go to a convention I think that I’m doing great, doing the best that I can and then I learn that there is so much more that I could be doing.

The day opened with Stevie Ray, a famous leader of an improv comedy group here in Minnesota and ended with Jim Cerone known as “The Perfect Host” and everything in between was all great nuggets of wonderful and helpful information to any DJ/Entertainer.

If you were unable to attend you really missed out on three days of entertainment and information!

I met some great people from all across America. Some new faces and some that have attended this convention in the past.

Hope to see you next year!

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 03:03 PM | Permalink

What a great second day of the Disc Jockey News DJ Conference here in beautiful Bloomington Minnesota!

It is 11:30 p.m. and I have made it home from the second day of the conference and all is safe and good. I say this because on Saturday I did a wedding and got to bed around four in the morning. Got up Sunday morning after about five hours of sleep and prepared for the first day of the conference.

I went to the conference and was their early for a MAPDJ annual meeting that takes place before the conference officially starts. I spent the day and evening enjoying day one then got home late in the evening. At midnight I was pumped up and wrote yesterdays blog then continued to work the business by checking e-mails and taking care of business.

At 1:30 a.m. I went to bed but was still so excited with all the new info I had collected that I could not sleep. Have you ever had one of those nights where your brain just won’t shut off? This was one of those nights for me.

At 3:30 a.m. I decided to raid the refrigerator and then to begin using those tools that I had learned at the conference.

I got back into bed at 6:30 a.m. and closed my eyes just in time to have the alarm clock go off at 7:15 a.m. I dragged my sorry tired butt out of bed as my wife was getting ready to leave for here job. She asked me how my day went and that was a HUGE mistake on her part.

I suddenly had the life brought back and was once again reenergized and rattling off all the great things that I had learned and could use to make me and my business better.

I was still yapping as she had to walk out the door to get to work.

I got myself ready and was out the door by 8:20 a.m. I fought the morning rush hour and was back at the convention by 8:45 ready and willing to dig into the new day.

It is now fifteen hours later and I am still pumped up and ready to rock after an exciting day of seminars, great information and conversations with DJs from all across the U.S.

On the scale of one to ten (one being the worst and ten being the best) I would rate day two of the conference a 9. I might have given it a bigger number but I’m a little tired and want to get to bed a.s.a.p. and ten has more numbers in it! LOL!

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 11:06 PM | Permalink

It is now Midnight and I am reporting on day one of the Midwest DJ Conference.

The first night included a wonderful and very informative speaker by the name of Matt Anderson. His seminar was entitled “The Keys to a thriving referral business”

He spoke to the room of DJs about how to get more referrals by “asking” for them from your best resource, Your Happy Clients.

It may sound like a very simple concept but most DJs, including myself really don’t do it or know how to correctly get your happy clients to be a walking billboard for their business.

I learned many new things about myself and a place in my business where I am lacking and can easily improve upon.

After the keynote speaker the Midwest Association of Professional Disc Jockeys sponsored a new concept contest for the DJs and I have to tell you it was really fun not only for those in the contest but also for those watching the contest.

Three teams of three DJs, many who did not even know each other were put to task where they had to work together to come up on the spot entertainment with three rounds of competition.

The first was to at random select three CDs from a group with one song on each disc. Not knowing what songs they were and then mix the three songs and fill five minutes with music and entertainment for the room.

The second round was where each team randomly selected a “situation” from three choices for doing a special “Introduction” of a Bride & Groom. They were giving details to who the B&G were and then had to create the introduction on the spot using the information and songs available to them.

The last game the three teams had to create an “Ice Breaker” fun little thing do get the audience involved and having fun.

When the three rounds where finished the audience then selected a winning team who went home with fabulous prizes.

First night of the convention on a scale of one to ten, (one being the worst and ten being the best) I would rate this first night a solid 9.5

You should have been there!

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 11:49 PM | Permalink

The Disc Jockey News Conference begins on Sunday evening 10/19/08 will you be there?

I will be once again attending the DJ convention in Minnesota (My home state) and I am looking forward to all the great seminars and information that I will get from this years line up of speakers.

I will attempt to give you a report each day of the conference so that you can hear all about what you missed out on if you were unable to attend. As you know, if you have ever attended a convention that the days can start at 6 or 7 in the morning and go until very late into the next morning.

I have heard stories of DJs who never sleep during the entire convention!

Depending on the hours will depend if I can keep you updated each day.

See you there!

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 10:00 AM | Permalink

How do you handle the slow winter months?

As you well know the winter months, especially in areas where the weather can get cold and nasty means that the DJ slow season is upon us.

The numbers of Weddings being held from November to May 1st drops greatly. 2007/2008 was a tough time as it was but now with the economy really dropping I would predict that the winter of 2008/2009 will really be hard on even the most established mobile DJ Entertainers.

To offset the slow wedding seasons most DJs will cover corporate functions, smaller birthday, anniversary and holiday events to help ends meet.

The thing to remember is not to lose the fact that your service is valuable to clients and that you should avoid getting into the “LOW PRICE WARS’ with those competitors around you.

What good is it to work if your pay rate doesn’t cover the bills and in some cases actually cause profit loss?

Example: If you do an event for $500 but it costs you more in expenses to do that event, then why would you do it? (Plug your own numbers in)

If you stay home and not work the event, you don’t have to worry about things such as equipment failure, theft, vehicle brake down, accidents in the bad weather and illness due to the constant in/out of a building while loading/unloading, injuries from slipping/falling on ice and snow.

I personally hate working during the winter months because here in Minnesota you never know if the day will be warm and sunny or twenty below zero and have three feet of snow dumped on you.

Some winter events that I do I will actually increase my rates because of the weather and the risk of possible failure to vehicles, last second cancellations or even worse no cancellation and no one shows up because of the weather.

I want to make sure that all my expenses and possible expenses are covered and make it worth my time and effort to battle the cold and snowy days & nights.

I guess I would rather stay home with my wife cuddled around a nice warm fire then to drag my equipment through wet and cold snow.

Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions

http://www.PartyTimeProductions.biz

Posted by Jeff Richards at 12:45 PM | Permalink