Thank you to everyone who has been giving us feedback MINI Monte Carlo Night - we really appreciate you taking time to tell us what your experience was like. We are ecstatic with how well everything went. The positive feedback is overwhelming!

We learned a lot in our first year about what worked and what didn't (which is always the case with an inaugral eventl). Some issues we were already aware of, but they couldn't be avoided due to the uncertainty of how much interest there would be in the event. After the amazing response we received from the crowd that attended this year, we are quite optimistic that more tickets will sell and sell quicker next year - which will make things much easier to plan. We were working with too many unknown factors to take risks this year. If it weren't for our incredible sponsors, we wouldn't have been able to do as much as we did this year.

With the first year under our belts, we very much look forward to next year and plans have already commenced. We would love to hear what you loved, liked and wish could have been different. Please share! (Please be nice though! )

Okay, here is our take on things from seeing the evening as planners:

Location - Nothing has been decided yet, but we are looking into a different location. Although the Carolina room has great atmosphere for this type of event, it was a bit crowded and warm, but we had to keep things smaller for the first year. It was a difficult balance to strike to find the minimum amount of tickets we needed to sell and not make the price too high.

Timing - Not completely sure what to do about this. There are pros and cons to the various time slots we can have the event. We don't want to interfere with Midnight on the Dragon or make it too late of a night for people driving home the next day. Thursday concerns us that too many people might not be there yet. Of course, this may be different with the Dragon being extended to starting on Wednesday instead of Thursday now. We are 100% sure we don't want to have it Friday - that's Brew Swap night, which we don't want to compete with, and we definitely aren't willing to miss attending the Swap ourselves!! I know we can't possibly pick a night when there will be no issues at all, but please share your opinions on this to help us make a decision.

Room temperature - The AC was cranked but it was still too warm. We also had a lot more people than anticipated (not that we are complaining ) - Hopefully a larger venue will address this issue. The Brew Swap had 250 people and the room stayed comfortable all night in the Rec Center so that lets us know it is possible.

Number of Gaming tables - This was another issue with having to limit our budget. We would have loved to have had more tables (and definitely plan on this not being an issue next year) but we were constrained by not being able to risk our budget and we didn't want to make the ticket price too high for those who were attending. Plus we had more people than aniticipated due to ticket sales at the door - which was awesome - but we wish everyone was able to easily get a spot to play.

Length of Gaming & Starting Time - This was another toughie. We could only have a maximum time of 2.5 hours of gaming because the event company required a 1/2 hour for cashing out winnings for raffle tickets. We can have more gaming time, but it is a large additional expense we could not afford our first time out. We went with starting at 8:30pm to maximize playing time for the majority of participants since a lot of you were coming from the banquet etc.. We are working on a solution for the people who arrived before 8:30pm - so they don't have to stand around with nothing to do. A lot of what was factored into timing, besides budget constraints, was fitting in the event between the banquet and Midnight on the Dragon. We didn't want anyone to not be able to participate in either because of our event.

Tickets - Most likely all tickets will be sold in advance. It was very important to have tickets at the door this year because it helped us to meet our minimum so we wouldn't lose money but it will be sooooo much easier not to have to do that in the future. (As with all the other events.)

Registration - We will have our event open with registration next year. We had hoped to do so this year, but couldn't take the leap of making a committment until we had our much needed sponsors.

Drink Tickets - Because of our limited tab for an open bar and this being our very first event, we weren't quite sure how to handle this and maintain a handle on our budgeted tab. Our fingers are crossed to be able to just have an open bar next year, but if budget doesn't allow for it yet, then we will handle the tickets differently, perhaps giving everyone two tickets when they check-in or something like that. We were, however, very pleased that we were able to have an open bar for almost 2 hours for our first year.

Swag bags - Again, due to unknown factors, we had to decide on a number of swag bags and go with it. We wish we could have guaranteed a goody bag for everyone, but we couldn't take a risk by investing in extra bags (or asking our sponsors to) that may not have gotten passed out, so we went with our total pre-registrations. We would have loved to have had more items in them, but I think we did quite well for the first year. Next year we may just give them out during check-in. We just wanted to extend people the option of carrying it around all evening or picking it up when it was time to leave. Most seemed to prefer having it to carry around and using it for their other items like t-shirts.

Programs - I made way too much of those. It didn't occur to me that couples would probably only want one of those between them. What did you all think of the programs by the way?

Snacks - Not sure what we are going to do with this area yet. I felt like we weren't very clear about letting everyone know that the snacks were complimentary or else everyone was still full from dinner - we had a lot left over. We are also considering possibly doing hors'd oeuvres next year.

Prizes - From what we could gather, these went over VERY well. Again, thank you to our incredible sponsors for such wonderful raffle prizes!

50/50 - We are guessing you liked this - the winner took home $248!!

Door Prizes - Everyone seemed to enjoy these. We might try a different format next year. We tried the white board this year so we wouldn't interrupt gaming throughout the evening.

Chip Cups - We think those were terrific! Everyone seemed to get a lot of use out of them. Thank you Craven Speed!!

DJ - Was he awesome or what!!!! This a no brainer - we are going to do our best to get him again next year. Thank you to Cooper Flags for making the DJ possible!

Dealers - They were just all too cool! We couldn't be more pleased. They were so friendly and entertaining. Kudos to our event company!

Hmmmm, is there anything else? If yes, please share!

Pamalalala

 

Looking at my Craven water cup right now. Loved the dj and the trivia. The fastener on the program was one of many Great theming touches. We were scrambling for tickets Saturday (thanks Steve!!!), and will surely pre-register for next year.

The only drawback was the bottleneck near the door, but I'm betting that won't be a problem in the future.

 

I think you guys already got it under control. It was an unbelievable awesome event. We had a great time. I think you nailed your issues and are already working hard to make it even better next year.

You guys did an awesome job and with what you had to work with, there is no way I could even complain. That is a major event and maybe it was a little warm and crowded and hard to get drinks, but there was so much positive I don't even remember those little things. It was freakin great. So psyched for next year.

 

Location, IMHO, should be the rec room where the Swap was held. It can hold a solid 300 people comfortably and with the A/C cranked the temp stays reasonable.

Timing, I'd like to see it on Thursday night but that's only because I'd like to get to bed at a decent hour on Saturday since we have a VERY long two day trek home next year (two 14 hour days of driving). I don't care how late we're up on Thursday night.

Otherwise it looks like you know what little things need to be altered.

Rock on guys!

 

So glad you had a good time. Thank you for noticing the fasteners on the programs!

Yes, we will get that figured out - the bottleneck was tough to avoid with the layout of the venue. Plus we needed to make sure everyone received all the information through the check-in process. A lot of this will be alleviated when all the tickets are pre-sold too.

 

For a 1st year event everythign went really great & it sounds like you guys already have a handle on the few minute things that need to improve. The only thing I too would like is if it moved to Thursday after the welcome dinner

 

Thank you jrudy101! We're so happy you are looking forward to next year - we are too!!

Thanks Matt! We soooo appreciate your support and advice. As you know, we are definitely looking at Thursday as a possibility. Having MOTD start on Wednesday should really help.

 

Thank you bamatt

That's two votes for Thursday!

 

Hmm, just a thought... Someone on a separate thread suggested the Welcome Dinner be more of a mixer event with buffet table or finger foods. How about a combination event, Mixer event followed by the Monte Carlo night right after that? Maybe even allow folks to move from one to the other over the course of the evening???

Just a thought...

In any case, this year's event was a blast. Thanks to all the volunteers and organizers for all the hard work!

-Ed

 

Thanks again Pam (and Steve... and the rest of PITTSTOP MINIs... and all the Vendors... )
I like the idea of this happening on the same night as the welcome dinner. That was the "Quietest" night for us by far, after the dinner there wasn't anything going on other than the mixer.

 

That's a VERY interesting thought!! Hmmmmmmm, this idea needs to be explored! Thanks Ed

 

Like everyone has said before, this was one GREAT event!!! The small problems will get ironed out, I am sure. As for the timing, I will again put my vote in for Saturday (or Friday if the BrewSwap should change days). One reason is purely selfish, I can't get there until Friday, but even if the MOTD starts next year on Wednesday, I still think Friday night and Saturday have the largest numbers of attendees and the bigger events should be on these days. We will be there next year when we can and will enjoy whatever events are available to us, hopefully Monte Carlo Night will be one of them.

 

Regarding Thursday... keep in mind that next year MOTD starts on Wednesday. Yep... it's being extended 1 extra day.

So any conflicts with the welcome dinner have suddenly just evaporated!

 

Another thought - several have said a problem is the late night on Saturday when a long drive home is on tap for Sunday sooo, lets move the Midnight On The Dragon Run to Thursday, have the welcome dinner on Thursday (or Wednesday?), another "Meal" event (BBQ, Chili CookOff, etc.) on Friday followed by the BrewSwap, the farewell Dinner on Saturday (At least an hour earlier, maybe even a farewell lunch? with a bit less drag on speeches!) followed by the Monte Carlo Night as a final event. Still leaves another night open (either Wednesday or Thursday) and has the biggest events scheduled on the two biggest attendance days (Friday and Saturday).

 

Thanks for the ideas jaydeestude, but I don't see various events moving around. For instance, Midnight on the Dragon has become the traditional last event.

Everything will get all worked out. Hopefully with the event starting on Wednesday, there will be a lot more people there on Thursday, so that becomes an option. Thank goodness we have a year to figure this all out! LOL

 

2 things are gonna help Monte Carlo Night 2 out quite a bit... the first one was EXCELLENT and therefore word of mouth alone will increase the number of registrants. AND... registration should be open from the get-go and everyone will see it on the Event Planner

 

It WILL be open along with everything else, and on the event planner!

 

I thought the event came off strong! I really enjoyed the DJ. just one complaint, needed more ladies to dance with. Tee Hee Hee. Look forward to attending next year.

 

Well this lady was too busy playing Hold' Em to dance. Any prize winning that involves me leaving the poker table will be missed prizes for me (especially since there was a line of people waiting to snag my seat )

 

Yeah, we got onto a Blackjack table and didn't move for fear of loosing our place An issue I'm sure we won't have next year

 

More tables would definately help. I tried a couple of times and couldn't get in to anything except roulette. All in all it was a good time.

 

Yes, there will definitely be more tables. We should be in a position to be able to afford more next year.

 

Dude, that's funny, we were trying to find an opening at the Roulette wheel

 

I won more on theme song trivia than I ever could have elsewhere. I didn't win anything but had a great time!

 

I had a awesome time the only complaint that I have is I had a friend that was gonna go for a ride in my car while I played and he was gonna come in a watch for a few minutes before the midnight run and he wasn't allowed in to come over there with me because he wasn't registered.. I think that is a little silly its not like he could play anything so why was he not able to come in with me?? other than that it was really fun!!