Hi,
I am thinking of setting up an event for a business dinner (3-course, evening) along with a celebrity after dinner speaker, probably a sports personality.

I just wondered whether anyone knew what type of company's to target, who they feel would be a good sports personality to give a speach and whether anyone has any thoughts on how popular this would be if it were held in Sheffield?

Any comments would be very useful. Thanks

Hi,

I think that you will find that this is already being done all over the city. Both football teams have after diner speakers evenings or lunches on a regular basis, I used to attend the Sheffield Eagles Rugby lunches once a month with a guest speaker at Baldwins Omega and I have been to a few at hotels throughout Sheffield and the surrounding area.

I think the biggest pull is obviously the speaker, and you want to alienate as few people as possible (some ladies may not want to hear of Rugby players exploits off the field in the 70's), so a comedien is the best bet. The only problem is that the bigger the name the bigger the price.

When you consider the costs of apperance fees,travel expenses, accommodation, location rental, advertising, marketing and day to day business running costs, there is not a huge amount left in the pot.

If you do go for it then the best of luck to you, but please be prepared to spend a few quid prior to the big day.

What are you looking to achieve with the dinner? A networking event? Publicity for a company or cause?
Sheffield could use a livelier business networking scene. Something to rival the Chamber of Commerce dos.
Would be interested to know.

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This idea has come from a desire to work for myself in the future and as I have many years experience in organising events, I felt that this would be the best area to start with. However, I'm currently in the intial stages of looking into this and conducting research to see how popular these type of events woudl be.

I have initially looked at football related speaches by such people as Jack Charlton or Geoff Hurst etc. I have also considered the comedy route too as this would open up the audience much more.
If any of you have attended these type of events, could you give me an idea of what ticket costs are? I am looking to attend one myself to see how they run.

thank you

Sheffield hallam sports and social club does this quite alot around sheffield, they usually have 2 or 3 every month with comedians starting off then a really good after dinner speaker such as someone from the world of sport or a well known celebrity- they even have old gangsters like harry the hatchet who used to work with the kray twins.