Musicians Lunch idea...

[urbanx]

Once a quarter I go to a ‘sporting lunch’ with work, to network. It’s a posh lunch at a 5* hotel, followed by an after dinner speech by a former sportsman. I’m not into any sport whatsoever, but have recently enjoyed speeches by Barry McGuigan, Phil Tuffnel, Damon Hill, etc.

 

Now, not knowing my hockey from my oche, I thought “Wouldn’t this be great for musicians” Looking at figures it would work, if well attended.

 

Speaker wise, we’d be looking along the lines of: Toyah, Debbie Harry, Martin Kemp level to talk about their time in the industry. (I doubt we’d stretch to the Brian Mays, Rick Wakemans etc.) but you never know…

 

So the question is: Would you pay £120 for a 3-course lunch (in a posh hotel) and an after dinner musical speaker? 300 guests. (30 tables x 10)

[Burns-bass]

8 minutes ago, urbanx said:

Once a quarter I go to a ‘sporting lunch’ with work, to network. It’s a posh lunch at a 5* hotel, followed by an after dinner speech by a former sportsman. I’m not into any sport whatsoever, but have recently enjoyed speeches by Barry McGuigan, Phil Tuffnel, Damon Hill, etc.

 

Now, not knowing my hockey from my oche, I thought “Wouldn’t this be great for musicians” Looking at figures it would work, if well attended.

 

Speaker wise, we’d be looking along the lines of: Toyah, Debbie Harry, Martin Kemp level to talk about their time in the industry. (I doubt we’d stretch to the Brian Mays, Rick Wakemans etc.) but you never know…

 

So the question is: Would you pay £120 for a 3-course lunch (in a posh hotel) and an after dinner musical speaker? 300 guests. (30 tables x 10)

 

This is a good idea. It's not my thing really (I don't have £120 or a start), but I can definitely see how this would be successful. There are some quite high upfront costs, but if you've got the cash, good luck to you.

[urbanx]

Cheers, yeah it'd be a good £30k outlay to start with (especially marketing the first one). It'd run as it's own Ltd company. 

 

I reckon I'd be looking at a break even of 191 bums on seats in the 300 cap room. (All the sporting ones are sold out way in advance) 

[NancyJohnson]

You haven't said how the audience would be made up.  Interested punters or business lunchers on a work jolly? 

 

With sportspeople (and by sportspeople, I mean the retired, well known, Question Of Sport contender type of sportspeople), these are well known to most people and have transcended the sport they once competed in and have become celebrity; they're known by pretty much everyone (unless they've lived under a rock for the last 40 years). 

 

The problem with musicians is that there's very little transcendence; few non-working/retired musicians become celebrity (Noddy Holder, maybe), they just disappear disgruntled or come out of retirement to appear on Buzzcocks once in a while.  Your paying audience may cover a broad age range and musical interest spectrum; from the interested punter perspective, I'm sure there's a lot of people that would pay for a lunch and Q&A chat with Debbie Harry/Toyah, but if you're being dragged along to the lunch and the speaker is Dizzy Rascal, you're not really going to appeal to the whole audience.

 

 

 

 

[NancyJohnson]

I just looked on the Gordon Poole agency.  £20K+ buys you Greg Davies and Rob Beckett.  That's each, mind.  

 

Saw them on the same comedy bill in Wokingham about 20 years ago.  How times change.

[miles'tone]

Nice idea, but musicians?

£1.20 pasty and a busk outside Gregg's is more realistic.

[Jackroadkill]

We're bass players - nobody in their right minds would let us into their posh hotel!  We'd have the lagging off the pipes inside five minutes, and soupy footprints on the wallpaper.

[Burns-bass]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

You haven't said how the audience would be made up.  Interested punters or business lunchers on a work jolly? 

 

With sportspeople (and by sportspeople, I mean the retired, well known, Question Of Sport contender type of sportspeople), these are well known to most people and have transcended the sport they once competed in and have become celebrity; they're known by pretty much everyone (unless they've lived under a rock for the last 40 years). 

 

The problem with musicians is that there's very little transcendence; few non-working/retired musicians become celebrity (Noddy Holder, maybe), they just disappear disgruntled or come out of retirement to appear on Buzzcocks once in a while.  Your paying audience may cover a broad age range and musical interest spectrum; from the interested punter perspective, I'm sure there's a lot of people that would pay for a lunch and Q&A chat with Debbie Harry/Toyah, but if you're being dragged along to the lunch and the speaker is Dizzy Rascal, you're not really going to appeal to the whole audience.

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, musicians have obsessive fans and are likely to pay the cash for something like this.

 

 

[urbanx]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

You haven't said how the audience would be made up.  Interested punters or business lunchers on a work jolly? 

 

With sportspeople (and by sportspeople, I mean the retired, well known, Question Of Sport contender type of sportspeople), these are well known to most people and have transcended the sport they once competed in and have become celebrity; they're known by pretty much everyone (unless they've lived under a rock for the last 40 years). 

 

The problem with musicians is that there's very little transcendence; few non-working/retired musicians become celebrity (Noddy Holder, maybe), they just disappear disgruntled or come out of retirement to appear on Buzzcocks once in a while.  Your paying audience may cover a broad age range and musical interest spectrum; from the interested punter perspective, I'm sure there's a lot of people that would pay for a lunch and Q&A chat with Debbie Harry/Toyah, but if you're being dragged along to the lunch and the speaker is Dizzy Rascal, you're not really going to appeal to the whole audience.

 

 

 

 

 

A mix, but I'd foresee mainly businesses - The sporting lunch is 100% businesses and is billed as a networking lunch. I was thinking a similar demographic: mid 50's / 60's. Small / Medium sized business owners. £120 out of expenses for a networking lunch, and a "photo of Bob trying to chat up Toyah" for the company LinkedIn, and an office story for years to come.... Although if someone was really into that artist and wanted to come as an independent, then that'd be fine. 

 

The speaker would be advertised in advance, and I'd expect the 'Successful in the 70's / 80's' musician / pop star' that is available on the speakers circuit would naturally appeal to them. 

 

[Mykesbass]

Are the ones that your average networking punter has heard of any good at this? Guy Pratt has a very loyal audience for his chat shows, but many of your audience probably haven't heard of him. Are some of the tales now a bit out of touch with modern values? 

Apart from that, it sounds like a good idea. 

[BillyBass]

4 hours ago, urbanx said:

So the question is: Would you pay £120 for a 3-course lunch (in a posh hotel) and an after dinner musical speaker? 300 guests. (30 tables x 10)

No I wouldn't.  I was part of a networking group for a couple of years, nearly ten tears ago.  We would meet once a week, at Saracens rugby club, or Mill Hill Golf club, have a bite to eat, network, talk about our businesses to guests etc.  I got a few interesting jobs out of it but I came to the conclusion I was putting in more than I was getting out, so I left.

 

This idea of yours, is it something you want to arrange instead of the sporting lunch at work or is this a separate thing you are thinking of, and are, perhaps looking at it as a business idea for yourself?

[urbanx]

32 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

This idea of yours, is it something you want to arrange instead of the sporting lunch at work or is this a separate thing you are thinking of, and are, perhaps looking at it as a business idea for yourself?

 

Deffo a separate thing, I've just seen the success of the sporting lunch, but have no interest in the sports aspect at all! 

[BillyBass]

I'm guessing a known musician as a public speaker would appeal to other, perhaps amateur, musicians but if this is a networking event I imagine SME owners would be your target market?  If so, getting a public speaker who is guaranteed to tell a good story and get a few laughs would be important.  A stand up or someone like Phil Tufnell, who has lots of experience ad libbing on game shows, would be ideal.  Toyah!?  Dear me no!

 

Networking is about building trust.  If you see the same faces at these events and other people there are using their businesses, then they must be trustworthy, right?  The bottom line for the attendees is how much new business you get from these events. Consequently, getting numbers in is important and keeping them coming to the future events is too.   Well attended events attract even bigger numbers.

 

Good luck!

[urbanx]

11 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

I'm guessing a known musician as a public speaker would appeal to other, perhaps amateur, musicians but if this is a networking event I imagine SME owners would be your target market?  If so, getting a public speaker who is guaranteed to tell a good story and get a few laughs would be important.  A stand up or someone like Phil Tufnell, who has lots of experience ad libbing on game shows, would be ideal.  Toyah!?  Dear me no!

 

Networking is about building trust.  If you see the same faces at these events and other people there are using their businesses, then they must be trustworthy, right?  The bottom line for the attendees is how much new business you get from these events. Consequently, getting numbers in is important and keeping them coming to the future events is too.   Well attended events attract even bigger numbers.

 

Good luck!

 

Cheers man! Exactly that. I'm an SME owner myself. We love the local business awards which are super expensive too (£180 per ticket for regional, £800+ per ticket national) We do the local ones as it's good networking, a nice meal, photo in the paper (not the crime section for once) and good all round publicity. 

 

With the sporting one, a lot of businesses use it to entertain clients too. An offer of nice lunch and "Oh, Phil Tuffnel is coming too" always wins people over (He was an absolute legend) There's always a raffle too, prizes donated by local businesses, everyone puts a £10 in an envelope, and £3k goes to charity. 

 

Its a good point about getting the right speakers, I think that'll be the hardest bit! 

 

 

[BillyBass]

29 minutes ago, urbanx said:

 

Cheers man! Exactly that. I'm an SME owner myself. We love the local business awards which are super expensive too (£180 per ticket for regional, £800+ per ticket national) We do the local ones as it's good networking, a nice meal, photo in the paper (not the crime section for once) and good all round publicity. 

In the grand scheme of things, £180 for that is good value.

[MacDaddy]

18 hours ago, urbanx said:

Would you pay £120 for a 3-course lunch (in a posh hotel) and an after dinner musical speaker? 300 guests.

 

Down south and in that London, 'dinner' refers to the evening meal. 

Are you referring to dinner as being (correctly) the mid-day meal?

[urbanx]

5 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Down south and in that London, 'dinner' refers to the evening meal. 

Are you referring to dinner as being (correctly) the mid-day meal?

 

Yeah, its usually a lunch(eon) - Again tied in with the corporate crowd, but could easily be an evening event. 

It seems after-dinner speakers are always called that, regardless of what meal they're speaking after! (Don't get me started on wedding 'breakfasts'!)