Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

It’s common in the Monroe County area for charity and non-profit organizations to request a local, regional or state celebrity or a politician to attend a function or event as a special guest or a speaker. The intention is that more people will attend the event in order to meet or hear the VIP. While a celebrity appearance is no guarantee of higher attendance, there’s certainly enough established precedent for the committee chairs to give it a try.

But I admit, I find it hard to keep a straight face when a someone tells me, in all seriousness, something along the lines of, “… and I’m inviting Gov. Jennifer Granholm to come to our fundraiser.”

Go ahead and send out all the invitations you want. But I won’t include a celebrity appearance as part of your announcement in The Monroe Evening News or on MonroeTalks.com until you’ve got those details confirmed.

Even my teen-age daughter knew better, when one of her committees tasked her this summer to prepare an invitation for Gov. Granholm to attend a dinner.

Yes, the governor was expected to be in the area on the specific date. But, as my daughter said while she was scripting out the letter, the committee members knew the chances were slim that the governor would show up. (She didn’t attend.)

Now with very little thought, it’s easy to come up with list of people who are the local celebrities.

But you know what? It’s hard to book those A-list VIPS. They’ve got jobs, kids, college classes, council meetings, travel commitments, personal appointments … and everybody else’s invites to consider.

So here are some tips if you are planning an event and want to invite someone special:

• Don’t just consider name recognition. Look for a guest star who is a good fit for the demographics and interests of your audience.
• Before you contact your VIP, plan out what you’d like from him so he understands what he is being asked to do. A five-minute speech? The invocation? A photo session? Presenting an award?
• Contact your prospective VIPs very early in the planning stages for your event. Publicity for most events needs to start five or six weeks ahead of time to build up an audience, and you’ll want any celebrity appearances confirmed before the invites and fliers get distributed.
• Look for up and coming talent in addition to, or in lieu of, the usual local and state celebrities. You’ll find lots of prospects in the pages of The Monroe Evening News. In particular, pay close attention to the Community Page, Classroom Page, Business Page and Arts & Entertainment sections to read about who just released a new book or CD, won a scholarship essay contest, won a singing contest, received a heroism award, led a successful volunteer project or earned a promotion in their industry.
• The success of your event depends on a lot more things than a celebrity appearance. You need to have an entertaining or interesting program regardless of who is attending or in the audience. There’s always a chance that your celebrity will need to back out at the last minute – can your program stand on its own merits?
• Be a gracious host or hostess. Your celebrity might only be able to visit for a half-hour rather than attend the entire two-hour program. That’s fine. They still get the appearance credit, and you still get the publicity and word-of-mouth. In case the guest does need to leave early, have a thank-you card, flowers or gift ready to be presented at a minute’s notice. And show hospitality as appropriate with arrangements such as mileage reimbursement, dinner ticket for an escort or a charitable donation to their favorite cause.