You're Inviting Me to Your Secret Party?

That’s right, I am officially a celebrity. Or at least I felt like one at Micha Weinblatt’s Crooked Monkey photoshoot party last night. My invitation? A t-shirt in the mail. Then I received a brief email revealing only the essentials: come by yourself, bring the t-shirt to get in, don’t share the address with anyone and the entrance is on the side with the brown bricks. Talk about secretive; I was thrilled.

The taxi dropped me off in front of what looked like an abandoned warehouse; I headed down the alley and gave my name to the bouncer in black. As I pushed open the large warehouse door, I felt like I had stepped into a scene from Sex and the City. It opened into a dark room lit with neon lights, a few more steps and I was inside: white walls, a dj, and DC’s best dressed party people. Oh yea, a posh looking boardwalk photo booth, an open bar with sweet Crooked Monkey specials and graffiti artists designing on our t-shirts.

I was very impressed with Micha’s ability to transform a single room into a surprise experience for his guest just like he had turned his t-shirts into an image that celebrities wear and young people want. I met other DC media entrepreneurs including the blogger behind The Glamazon Diaries, Kate Michael who runs the online talk show, The District Dish and blog, K Street Kate, and Kelly Fredrick, founder of the e-newsletter CityShopGirl.

As I watched graffiti artists transform everyone’s invitations into a take away gift and a group of young professionals shotgun a redbull infused with vodka, I thought about just how much detail and creativity went into this event: from the sponsorships and guest list to the entertainment and design. Micha has been running Crooked Monkey for four years and it was inspiring to celebrate his amazing success, the launch of his new line and the future of his business. With a great idea and passion, he made it happen. I look forward to inviting him and DC to celebrate just like that for College Media in 2011. No details yet—it’s a secret.

Photos courtesy of Pamela Lynne Sorensen and Katelyn Gowling.

How to Throw a Party! (Not your usual keggar)

If I could only list three…

1. Venue
2. Audience
3. Take some shots

1. The venue is everything. Choose either the hottest spot that your audience will want to go out of their way to be at or go with their already favorite, close by, Friday night spot. Not only is location key but you also want the venue to reflect the type of party you’re looking for: small and intimate vs. open space and very social, sitting drink in hand or body on the dance floor? This may seem obvious but last year I reserved a space and a night that turned out to be a little too low key for our Spring Break Escape party. It’s easy to assume that the party will form itself.

2. Your audience demands a certain type of party. Ask them what they want. Then deliver.

3. This could also be seen as bad advice. BUT if you planned your event right, formed a committee, delegated responsibilities, and had a great turn out then why not party too? And hey, if your party sucks, throw one back and cheers to next years’ event…event planning wouldn’t be a profession if just anyone could throw a great party.

Condoms and Candy: College Media Throws the Ultimate Hot Summer Party

Events, events, events. That’s how College Media is going to build a relationship with its audience. And so we did! Last Thursday we threw a hot summer party at Santa Fe Café. And yes, it was hot.

About two months ago I knew we were ready for another party. There’s just this itch I get where I’m like “I need to make sure college students know who we are.” What was so cool was that now that we’re on our sixth issue, students did know us. 

So to get started on the party planning, we chose our location: College Park. It's where we have the largest, most concentrated audience, so it's the best place for us to set the standard for our event reputation.

Anna, our PR director, took the reins on running the show: recruiting a talented committee, brainstorming themes, meeting with our contacts at Santa Fe, organizing sponsors for our raffle giveaways (from Rita’s Italian Ice to Hanami sushi), shopping for decorations and setting the script for the night. Anna rocked. I’ve planned our events in the past and to pass the responsibility onto someone new on the team made me realize that we’ve grown. I felt confident that Anna could pull it off from her enthusiasm right from the beginning.

So how did the party turn out? We had awesome decorations, all fitting with the red hot theme—red lamps hanging above our table, red candies, red mardi gras beads, a sick looking red banner (props to Ruben for making that happen) and the red hot chili pepper piñata. Yes, I said it, piñata, filled with two very important resources for students: condoms and candy. The health center on campus even donated the condoms!

Students were wearing the beads, signing up for the raffle and getting to know College mag. There were probably over 500 students there. The best part—we had College mag photographers there as paparazzi for the night. This was key for tying in our website, so now the night’s evidence is online at collegemagazine.com…pretty sneaky eh?

As I’m taking a College magazine shooter with our editors, Brian, Ashley and Ian and then another College mag shooter with Anna, and then another with, wait, I can’t remember, I thought to myself, wow, I may be out of the college scene, but this is great party.

Stay tuned to my post on the key to event planning.