By Beth Blair Plan B - Saving the Day
lan B. It can be the most important factor a meeting planner spends time on. This is confi rmed from the moment Mother Nature decides to throw a temper tantrum. Sure, wind and rain might ruin outdoor festivities but fear not, there are plenty of creative ways to save the day. As we’ll show you, taking the event indoors isn’t the end of the world. After all, the party must go on.
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Interactive mobile entertainment companies are one way to deal with inclement weather. Jim Sadlovsky of Minnesota is Owner/President of such a company called Games2U, the lead- ing provider of mobile entertainment which has 146 locations in North America. He says “save the day” options are endless. “Our Digital Graffi ti Wall is new to the Twin Cities and of- fers a great interactive experience,” he says, “It’s essentially an interactive photo booth that uses a 12’ diagonal rear projection screen to display the image and allows the participant to digitally spray paint on to their photo. It also offers funny stamps and stencils to spice up the photo. Each person in the photo receives a high quality 4x6” full color print and the host is provided with a link to download all of the images from the event.” That’s not all, Sadlovsky says, “Using space age looking laser taggers we can create a fun indoor game of laser tag that many are now referring to as Cubicle Warfare. Co-workers team up against other co-workers or other departments in a fast paced game that keeps participants talking for days.” “We also offer Mobile Video Game Carts that can be used to play any game,” he says, “but are most often used for Kinect bowl- ing, Rockband®
/Guitar Hero® , Just Dance® Kinect® and racing games.”
Concerned that not everyone may have gaming skills? Sadlovsky says that’s not a problem, “Xbox®
games are great for
those who are not gamers and have no skills with a game con- troller. The Kinect sensor reads your hand, arm and body move-
60
ments to control the game.” “Other items we offer for indoors include Gaga ball which
is pit dodge ball, Booger Wars which is hilarious dodge ball, Bird Wars bird launchers and Giant Infl atable Human Hamster Balls,” he says.
There are also plenty of other companies that provide party rentals. Some other ideas worth considering are… Cooking extravaganza. Everyone likes to eat, so call in the kitchen experts and have attendees tap into their foodie-side. Opt for a hands-on cooking class with regional or ethnic dishes. Or better yet, put a reality show spin on the event by hosting cooking competitions or culinary challenges - cake decorating anyone? Charades. Bring back the days of family game night and late-night slumber parties with the classic game of charades or take it a step further and divide attendees in to groups to create and act out their own theatrical performance and let the audi- ence guess the story, book or movie. Dance classes. All you need is a little space, music and an instructor for this one. Since this is a Plan B idea, you can likely skip the rain dance but hip-hop, country line dancing, square dancing and, if your crowd hasn’t had enough already, even “Gangnam Style”, are all fun ways to get the crowd engaged. Bring the outdoors in. If your theme was golf, or even if it
wasn’t, renting a virtual golf game, where participants hit the ball into a screen will drive some fun competition between at- tendees even if there isn’t a beer cart. Take a gamble. Professional dealers and casino equipment
for poker, blackjack, craps, roulette and even slots will turn any event into a festive environment. Sometime all you need to save the day is a little luck. And luckily you thought of Plan B.
MIDWEST MEETINGS SPRING 2013
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