Entertainment That Fits Your Goals, Audience, and Brand
Planning a corporate event or celebration involves more than just booking a venue and sending out invitations – it’s about creating an experience that aligns with your company’s culture and goals.
Music helps set the tone, whether you’re organizing a low-key networking reception or an all-out celebration.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose the right DJ or live music for your event, including identifying your entertainment needs and asking the right questions during DJ service interviews.
Understand Your Budget
Important corporate events often come with sizable budgets to manage, but it’s still challenging to book every service you need without compromising quality.
Your first step is to plan how you’ll spend your event budget, and how much of that should be dedicated to music. Keep this number in mind as you consider other services that can influence your event’s cost.
Define the Purpose of Your Music
Unlike wedding DJ services, where the object is to get guests dancing and having a good time, corporate DJ services tend to be a bit more subdued, serving as the emcee who keeps your event flowing and playing background music during dinner, cocktail hours, or between presentations. At other types of parties, an enthusiastic DJ may be just what your team needs.
Before you choose DJ services, decide what role you want your DJ to play based on your goals for the event. Knowing what you want will help you during your search for the perfect DJ and emcee for the evening.
Settle on Your Event’s Theme
Outlining the theme and ambiance you want at your event is the next step. Keeping your theme top of mind will help inform your decisions about food, invitations, and decorations. Your music should also match your theme, which may mean blending a DJ and live music.
Consider these ideas as a starting point:
- Elegant fundraising gala: A live jazz trio or string quartet plays in the background during dinner and serves as entertainment with a livelier performance later in the evening.
- Outdoor family picnic: A DJ plays family-friendly pop hits.
- Milestone celebration: An energetic live band, corporate DJ services, or a blend of the two, will get your team excited about their accomplishments.
- Company holiday party: A live band puts their spin on festive hits in one ballroom, while a DJ masterminds a high-energy dance party in another. It’s a holiday choose-your-own-adventure where you’ve created a musical win-win scenario.
Interview Potential Corporate DJ Services to Find a Good Fit
After you’ve settled on the basics of your event, it’s time to start talking to your options to understand how they plan and approach a corporate event like yours.
Pro tip: Start the screening process by ensuring each company’s DJ services fit within your budget and are available on the day of your event. Next, enter any prequalified DJ services into a comparison matrix using their answers to the following questions.
- Are you licensed and insured?
- Do you have experience with corporate events? (This is an important question because many DJ services do weddings most frequently.)
- What types of events do you typically perform at?
- Have you ever done themed events or branded experiences?
- Do you have references or testimonials from past corporate clients?
- What genres or styles of music are your DJs familiar with?
- Can you customize the playlist to fit our company’s culture?
- How do you handle guest requests?
- Can we provide a do-not-play list or specific must-play songs?
- Do you offer live music options, like a live band, instrumentalist, or vocalists? Can you combine DJ and live music performances?
- Do your DJs serve as MCs for announcements or special segments of the celebration?
- What equipment do you provide (sound system, microphones, lighting, staging, dance floor, table)?
- Do you offer projector screens, photo booths, or other interactive extras?
- Do you need access to power or have specific space requirements?
- How do you address technical issues? Do you have backup equipment?
- How long will you perform, and what are your break policies?
- How early will you arrive for setup and soundcheck?
- Do you coordinate with event planners or venues directly?
- Can you fit in with our event’s dress code?
- What is your policy on eating, drinking, and interacting with guests during the event?
- What is your pricing structure (hourly, flat-rate, tiered packages)?
- Are there additional fees for travel, overtime, equipment, or setup?
- What is your deposit and cancellation policy?
- What makes your service stand out from other bands and DJ services?
Select Your Top 3 and Weigh Your Options
Using your comparison matrix, choose your top three candidates for live music or DJs. These candidates should fully meet your event requirements and expectations for professionalism.
You can further drill down to your top choice by calling the corporate event references that they provided when you met with them. If they don’t have reference contacts to provide, read their online reviews on Google or Yelp to get a good idea of what you can expect from them.
Pro tip: People are more likely to leave online reviews when they felt they had a poor experience than when they felt they had a good experience, according to a study by software company Zendesk. Carefully read reviews and look for patterns in complaints, which could indicate an underlying problem. A one-off bad review shouldn’t dissuade you from choosing a DJ service.
Book Your DJ or Live Music
Now that you’ve found the right corporate DJ service for your event, it’s time to book them and reserve your spot on their calendar.
dj Maestro Brings the Magic and the Entertainment
For your corporate events in southern California or northeastern or central Colorado, dj Maestro offers professional DJ services, live musicians, and photo booths.
With more than a decade of entertainment experience at events of all kinds, dj Maestro will pair you with the ideal DJ or live musician based on your event theme and type. The result is an evening of entertainment just as you’d imagined it.
Tell us about your event or party in our brief online form to start the conversation.