Thread: Double-booking of events

I need your input!

How should an event producer who has already advertised their event for 5 months and spent a lot of time and money handle it when another producer decides to schedule an event on the same night in the same town? The attendees would be the same target audience and there's not a lot of this target audience to go around in my town.

What to do???

Do you think it is OK for producers to overlap events on the exact same weekend? What if the said producer is notorious for doing this over and over to many established producers in the area?

Thanks.

has anyone spoken directly with this overlapping producer? perhaps the local producers can work out a schedule for next year that is compatible for everyone? i assume you book your venues far in advance?

we have a lot of overlapping events in so cal. too. its hard in saturated markets, but a little communication can go a long way. good luck!

The way I feel is that there are only 3-5 weekends in a month, and only 12 months in a year.

If it's possible I will try to avoid booking on the same day as another event...but in reality it's usually just not possible.

You never know what the other dancer's personal life is-maybe she has other bellydance gigs, it's her sister's birthday, or her boss' retirement party, maybe the venue was only open on that day, or maybe other dancers in the show can only perform on that day.... When it comes down to it, we have to make decisions on what is best for *us.*

I don't know that a lot of the people that come to my events also go to other events. A lot of the people at my events are family, friends, coworkers, bandmates and band fans -a very small percentage are dancers.

I think we have some set rules on Bhuz that aren't always tested and true. One of them is the don't-have-an-event-on-my-day rule.

If this other performer felt she was damaging your event by having hers on the same day, she'd also be risking losing patrons to yours. I just don't think that's the thought process behind picking days.

Hi Sadiyya!
I think a lot of people just don't take the time to look at the local event calendar. I know that you always post your events and do your homework.

What to say about this?! If she knows about your event, then she doesn't care. If she doesn't know about your event, it might be too late for her to change it. I think it is worth asking her if she was aware of your plans. If she is ugly about it, then you have your answer. If she is nice about it and changes, you can let her hand fliers out at your event.

Good luck.
Sandra

We have a prob here in the area with that alot. Where I lived before we all checked in with each other every quarter via email just to check dates and clear up issues beforehand, maybe you can make an email list of all producers and start the same process?

Someone who is new to an area might not be aware of recurring events. Or someone who doesn't know about resources for locating events in his/her geographic area might not know about recurring events.

Although not new to the geographic area, I was new to producing events in 1998, the year Mom and I began planning our first MED festival for 1999. One of our biggest concerns was to position the festival so that we could avoid overlapping with other events. Although I was aware of a couple of recurring events, the only way I knew about others in the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area was as a member of MECDA (Middle Eastern Culture and Dance Association) -- without that information, who knows what might have happened?

As Eshe posted, it isn't smart to overlap events -- especially if they are the same type of event and would draw the same audience -- because each would lose out. I can't imagine that somebody with any business sense would do that purposely.

I generally begin planning my various events 9-12 months in advance, but I don't announce them immediately, mostly because I often need to firm up details. That can mean that something else could slip into that date before I advertise my thing. I have several times (but not so much with Market at the Casbah) discovered other events in my larger marketing area occuring on the same date as my event. What's a producer to do?

Although I think it would be extremely difficult to do, I'd try to think of some way to visit with the other producer and talk dates.

For example, is yours a recurring event? Is the other producer's event also recurring? Are there other recurring events in your target area near your dates? Perhaps suggesting that you all pick an approximate time each year, then contact each other to verify dates, is a good idea. Over the years I've had a few producers call me, knowing that my festival is usually the first or second Saturday of April, to confirm dates with me before scheduling their own events. I'm always impressed.

Good luck with this, Sadiyya!

Deborah

Originally Posted by casbahdance

I can't imagine that somebody with any business sense would do that purposely.

Oh! I can...
a certain "professional" in our BD area regularly does this. She's done it w/ regards to both mine and other's events. Gets away w/ it because she is very marketing saavy, better funded, longer established and well known. She has also hooked up w/ artists/performers in complimenting genres, learns what she can from them - then undercuts and competes against them for those types of gigs.