It’s a question that is sure to have been on every event manager’s mind, and with good reason too. Choosing the right talent can make or break an event, and even seasoned industry professionals know that finding talent that is a great fit for an event, within budget and available is nothing less than an art form.

With two National Event Manager of the Year (Agency) Awards and an Event Professional of the Year Award from Meetings & Events Australia, as well as over 20 years’ experience in the events industry, Lateral Events CEO Megan Peters sat down with us to share a few tips and tricks on how to navigate talent bookings in a fast-paced, ever-changing industry.

What to look for in a brief

When a client approaches you with an event or talent brief, Peters highlights the importance of not just determining the budget, but also understanding audience demographic. Aside from the usual pointers like gender, age and occupation, sometimes a bit of thinking outside of the box and extra digging can really go that extra mile:

Try and get an understanding of other events that those audience members might attend. So, if it’s a client whose audience members do the circuit of corporate entertainers … don’t go down the path of ones that you see at awards nights … do a bit of research to see who’s performing where so [you] don’t just wheel out the same stuff that they would’ve already seen.

Lean on a reputable Talent Curator

When an entire event is already on your plate, spending precious hours finding the right talent and searching for their true representative, just to even find out whether they are available or not, may not be the top priority in your lengthy list of tasks. Or, maybe you’re just stuck on who might be a good fit for the vague brief you’ve been given. So, what’s one solution? Peters says calling in some outside help can really save you time and often money too.

Having a trusted curator you can use to assist in shortlisting talent within brief and budget, I would say is very important. There are just so many talent options available and with it becoming increasingly difficult to come up with new and innovative ideas, having a team you can lean on to recommend current and trending talent makes the world of difference. It's also important to ensure that your curator or consultant is keeping you across communications with the talent and that if possible, the contract is directly between yourself or your client and the talent company.

With acta now in the mix, I get the best of both worlds. There’s the personal touch of their talent curation service that helps point me in the right direction and guide my enquiries, however also the added piece of mind that you are talking to the right people when it comes time to book. No more having to try and decipher your way through different websites and different agents. It’s a huge relief.

For more information on acta’s talent curation service – CLICK HERE

Prioritise

As tough as the conversation may be, sometimes clients’ budgets just aren’t big enough to get the exact talent they want to perform at their event. For example, that full band behind your performer will definitely make a big splash with your guests, but it could be a better idea to strip back the performance type to make additional room in the budget for extra bar tab or another meal course. Carefully weighing up your options and making decisions to prioritise particular things over others, even considering things like what kind of event is being hosted, can make a huge difference to the overall outcome of your event.

We work out first the non-negotiables, so things like flights, accommodation, food and beverage … and then, we kind of see what’s left once we’ve done the non-negotiables – you have to spend money on that regardless – If it’s an awards night, vision is probably a primary thing, because everyone is going to want to see who wins the awards and see the content. Entertainment would definitely rank very high in an awards night. But, if it’s a conference with a social dinner, then entertainment’s going to rate a lot lower, and content and vision is going to rank a lot higher.

Manage expectations

Often, there can be more than meets the eye to choosing and booking the right talent for an event. Clients in the corporate and charity spaces don’t always understand the obstacles and red tape associated with the enquiry and booking process, which makes your role in managing what they expect key to a successful event.

I think in terms of booking talent, the biggest challenge is managing clients’ expectations around availability and the booking process. Not being able to hold talent is definitely – and I understand why they don’t do it – but it’s definitely a challenge in the corporate world because corporate clients don’t get that … So, we try and work with our clients to get the autonomy from them to make a decision on the spot without having to go back and forth.

But sometimes handling talent bookings can even be about managing your own expectations and being prepared for anything – everyone in the industry has heard stories about strange rider requests and Peters even has a tale or two of her own:

I had one [artist] going back a long time now, 15 or 16 years ago, that we had to completely strip her hotel room and redecorate it with white décor because she didn’t like colour. And then she did a film shoot in the restaurant of the hotel that I was working at and we went through about 3 or 4 bunches of flowers because she didn’t like them, [and] had to redo the whole restaurant in white and it was quite funny.

So… what does this all mean?

As Peters wisely points out, every event and every booking is different, and there is no “hard and fast formula for that.” It may seem like there is a lot to navigate when figuring out which talent you should book and how to manage that booking, but be thorough, think outside the box and call for help if you need it, and there is no doubt your event will be a roaring success.

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