Understanding Movie Copyrights

Outdoor movie events are all about fun; getting together with family and friends in the community and enjoying a new film or an old favorite. If you are the one planning the event, though, you have the responsibility of making sure your event complies with movie copyright law. If you have never put on a movie event before, you might not understand exactly what these rules mean and whether or not your event must be licensed as a public performance. This quick guide will give you a basic understanding of movie copyrights and assist you in determining if one is needed for your event.

When you purchase or rent a movie, it affords you the right to view the movie in your own home with close friends or family. What you do not have the right to do is host a public screening of the movie. Copyright laws are in place to protect those involved in the production of films (movie producers, script writers and others) since these professionals receive royalty fees when their work is sold, performed and used.

Who needs a public performance license? You might be surprised at the many types of individuals and entities required to obtain a public performance license before hosting a movie screening. Government run agencies like parks and recreation departments, nonprofits, churches, schools and universities, individuals and businesses are all required to obtain a public performance license prior to hosting a public outdoor movie or other movie event.

What types of events need public performance licenses? You might assume that only events that charge admission must secure a public performance license; but any event, whether admission is charged or not, must comply with copyright laws. There is an exception for movies used in a classroom setting, but the requirements for this exception are very specific and must be strictly adhered to. The movie screening must take place in a classroom setting with the teacher and only enrolled students present, and the movie must relate to the core areas that are currently being studied. The movie must also be a legitimate copy of the film.

Each time you view a DVD you see the FBI warning, but you may not pay much attention to it. This warning is about copyright laws. Many of the royalty fees paid to artists involved in producing movies come from licensing fees, and copyright law is meant to protect these artists and ensure they are fairly compensated for their work. The penalty for non-compliance includes possible jail time of up to five years, and a penalty of up to $250,000.

If you are planning an outdoor movie event, whether you are a business creating an event as part of your marketing strategy, a church hosting an event or anyone else planning a public movie screening; it is best to do your homework and determine if your event requires a public performance license. In most cases you will find that you do need one.

Event Management Can Save You Money!

It's not surprising that event management is a growth industry. After all, an event planner can be the difference between a successful event and one that is not so successful, perhaps even a failure. Remember, events management is fundamentally the creation and development of events, so how could you possibly expect to organize an event better than an event planning professional?

No matter what sort of event you need to plan, consider employing an events management professional. From business events or a weddings, it is worth the investment. Not only can an events planner save you stress and worry, he or she can (despite evidence to the contrary) also save you a lot of money. Wedding planning involves so many things that it can become overwhelming. Not only do you have to organize the ceremony and reception venue, you have to consider the photographer, music, flowers, food, dresses, favors, transportation, and hotel accommodations for guests from out of town.

Wedding planners are specialist event planners who specialize in organizing weddings. They take all the burden of putting on a wedding onto their own shoulders, leaving you to enjoy the day. These specialist event planners learn your tastes and desires and then put together a selection of choices for you to choose from. They also deal with the problems that inevitably arise in organizing a wedding, right down to the last detail. This makes wedding organization stress-free - at least, for you!

Of course, not everyone has to organize a wedding, but even so, there are many reasons to hire an event management professional. Business events need to be carefully planned and if you are entirely responsible for their organization you can find yourself under a lot of pressure. Perhaps you are planning a large event like a conference, a special dinner, a retirement party, product launch, benefit or a corporate hospitality event. No matter what sort of business event you need to organize, there are many costs that need to be considered, such as the cost of the venue, transportation, meals, speakers or entertainers, accommodation, and equipment. In fact, there is so much to take into account that only by employing a professional events planner can you be sure your event will be successful.

Event management professionals are willing to organize events of any size. Their training prepares them to understand all aspects of events management. They are able to analyze the needs of the group who will be attending and then organize all the elements of the event, including logistics and technical details. On top of all this, these wonderful planners attend the event and keep everything running smoothly right up to the end of the event.

The profession of event management is multi-faceted. An event management professional usually has a college degree which usually incorporates studies in public relations, marketing, advertising, logistics, catering, human relations, legal studies, budgeting, design, and risk management. You may be surprised to learn that event management companies organize a wide range of events such as bar-mitzvahs, concerts, fashion shows, grand openings, film premiers, and road-shows amongst other commercial events.

So, no matter what event you need to plan, consider hiring a professional event planner. You'll be very glad you did.

Making Event Management Easy

Event management is the art of conducting events, festivals and shows in a particular and pre-determined venue where the target audience has unifying tastes and interests. A person who is an expert at management science will know and study thoroughly the intricacies of the project he is involved in. He will also know the theme and concept of the event, how to attract the target segment, how to acquire sponsors for the project and how to co-ordinate the different stages of the event practically to make the goal of the event easy to achieve.

A person who has conducted similar events in the past will know the difficulties in holding such an event, what exactly went wrong, what was appreciated by the target segment, what methods were employed to solve the issue and how the event was rated by the public. It is not an easy task and only a person who is not overtly emotional and practical will be able to conduct an event management and get away with it without being scarred.

Thousands of events are held every year, local, national and in the international level. There is no such thing as a perfect event because a number of things go wrong or threaten to go wrong. It could seriously affect your morale and you would be stressed out by the end of the day. For example, if you are involved in event management Liverpool, first identify the nature of the event. Is it a business, corporate, fashion, film, school, award function, celebration, gala dinners, honouring event? Choosing the theme and sticking to it is very important.

There are many companies conducting event management Liverpool and the years of experience they have counts a great deal. So the more experienced the company is, the more they know how to deal with crisis. A course in crisis management and advertising is a must if the event is to be a success. To get the desired results from an event management Liverpool, it is very important that you recognize the audience.

Studying the varying tastes of a changing group is very important if your event is meant to be a success. So invite only those people that have a common interest or the effect is lost. To attract people to an event, proper advertising is required. When sponsors see that the target group is influential, they will be ready to sponsor for your event. People attend an event only if they see it is beneficial to them; to make event management easy, send out feelers to identify your target group.

Most of the time, the client who approaches you for the event will have an idea of what kind of people he wants attending his show. Then the next step would be to thoroughly exploit all the known modes of communication and get the message across. Social networks, e-mails, paper ads, TV and radio commercials, hoardings; there are a number of channels to exploit. Arrange for the caterers, the florists, the electric company, the furniture rental; inform the local authorities, the police, the fire and the ambulance service. When you chart out everything, event management becomes easy. All you need is a little practicality, foresight and a prayer on your lips.

Event Cancellation Insurance - Protecting Your Big Event

The event was the COMDEX convention held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. COMDEX was the annual global IT convention, featuring the newest computers, electronics and gadgets. This was the biggest convention held in Atlanta each year. 200,000 people would attend the convention over four days.

Two days before the convention opened, a category 3 tornado struck downtown Atlanta. The twister tore off 100,000 square feet of roof from the Convention Center and dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of rainwater inside. Local news footage showed water cascading down a big stairway like a waterfall.

COMDEX was cancelled. The financial losses for the event planners fairly boggle the mind.*

What if the show can't go on? The consequences - particularly for a corporation staking big bucks on a marketing event or for an association that gains most of its revenue from an annual conference - can be dire. One safety net is event cancellation insurance, which can protect your event investment against catastrophes, strikes, earthquakes and snowstorms.

Event Cancellation Insurance has been around for decades, and has a long history of protecting special events from conventions, to trade shows, to exhibitions, entertainment or sporting events.

An insured may have incurred expenses all year long preparing for an event but can't afford for an unpredictable event to cause its cancellation. Think of the costs for travel, venue deposits, rescheduling costs, as well as other costs including planning.

Often the kinds of problems that can lead to postponement, cancellation or relocation of an event are out of the planner's control. Look to Event Cancellation Insurance for the kind of coverage needed to protect that financial exposure.

Whether planners should invest in cancellation insurance depends upon how important an event is to an association or corporation financially and what kind of risk it is assuming. If your group event is planned for 50 people, you'd probably not buy this policy. But if 500 or 5,000 people were expected to attend, event cancellation insurance could be crucial to your bottom line.

Sometimes, event planners don't think about event cancellation insurance. They either are unaware that such coverage exists, or mistakenly rely on the insurance of the event venue...like a convention hall. The venue's insurance will help them rebuild or repair. But it won't help the event planners find another venue, or compensate them for the costs they incur or income they lose from cancellation.

Coverage and Cost

The rule of thumb is that cancellation insurance covers perils that are beyond the control of a planner, such as inclement weather, strikes, outbreaks of disease and so on. You can also purchase coverage for "Non-Appearance," in case your event relies on the appearance of a person or group (speaker, performers, player, invited guest). The policy also covers things such as extra expenses for trucks and workers in case an exhibitor doesn't break down his exhibits. What is not covered are lack of planning, low attendance from a lack of interest or poor marketing, or bankruptcy of the planner.

Coverage begins as soon as the premium is paid and usually extends for five days after the event. Coverage purchased well before an event can be a godsend if something happens to the facility where you're booked, as the coverage would cover costs of relocation and notifying attendees.

The cost of this coverage is calculated on a policy-by-policy basis. Every event is different and each has unique risk exposures. The standard costs of this coverage run about fifty cents per $100 of coverage. However, variables like location (areas susceptible to hurricane or earthquake) or season (winter is higher than spring, summer or fall) can push the price up towards $1 per $100 of coverage. So, a $1 million policy might cost up to $10,000 or more.

When To Buy

Event cancellation insurance is usually less expensive if purchased far in advance. Insurers increase the premium rate, theorizing that the closer the event is, the more desperate the planner must be for coverage.

We recommend that you get at least two price quotes before making a buying decision. We also recommend that you review a sample copy of any policy before purchase to determine what is covered and what is excluded.

Then, have a super successful event!

*This catastrophe was entirely fictitious.

The Best Places to Study Event Planning

As the career choices one has nowadays are expanding, so are the variety of institutes where one can pursue them. A very interesting and fulfilling career choice is event planning and like other new humanity subjects, it can pursued at a variety of institutes as well. How does one choose the best location to study event planning? It depends highly on the type of the place where you see yourself working later and of course how much you would like to further your career. A hotel management course for example in institutes located in a city with a wide variety of hotels is a good choice as you will most likely get the opportunity to intern at successful hotels and feel the work place and have an experience even before you are a full time worker.

For example, cities like Las Vegas, Orlando, Dubai, and New York have a lot of visitors every year and have some very fancy and successful hotels to choose from. An institute in these cities would give you the experience of how to deal with upscale and very fast moving clients and guests and lift the experiences listed on your resume. This way even if you want to pursue your hotel management career in a different place after your degree, you will have the privilege of almost a guaranteed job in other places as you have experienced the best already.

Like wise, other types of event management options such as organizing high end parties where every detail is important for the success should be studied in places like Los Angeles with a very high demanding party and business networking scene where you can find quick internships in departments that really make you work hard and prepare you for the best.

Creative Company Picnic Ideas - Turn Ideas Into Rave Reviews

Start With the Basics
Before you let your creative juices flow freely, it is important to know the parameters. There are certain aspects of your company picnic that cannot be changed or altered. Make sure you are aware of any circumstances that might put an end to your best company picnic ideas.

For example, going over your budget might be something that the powers above you would not allow. What is the budget for the event? Another limiting factor will most likely be the location. Planning a company picnic at a location that's hours away, will most likely dampen the highlights of the event. No one wants to drive for hours before a one-day event begins. Consider your location carefully. Depending on the size and location of your company, sometimes the company parking lot can be re-created into surprisingly well put together themes for company picnics.

Another consideration is whom do you want to invite? Staff only, members of the immediate family, or significant others. Family oriented company picnics are a great way for staff to meet families of co-workers. Single or divorced employees can feel a bit out of place at a family event. Overcome this problem by planning activities requiring participants to form groups. Grouping helps to integrate all attendees. Once you are aware of the basics it is time to let those company picnic ideas flow and create the theme.

Creating the Theme - Do You Really Need a Theme?
Company picnic ideas can range from the very simple to the blow-out extravaganza. Having a theme for your company event makes it easier to plan the food and activities. Choosing a different theme each year for your company picnic adds variety, so everyone is anticipating what the theme for this year will be. If there is no change from year to year, the event becomes more ho-hum, hum-drum, and boring.

The theme is one of the most important aspects of successful company picnic ideas. A few popular theme concepts are family-picnic, picnics at theme parks, picnics at state parks, and themes based on the season. For example, the company picnic idea of a fall theme could be coordinated using fall colors for table decorations, balloons, and banners. To further compliment the fall theme consider food and drink to match the season. Activities might include hayrides, tag football, and more.

You can take almost any season, holiday or event and create a theme for your company picnic ideas. Whatever the theme the key of success is to make sure to keep the needs and tastes of your attendees in the forefront of the decision making process.

Making the Plan
There are event planning companies that can assist you with every aspect of your company picnic...even providing you with company picnic ideas. You can choose the theme, and they will take care of the entire event. Everything can be included- food, beverages, activities, entertainment and transportation if necessary.

Choosing a company to provide all the services for your company picnic is often the easiest route to take. You still maintain control over the event and can set the theme, the location, and other specifics. Working with only one company rather than a host of providers makes coordination a breeze.

Final checklist
As with any event, make sure to keep written notes as you plan. It is also a good idea to create and maintain a to-do list containing every detail of planning and implementing your company picnic.

If you choose to hire individual providers, at least one week before the event, make sure you and your committee reviews and completes a final checklist. This ensures that everything is going smoothly. Doing a check one week before the big day gives you time to make sure those last actions are complete, and you still have time to make changes if necessary. For example, suppose you have plans to have face painting for the children. Make sure to contact and confirm that those who will do the painting are still available. This is also a good time to make sure they know exactly when and where to be on the event day.

Contacting every provider and vendor a least one week before the big day will help avoid any problems with set-up and distribution on the day of your event. Make sure to give instructions and confirm date, time, and the specific location (if necessary, within your location for each vendor to appear.

You can create a layout of the location and assign each vendor/provider a specific area within the layout. Make sure each vendor/provider receives a copy before the date of the event.

Enjoy the Rave Reviews
Proper planning allows you to enjoy the event with everyone else. Any company picnic ideas you consider must keep the tastes and needs of those attending in mind. This helps ensure you generate rave reviews and make your event successful.

Don't forget to casually survey attendees after the picnic to get the overall level of enjoyment. This can help with future event planning. Most will be appreciative that they were consulted. Have fun and enjoy!

iPod Or Computer Wedding Event Planner

So you've decided on a DIY iPod wedding. It's a great way to save money and have control of your event. Now you get to have total control over the music and add your personal touch to your big day with an Ipod or your maybe your computer" Maybe you might want to use the worlds largest iPod docking station which I'll talk about later. Imagine no more Cheesy DJ or Bad music selections.

First let's talk about what your replacing... I'm a 30-year veteran DJ & I've seen it all. I'd much rather you hire me but the point here is how to DIY successfully. I'll show you just that. You have to remember not all DJ's are cheesy or play bad music. Sometimes DJ's get a bad rap because the client wanted the cheese and bad music played. Some DJ's can be cheesy on demand or quiet or somewhere in-between.

A good DJ will allow you the options and deliver exactly what you agreed to. When hiring a DJ you typically pay for experience & talent, a great DJ should comply with your every wish and if you're off base they should give good advice and still do what you ask. Things good DJ's do - Line up a wedding party for introductions, tell everyone where to go & when, introduce the bridal party with class and energy, introduce the 1st dance, invite the bride and father up to dance, invite the groom and mother up to dance, introduce the person giving the toast or toasts, intro the person saying a prayer, do cheesy things during dinner i.e. Glass banging invites, entice shy folks up to dance with silly dancing activities, host the cake cutting, garter removal and or announce garter/bouquet toss. and finally coordinate all these events with the venue and the photographer / videographer. If you're going to do this remember not to ask the venue staff to do the things a DJ would do for you. They have enough on their table. Pun intended.

Avoid hooking up your iPod and sound mixer/preamp to a hotels ceiling speaker system. That's even if they let you. It's very easy to blow it up and the repairs are quite expensive. Besides the sound is usually not very good anyway. More on the set up later.

Here's what you'll need to get started: (Everyone has different expectations) you have to decide what's important to you.

1. An iPod or a Lap top computer that plays your music, a Mixer / pre amp, speakers, stands, amplification, microphone, dj effect lights, up lighting, cables and connectors and a friend who knows how to set this stuff up. Oh there are two more options. Rent / borrow a DJ style sound system and have the friend set it up or there is also the option of renting the worlds largest iPod docking station which is basically a gigantic sound system in a box on wheels. It's plug and play and as long as you know how to operate your iPod you're good to go. You can rent this thing at iPodpartys.com , It comes with or without Video/slide show capabilities, with or without a DJ effect light and you can also play karaoke songs on it as it has a microphone attached. It's very cool and novel.

2. A friend or friends who won't mind pressing Play, Pause and possibly someone to make announcements. All who won't overindulge say or do the wrong things and ruin your day. (Microphone control is important)

3. A music/photo montage/video/karaoke selection session with your spouse 2B. Many iPods will allow all of those options.

4. Another session with your friends to add to what you've missed - and to eliminate the songs that may be cheesy in their opinion.

Planning the Cocktail hour

Make an iPod playlist for the cocktail hour.

Will the cocktail hour be in the same room as the reception? If not you'll need to either run an additional sound system (or giant iPod docking station), run a speaker from the set up in the reception room, set up the system in the cocktail room, break it down and reset the system in the reception area or just abandon the cocktail hour idea. I suggest background music for cocktails. Instrumentals work perfectly here. i.e. Non-High energy, mellow songs or even standards like Sinatra, soft rock etc. You may want to mix a little bit of medium energy in during the cocktail hour. You don't want to make to low energy. Make all playlists a bit longer than you would expect, as timing doesn't always go exactly as planned. Have fun with it, but remember that your guests are trying to talk during cocktails.

Dinner

Make a few playlists for dinner...

Playlist 1.

For during begin with a lower tempo and slowly build up the energy by increasing the speed of the music and the energy of the music as the meal moves along. Dinner is usually about 1 hour depending on if it's a buffet or a sit down. Sit-downs tend to be longer. You going to want to see people enjoying the music with feet taping and heads moving as dinner ends. Make your play-lists with extra songs, as it's typical for weddings to run late.

Announcements (If you're going to have them)

If you wish to have formal announcements select someone to act as the M.C. (Master of ceremonies) Have a script for the person/s you have chosen to make your announcements unless your comfortable with that person/s ability to adlib, not say anything that will offend anyone, use clear diction, hold the microphone close to the mouth without cupping it, not speak to long and have the ability to control the microphones use. You may wish the M.C to introduce the bridal party and then the bride & groom. Following this you have to decide when and if you want the following events to occur.

1st Dance, Father/Daughter dance, Mother/Son dance, Toast/s, blessing announcing of the cake cutting, garter removal and or announce garter/bouquet toss. The announcements should be warm, professional and fun. If the announcements are in anyway the slightest bit offensive sounding, it could ruin everyone's fun and the feel of your reception. I suggest you exercise extreme caution here, as this element is crucial and can make for a failed wedding reception if not executed properly. Have someone to operate the iPod for introduction music, as this would be difficult for the MC to do at the same time.

Dancing

Playlists for Dancing.

After or in between your events you may wish for your guests to dance. I suggest you make 2 playlists, one for fast music and the second for slow songs. This depends on how much you want the ipod operator to be involved and how much control you want over the dancing.. Your iPod operator should be familiar with its use. The operator should not be cutting songs off by accident while people are dancing, knowing where to find songs, how to avoid a long space between songs etc. Roughly estimate to play 4 to 6 fast ones and then 1 or 2 slow ones. You can repeat this process until the end of the reception or You can just make one playlist for a fully automated reception.

The order of the songs is important. You want to make sets of songs that build up in speed, beats per minute and intensity. When it gets to a climax, that's when you change to a different genre or go to a slow song. Watch out for songs with long boring introductions, especially long talking intros that will clear the dance floor. If you really want control over the music make many playlists with different types of music. You may want to set your ipod to crossfade. Remember that can cut off the end of songs that have a pronounced ending. Normalizing the sound on your iPod also makes for less high and low volume songs, which can be annoying.

Video and more

If your iPod has video capabilities you can have a slideshow presentation with music, have it scroll through photos of days gone by, scroll through photos of the ceremony. (Provided someone with a laptop can do this for you quickly or make it on a second iPod). Maybe play music videos or even some karaoke A wide screen projector and screen can be added to the giant iPod docking station, party / dancing lights, wireless microphone, they can even add larger sound or set you up to use your computer on there system. They also can rent you a full DJ rig with very powerful sound.

IPod Tips

Sound for dancing sounds better when it's closer to the dancing area. Have someone line up the guests for introductions and make sure whoever is being announced for whatever event is actually there. (Having M.I.A.'s looks bad and wastes time).

Have someone coordinate with the folks providing food service and camera/videographers. Nothing is worse than someone saying go get the food when it's not ready yet, announcing a toast when no beverage is available or having the 1st dance missed by the photographer or worse yet a missing spouse.

Have someone control the microphones use. If you have a free for all on the microphone you may get screaming, talking over songs, bad language or just way too much conversation by to many people that can hold up the events. Especially when alcohol is served.

When programming your music decide if you want to just please yourself or do you wish to also please your guests. Many times they expect the silly stuff to have fun. A musically themed event is nice for creating an atmosphere however it can be boring if not programmed with the guest's fun in mind.

If your going to pick people to do the announcements and music, choose people whom don't mind spending time away from the fun of the wedding. Don't you or your spouse try to run all this yourself. Remember it's YOUR day and you don't want to be stressed out or not remember / experience the joy of your wedding day.

Conclusion

If this seems all too much of a production, I'm available for a fee, in Orlando to make your announcements or I can just come out and professionally DJ the whole event for you. Just remember a reception is a PARTY. Have fun!