It was great to be back with a great group of people for their annual holiday event.  Last year Nash and Rob asked me to DJ their joint Christmas party at the Platinum Club/Gold Dust Casino and it was a rockin’ good time.  We were not able to go back to the Platinum Club because it is being renovated and made smaller and no longer can hold more than 100 people.

So this year they moved the function to the St. Albert Royal Canadian Legion.  It had been years since the last time I was here and to be honest I could not even remember where it was located.  It is a very nice room with a easy load in for equipment with no stairs and only about 40 feet from the front door was the room I was playing in.

Boston Pizza shut down their locations early on a Monday so that everyone could attend the event.  Everyone started showing up at around 7 pm and we were in for a good time. 

Nash and Rob were there to greet their staff as the came in and everyone was very well dressed and in great spirits.  The fun things about doing a function like this is the staff.  As they work in the hospitality industry and deal with people all the time most of them have very out going personalities which makes for am ore interesting evening.  I have been an Edmonton DJ for so long that sometimes one forgets how much fun it can be to be a disc jockey.  Allot of people remembered me from last year and were very friendly which makes for a better evening for me.

Dinner was served around 8 PM and it was a very simple yet very good buffet.  Even tough there were not tons of items the ones that were there were very well made and there were a number of people that went back for seconds.  The only thing I would have liked to have seen would have been a better section of deserts. 

Dinner was followed with door prizes and Tyler took over the MCing duties and he is hilarious.  He has a great personality and can really think on his feet.  I think he could make a great DJ someday if he wanted to. 

The dance then followed and all I can say is wow.  Right from the first song the dance floor was full almost the whole night long.  We even had a couple of people sing a karaoke songs.  It is often easier to DJ a function like this as you have a narrow age range and therefore a narrow list of songs they generally want to dance too.  There were lots of requests and lots of dancing and everyone had a good time, and if you didn’t it was your own fault.  I sure hope to be back next year.

Please see the attached video for so highlights of the evening.

It has been 2 years since the last time I was with my friends at Davis and Company and boy it was good to be back.  The weather outside was frightful and inside it was delightful with great food and friends coming together to celebrate everyone’s favorite time of the year.

The Hotel MacDonald is the most beautiful venue in Edmonton at the best of times; and this time of the year takes it too a whole other level.  The Christmas decorations are so well done and really add to the look of the hotel.  So much so that people were taking pictures of each other in the lobby in front of the great tree and reindeer.

As an Edmonton DJ it is always great to DJ at the MacDonald Hotel and tonight was as good as always.  Over the years I have gotten to know some of the staff and on this night a couple of people were there that I have gotten to know.  A special thanks to Chris for his unequalled service and helpfulness.  He treated me like a guests rather than the hired help and that says a lot about him and the MacDonald Hotel.  If other venues could understand this it would server them well as I have customers that call me and ask what is a good venue to hold a function at and I always mention the Mac.

Dinner was served just about 7:30PM, which was a little late, because of the poor road conditions making people run late getting to the location.  Dinner was, simply put, amazing and I could not have had another bite as I over did it.  It was great to sit a relax and enjoy a great meal and my dinner guests were great to visit with and we had a great conversation over dinner.

After dinner we had a couple of quick speeches and the highlight of the night was 2 things.  1st was the slideshow and video presentation that the interns put together.  There were a few slides shown on the screen that were doctored in Photoshop that had everyone laughing as the interns made jokes about the office staff. 

The video presentation followed the slideshow and that was a spoof in the TV show “the Office” and boy was it funny. It must have taken days to put that together and was one of the best presentations I have ever seen and all I can say was the bar has been set high and will be hard to beat.

The 2nd thing was the “Family Feud Game” where 2 teams were picked and competed against each other to answer a few fun questions about the staff and partners based on how well they new each other.  This was very well done and the MC did a great job of preparing the game in advance.  I will be sure to recommend this to other companies in the future.

The dance got started about 10:00 and it was just like old times.  Since I had been with this group before and had a good understanding as to what they liked and that was a good starting point and we were able to hit the ground running.  There were lots of requests and everyone just seemed to cut loose a little and have some fun and relax, something we all need to do once and a while.  What I love about the Hotel MacDonald is the atmosphere in this room.  With a great look and feel and add in great lighting control you can really set the tone for an inviting dance floor where people will want to be.

Please see the attached video for some highlights of the day from “Edmonton DJ” 

December 19, 2009 – Edmonton Corporate Christmas Party for WIKA Instruments Edmonton

It is great to back with WIKA again this year to do their Christmas party.  They are a great group of people that like to have fun.  In order to elevate a party to a higher level we decided last year that we would add in a couple of games to make things a little more interesting.  Corporate functions can be a bit of a challenge as the employees bring a spouse or guest and since they don’t really know anyone they can feel a little out of place.

My goal is to add in some activities that help to break the ice and get everyone to relax a little more so they intern enjoy themselves and stay a little longer.

Last year we decided to play “golf”.  Simply put everyone that comes get a chance to go golfing and every time you sink a putt (best of 3) you get entered into a separate draw then everyone else.  It went over very well last year and everyone lined up to play and it was great fun as everyone cheered and sometimes booed for the person putting.  We decided to leave the golfing in this year and see what happens.  The funny thing is that I think that it was better this year than last year and that is because people knew how it worked and it was so much fun as people that never really golf came up and gave it a try and when they sunk a putt everyone cheered and it was ton of fun.

For dinner we played a game to pick the table order. Santa Bingo is a fun game that is more luck then skill but is better then simply picking number out of a hat.  The fun part was the ribbing people where giving me as we did the game as there was a lot of banter which turned out to be a lot of fun.

Dinner was very well done at the Radisson Inn.  The Radisson is a really nice venue to hold a function at, but is one of the hardest venues to get equipment into and out of.  Also, with the dance floor at the opposite end of the room from the entrance to the room make it even a longer distance for an Edmonton DJ to have to move their gear. Also, the room is quite nice but is in need to painting and a little T.L.C. to keep it current and maintained.

After dinner we played 2 quick rounds of “Name that Tune” and this was great fun as everyone was involved and engaged making it a lot easier to do.  I had a volunteer run my computer which really sped up the game and me running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

The highlight of the night was when myself and 2 managers and the president of the company performed a rewritten version of “Kenny Rogers – the Gambler”.  We did a rehearsal before dinner and that went off without a hitch and we had an almost flawless performance but we all had a little bit of the nerves.  I think the 4 of us had more fun doing this then everyone watching.  I think it is great to see management step outside the box and have a some fun.  I hope we can talk everyone into doing this again next year.

We finally started the dance about 9:30 and we had people on the dance floor the whole night thru.  It was the ladies that really got the ball rolling with some line dances and top 40.  We mixed in a few slow songs, as anyone can dance to a slow song and by 12AM we had a good core group of people left and I played their requests and we had a great time.

Please see the attached video of some highlights of the day from Edmonton Disc Jockey.

The Nisku Inn has 2 rooms (1 Bigger and 1 Smaller) and the smaller room seats about 120 people which was perfect for the Amen Construction Christmas Party.  The day began with a bit of challenge as it had snowed quite a bit through the night and with a little bit of wind led to some drifting which made it very difficult to get my trailer out of storage.  It is always important to give yourself a little extra time when it comes to traveling at this time of the year and today I really needed that extra time.

To make matters a little more challenging, when I arrived at the Nisku Inn the front doors wore not working forcing me to load in a small side door that had a small step which was not helpful when it came to moving all of my equipment.

With all the small things happening I had just enough time to setup my show.  The doors opened at 5:30PM and I was ready at 5:20PM.  I have played in this room before and what was better this time was the placement of the dance floor.  It was right in front of my location which was exactly where I wanted it to be.  Last time the dance floor was about 20 feet from where my table could be placed.

With the weather causing everyone a few problems our evening ran a little behind schedule as we waiting for people to come.  Dinner started about 1/2 hour late which was just fine as the staff at the hotel rolled with the punches and worked around what the customer wanted.

Dinner started about 7:30 and we had a little fun picking the tables based on who was dressed either in Christmas colours or had on festive attire.  The food was very well made and there was a very nice selection of items including porgies which are generally a crowd pleaser.  The only thing that would be a little better would have been using both side of the buffet line but only one side of the table was used therefore, taking twice as long to put everyone through the buffet line.

Just after dinner the owner/president of the company said a few words about the past year and was looking forward to 2010 with new contracts coming up that will put Amen Construction in a good place next year.

What I really like about Amen Construction is that they are not only colleges but friends and family.  Everyone gets along and is there to relax, kick back, and enjoy themselves.  As an Edmonton DJ I consider myself pretty lucky to do what I do.  It is a great honor to be invited back year after year by the same company.  I am lucky to work with companies like Amen as they are the reason I am still doing this and hope to be back next year… in Canmore.

A special thanks goes out to Lynn and Bob as they are great dancers and break the ice for everyone to enjoy themselves.  I wish they could come to every one of my parties as they have such positive energy and are genuinely great people.

Please see the video below for some highlights of the night from an Edmonton Disc Jockey.