Organizing an Interactive Show for 18 Guests: Advice Needed!

[Humble Beginnings]

Yeah!! just confirmed 18 yes for my shoe on Saturday. I wanted to ask if you think this is too many people for an interactive show. I was going to do the warm caramel nutty brownies. Not sure if this will work. also after my show she has a passion lady coming in so I need to keep it short. Was thinking of having the brownie already baked or start baking as guest come in. Please any advice would be appreciated haven't had such a large crowd before.

 

[Jessamary]

Wow...18 people in a shoe. Are you hosting for the Old Lady herself?

 

[candiejayne]

I think I would pre prep everything, including mixing up the batter before hand. You can have it in the oven while they are checking out the catalog then you can have the brownies out of the oven, finished up, and serve them as you are taking orders.

 

[Curlyone]

Wow, I am kinda having the same issue.:love: I have 2 ladies doing their show together and they will have between 25-30 people. I am going to have all the recipies done ahead of time. The only thing that I am going to have them do "hands on" is a Banana cream brownie recipe. I have set up a table with all the new fall products and have used the ideas from the Holiday 2008 guide to gifts & entertaining. I am also doing a garnishing demo.

Wish me luck! Not feeling too good today (head cold).

 

[Humble Beginnings]

Wow...18 people in a shoe. Are you hosting for the Old Lady herself?

oops...lol. You can tell I'm excited just by my typos

 

[Humble Beginnings]

Wow, I am kinda having the same issue.:love: I have 2 ladies doing their show together and they will have between 25-30 people. I am going to have all the recipies done ahead of time. The only thing that I am going to have them do "hands on" is a Banana cream brownie recipe. I have set up a table with all the new fall products and have used the ideas from the Holiday 2008 guide to gifts & entertaining. I am also doing a garnishing demo.

Wish me luck! Not feeling too good today (head cold).

Good luck, can't imagine a crowd like that and not feeling good at the same time.

 

[BigJohn]

I am doing a fundraiser open house for a Local Humane Society on Sunday, we have 28 confirmed guests, I am making 2 Pumpkin Trifles ahead of time and will be garnishing them at the show. Good luck!

 

[cookingwith_tara]

My party on Monday had 18 people! For me it was chaotic - no one really listened, they were doing their own thing, and NO ONE wanted to help. But as I've heard many times before - every show is different! GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[colegrovet]

I had a hostess who was worried about her show, not having anyone there, she invited 15. They all showed up and most brought friends!! there was 22 people there in a small townhouse.. I was happy for her that they all showed but when they kept coming with their friends, I was freaked a little.. FYI, the show was $1,100... so she was thrilled!!

 

[susanr613]

I was just going to post on the same topic! I have a show tonight with at least 20 people coming, right down the road from Carol in Schaumburg. We are doing 2 recipes - the cranberry turkey wreath and the black forest trifle. Both are supposed to be interactive. So....I'm thinking I should let people choose what they are more interested in, then let them figure out who will prep and who will read the recipe and coach.

Oh, and several people from home office will be there too, as the host is my friend from home office. No pressure or anything!!

If you have done an interactive show with lots of people, any and all advice is appreciated!

Thanks and good luck Carol!

 

[Humble Beginnings]

Good luck with the show tonight Susan. Update tomorrow if you can & yes please keep the advice coming everyone!

 

[bsaxman]

I also am having a large crowd - about 27 confirmed for my show tomorrow afternoon! Yikes! We are making the Raspberry cookie Napoleons things, two batches ahead of time and one will be our demo recipe. I am also bringing the Turtle Candies for the guests to try, but I am really struggling with how to run the show - I am trying to think of a game to play, I saw something about the "Wish List Bingo" on another post, and I really liked that idea alot but I'm not sure how well that will go over with such a large crowd. Anyone else have any other game suggestions, or any ideas on how to "run the show" so to speak??? Any advice would be appreciated! This is my biggest show yet...

 

[jcsmilez]

Wow! A lot of big shows lately, that's wonderful! I have 18 confirmed for a Power Cooking show tomorrow. I am a little nervous about doing all three recipes with that many people; I figure we can split into three groups to prep each recipe? No advice here other than to have everything out, washed and ready to go... any other advice greatly appreciated.

 

[Humble Beginnings]

Upate:
Ok note to self. Big shows are not always that great. Alot of noise, talking over people no one really cared what I was saying, sales at 164.50. I feel bad for the host. She did a lot to get everyone to come and was so excited and right now all I can give her is 15.00? I'm going to see if she can get one more order to get to the next level. Overall not only because sales were low but it wasn't a lot of fun. I like the smaller shows where people are more involved. On a brighter note I did get 3 bookings. Host rebooked for March and I played the envelope game and got 2 more bookings. Yeah plus with people that love PC.

 

[jcc1023]

How are you guys getting such great attendance? My last 3 shows have been very low in guests. The host has done OK with outside orders, but I'd really like to boost attendance at the show.

 

[Sheila]

I did a demo for 22 guests as one of my first 4 shows. They wouldn't all fit in the dine-in-kitchen and chairs went down the hall & into the living room. So many missed out on what was happening. The show was $918 in comm. sales.

I then helped my director with a show she had with 21 guests. We did 3 interactive work stations with 3 different recipes. Since it was "choose which one you want to work on", everyone jumped up to try & get the recipe that interested them the most. That show closed at over $1,200.

Since seeing the interactive show, I encourage all my hosts to do them now. They seem to get a better response from the guests and it shows when the guests check out. Being able to put their hands on the product, or have another guest brag about how much they love _____ product, really helps. I coach my hosts to go off the RSVP's. I like to have 5-8 people per recipe. So a show of 15 would be 2 recipes. 20 guests would be 3 or 4 recipes. So far, I've only had one host refuse to do the interactive show (ex-consultant) and her sales were pitiful!!! There were 2 guests who talked the whole time and refused to participate or listen.

 

[Humble Beginnings]

I completely agree on the interaction part. However the condo was about 800 square feet and truthfully there was no where to do it.

 

[Humble Beginnings]

How are you guys getting such great attendance? My last 3 shows have been very low in guests. The host has done OK with outside orders, but I'd really like to boost attendance at the show.

I mail out the invites for my host. I have her give me a list of 40 names and then I do reminder calls and emails. This may be what did it but ultimately I know she was very excited about the show and if the host projects that to her guest they WANT to come.

 

[bsaxman]

Update: Saturday show went great in sales - over $1000.00! Lots of people showed up with friends! I couldn't believe no bookings though! But when the guests were checking out they were STILL adding things to their orders! Lots of people doing Christmas Shopping!!! I asked the host if she thought it would be ok to give everyone one last courtesy call before we closed the show on wednesday to make sure they are okay with everything and to check again to see if they did want to book their own show! I'm hoping to get at least 1-3 bookings... so, we'll see. All in all I"m very satisfied with the sales and the host is still getting more outside orders!

 

[Humble Beginnings]

Wow how great is that! I was hoping mine would be like that trying to hit level 2 for sat. Good luck they sound like a great crowd so I'm sure when you give them a call someone will book.

 

[bsaxman]

I hope so! I had the same problem though throughout the show everyone was chatting away and such, so only the people who volunteered to help actually got to see what was doing... but i did bring some extra veggies and such and encouraged others to play with my tools if they didn't get a chance to, or if there was something they wanted to see that we didn't use today! That did increase sales because I noticed alot of the guests purchased what they touched!

 

[Curlyone]

Update on my show from Sunday. It went great. :thumbup: The 2 hosts got lost coming to my house. So they were late getting their recipes started. We had 3 done prior to the guests coming and 1 that I did interactive. I let them eat first and did a garnishing demo while they were eating. Then after they finished eating we went thru the cataloge page by page and we played the Got It Love It game along with them reading the Did You Know stickers that I had placed on some pages in the cataloges.

1 host wants to become a consultant (my 1st!!! Yeah!!!!) and I am waiting on her to decide what she wants for her free products. The other host will finish collecting orders on Friday. So together they will have a $1100+ show and 8 bookings.

I didn't have trouble with people talking too much since they were wanting to get a ticket from both games that we were playing. And 1 host was helping to keep the noise level down:love:. 30 people in my living/dining room and 1 hubby of a guest and their children in my den watching the Cowboys game. It was a long evening for me, but one that I consider very successful.

I sent out the invitations for my hosts and I did all the reminder calls. I also offer an On Time prize and I gave my hosts incentives for outside orders or bookings prior to their show ($20 in free product if they have 7 orders >or= $300 or 3 bookings, they get the $20 in product after I have done the 3 shows, if they only got bookings). The host that will be a new consultant sold over $400 in products prior to the show date. She did an awsome job.:love: I really host coached them to reach some goals using their wish lists. :sing:

Also, I have found that since I go thru the catalog page by page, my sales have increased. I have most of the food prepared before hand and let the guests eat first. I then have their attention because their mouths are full and they are eating and watching me do my demo's. (thanks to Raebates:love: for her outline on a no interactive show). These are the only things that I have done differently and I now have reached SAT for all the free products. :balloon:
I can't wait to see what the new year will bring!:angel:

 

[avelissar]

For those of you who do the Warm Caramel Nutty Brownies, do you actually chop up the chocolate morsels in the food chopper? I made these over the weekend, and found the chopper didn't do to much. And if occured to me, they would simply melt regardless.

What do you think?

Andrea

 

[Gina M]

Andrea - I skip over the chopping of the morsels and it works just fine!

 

[pampcheflisa]

For those of you who do the Warm Caramel Nutty Brownies, do you actually chop up the chocolate morsels in the food chopper? I made these over the weekend, and found the chopper didn't do to much. And if occured to me, they would simply melt regardless.

What do you think?

Andrea

I usually buy the mini chocolate chips and skip the chopping part!!