How you Can Make your Event Stand Out from the Rest!

Make your event stand out from the rest! Need help? Read on...

If you are organizing a school dance, you need to first call a good, local DJ who has some skills and gear.
His attitude needs to be calm, cool-headed, and professional at both the preliminary meeting and the dance.
His gear MUST be professional grade. During the dance, the DJ shouldn't miss beats in the mixes very often.
The DJs sound should not come out distorted, as his amp may overheat and cut out later in the dance.
As a DJ, I recommend getting a look at the prospective DJ's gear before you hire him/her, Which brings me to my next point; looking for good gear in their inventory...

Their Gear:
A few pointers toward Pro gear in a DJs inventory are brand names like: Stanton, Numark, Rane, Crown, QSC, Cerwin-Vega, Peavey, Pyramid (for amplifiers) American Audio, Pyle (for speakers), JBL, Martin, American DJ, Chauvet, Vestax, Technics, Denon, Pioneer, Shure, Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, Sony, Behringer, Tascam, Odyssey (for cases and stands) Maybe Gemini's upper line of DJ gear, the rest of their products are cheaply made to cater to "bedroom DJs" and usually cannot take the rigors of the road. Ask the DJ while you are looking at their gear if you can move some of the knobs/faders on the mixer, the pitch controls on the decks and maybe on some of their gear. If the knobs feel somewhat wobbly, bring them to their attention, they'll probably say that this is normal with repeated use. That's true because knobs are made very tight at the factory, then they'll loosen up after being broken in, so generally don't worry unless they're really loose. Faders usually don't show signs of failure until it is too late. That's why many DJs usually carry extra needles, a crossfader and cables. Sometimes while they are on the road, something will break and it needs to be fixed right at that moment. A cross-fader is no exception to that.

The Crowd:
Always check IDs and search the crowd prior to admission for the presence of drugs and/or weapons. If they have drugs, call the police, for weapons, it depends. If it's a pocket knife (less than 2 and 1/2 inches), don't worry about it ONLY if they're 18+. Check ID in this case... However, the best policy is usually a "holder" policy. He gives up knife, he gets a numbered ticket. In order to get he knife back, he must show his ticket and ID. If it's a gun, hold them and call the cops. As for candy necklaces and glowsticks, I don't really see a problem with them, because they're not a threat in any way. They got a bad rep because of the sometimes mis-informed news media. At a dance, you can sell glowsticks for $1.00 each and make some much needed money. If you plan to go that route, there are usually whole cases of Glowsticks available as "Buy it now" or up for auction on Ebay. I used to be the only one at my school to bring glowsticks because only a few people bring them. At our homecoming dance, two people and myself brought glowsticks. At Wal-Mart, they run about 1.50 each for the 6 inch size. I usually pick up a pair of each color in each size. The addition of glowsticks and skills in the art of 'Poi' can turn a boring dance into something worth staying for.

Space:
A small gym which has only a b-ball court and a set of bleachers on each side is usually enough. At our school, we hold all the dances in the old gym because the new gym is actually too large and thus has a bad echo on the upper bass and treble end on any PA/DJ playing in the room. Power: Many DJs like to see 50 amps at 120/240 volts. Most of the capacity goes for lighting on one phase and amplifiers on the other. An actual DJ setup (decks and mixer) takes a couple amps, as soon as you add an amplifier, you MUST provide its rated amperage plus 70% headroom. A Pyramid PA-800X for example, can draw up to 13 amps (instantaneously) during peak bass hits. The fuse inside is only rated at 6 amps. Moral of this paragraph: install feeder connections and have a Power Distribution Unit [PDU] ready.

Staging:
Staging? How do we get he best sound and atmosphere for our party-goers? Staging is the practice of supporting the show. Any large act will carry roadies? DJs DON'T. That is why the school takes care of staging and the DJ takes care of their gear setup. Select the center/front of the stage, and drop the PDU left or right behind the DJ booth, to ensure clean, safe power. Speakers can be placed on-stage, or if the DJ has turntables (and cant take the added vibration from the speakers) and long enough cables, place them on the floor below the stage, and an additional pair in front of the DJ for monitors. Near-Field monitors make it easier for the DJ to mix, as he can drop the incoming track on the headphones and listen to the live track and match the two together to mix them.

Music:
Most High School attendees listen to whatever's hot on the radio. That's usually Alternative, Country, Dance, Hip-Hop and R&B. I usually play five to seven fast songs and then a slow song, then two more fast(er) and play a dance song off the client's request sheet. Then, I start the rotation all over again.

Lighting and Visuals:
These add a unique touch to an event. Lights can be used as a supplement to the music because a disco [mirror] ball is good for slow tunes and an intelligent light is good for faster songs. Many DJs like to add a pinspot focused toward their gear so that they can see what they are doing. That is because many school dances are dark. Being dark, that allows for a romantic feeling and a party atmosphere, too. I also like to time my lights to the beat of what ever song I'm playing at the time. For visuals, I use Winamp because it has many good visualizations included with it. Simply download the full version to a computer faster than 700 MHz and connect a digital projector to the monitor output. Aim the projector's image at a wall. If the wall is light colored, just let the image hit the wall. If the wall is darker colored, get a screen and place it in the path of the projected light. Then focus/tweak the projector's image on the wall/screen until the colors are balanced and the projected image itself razor-sharp. An alternative to that is letting the projected image hit the stage curtain if the gym also serves as the auditorium (with bleachers on the sidewalls and a stage up-front.) Place the projector by the entrance. You may get the whole wall and part of the roof as the screen. Or: you can aim the projector at the ceiling up toward the front as well. When you place the projector in that way, you may get an image as large as 25ft. X 25ft.

Chillout Lounge:
A good idea because a person can work up a bad case of dry-mouth when dancing. Offer soda, water, and possibly smoothies. For water, offer it for next to nothing, soda for 50 cents, as for smoothies, offer them for around 1.00 each. You can also sell glowsticks in the lounge as well They should sell for $1 to $2.00 each. Have the DJ put a speaker in the lounge so that when a certain song comes on, the crowd can make it back to the floor. The volume should be lower than that of the dancefloor speakers, so that means if the DJ's mixer has a Monitor, Booth, or Zone output, have him use a smaller amp and also run a cable over to the lounge speakers. Thanks to the advent of iPod and associated accesories, it is now possible to use a self-powered speaker (such as a JBL Eon or a Mackie SRM-350) and a FM transmitter in conjunction with a Walkman to broadcast to the speaker.

After the Dance:
The DJ and student council or the sponsor class will cleanup and the DJ will be gone 30 to 60 minutes after the last crowd members are gone, depending on how much gear that has to be taken out to his/her vehicle. Repeat Hiring: If a DJ has done good at one dance, it's a good idea to hire them again. Some DJs have a contract for all the dances for that school year. They'll usually charge the fee for one dance X however many dances there are. An example is if there are 3 dances times 150.00 would be about 450.00 for that school year. Some DJs in certain areas like those around the larger cities will charge more because the school wants a certain DJ, date, and time. Sometimes the school may have to reschedule because they cannot find a open date with a certain DJ company. That sometimes happens when the sponsoring party cannot or didn't find a DJ company who had a good crew or reputation.