GrooveBoston

April 11, 2013

A week or two ago I wrote about the Starbucks seminar we had here in BU SHA. Now it's time for a different hospitality segment: event production. Well...sort of. GrooveBoston is not a production company nor an advertising company. Instead, they create "visceral" experiences. (That's their tour name right now.) The director of Groove Boston, Bobby Dutton, came to speak to my Intro to Events Management class yesterday. Some of you may have seen the neon green bracelet picture on my Instagram or Facebook!

So just to recap a bit on what he talked about...

If you just go to GrooveBoston.com, you may think what they do is put on exciting college dance parties. It's not wrong, but it's not all they do. They have professional DJs who mix electronic dance music, but they use state of the art technology and have got down their profession to a science (90 minutes is the perfect length of time for intense music and dancing) to create an experience that "bypasses your brain and goes straight to your senses," hence their tour name, Visceral. There is so much planning that goes into their event before the 3 or so hours that the attendees see.

Bobby sounded so passionate and knowledgeable about what he does. He explained that during the initial planning processes, universities and colleges are hesitant about paying $70k to host a huge party without a live performer. But when he starts explaining all the thought that goes into it and why they do things the way they do, people relax. Also, it turns out that students get more hyped about these parties than a live performer, even if they are popular. On average, about 85% of the student body attends GrooveBoston events.

Bobby explained that they go through the event itself, the set up process, the safety issues, risk management, etc. Many things that the client may not realize is of concern until much later down the road. It's even more impressive that they only have a handful of full time staff members that handle everything. One thing Bobby told us that I found amusing but is very helpful is that GrooveBoston asks the university how many students are sent to the hospital on an average weekend. Then they take that number and multiply it by 85%. At that moment, they ask "So where can we park X (number) of ambulances?" It scares the planning committee and school officials, but it's much better to be proactive and possibly over-prepared rather than passive and have to figure out how to get ambulances there while the event is taking place.

Bobby was probably my favorite class guest speaker so far. He was so engaging and talked with us instead of at us. I don't even go partying, but this class made me really want to experience one of these "legendary dance parties." BU has done events with them in the past, but unfortunately they never made it a campus wide event nor did they have any this year. If you're reading this and know the right people, definitely get them to bring GrooveBoston to Agganis Arena! I'll even volunteer to help set up! Haha, I can hope right?

Oh and for my non-Boston friends..don't let the name fool ya. GrooveBoston can hold events around the country and are moving toward Canada!