A corporate DJ gets asked to do a surprising number of things that are not DJing. Some we are glad to help with in a small way. Most have a professional whose whole job it is, and the event is better when that person is hired. This is the list, with who does each thing instead and how we work alongside them, written so that a person building an event for the first time can see the whole shape of it and not find out at 5:00 PM on the day that nobody ordered the lectern.
What we do, so the rest of the list makes sense
We provide the DJ, sound scaled to the room, wireless microphones, light mic work, a planning call and a timeline coordinated with your planner and venue, lighting as an add-on, and a certificate of insurance to the venue. One person, with backup equipment on site. That is the whole of it, and it is on the services page in more detail. Everything else on an event belongs to someone else, and here is who.
What we do not do, and who does it
Event planning and day-of coordination
We do not plan events, manage vendors, run the timeline or coordinate on the day. We will tell you where the DJ rows belong on your timeline and we will keep to them, but someone has to own the whole sheet, and that is an event planner or a day-of coordinator. For forty people in a restaurant's private room, the venue's events manager plus you is often enough. For anything with a program, several vendors and a client in the room, hire a planner. A good one will hand us a run of show that already has the cues in it, and will be the person we look to for "go" all night.
Hosting and full MC work
We do light mic work: welcomes, calling the room to dinner, introducing a speaker, reading a name, opening the floor. We do not host. A full MC stays on the mic all night, runs games, works the crowd, fills silences and carries the energy of the program on their voice. That is a different skill and a different person, and when an event needs it, hire an MC. We work alongside them constantly: they take the handheld, we run their walk-ons and stings and keep a bed under them, and we agree the cues in advance. The distinction is spelled out in light mic work vs a full MC.
Staging, rentals and production
We bring our own sound, and a DJ table if the venue does not have one. We do not bring risers, a stage, drape, truss, backline or a stage manager. If the CEO needs a platform and a lectern, that comes from the venue or from a production or rental company, and the same company usually brings the power distribution for it. When a production company is on the job, we treat its audio lead as the boss of the room's sound: we tell them what we need at the DJ position, we take their feed where they want us to, and we sound-check on their schedule. Working with the AV team covers how that split runs.
Video, screens and projection
No screens, projectors, LED walls, confidence monitors or playback. When there is a video in the program, the AV team plays it. The one thing we care about is where the video's audio comes out, because a video that plays on the screen with sound from the AV rack while the room is listening to our speakers is a video nobody hears past the third row. We ask on the planning call and confirm it at sound check.
Photo booths
We do not bring one. Photo booth companies do, with their own attendant, printer, backdrop and power draw. Two things to coordinate: they need their own circuit, not ours, and they should not be placed on the edge of the dance area, where the flash and the queue cut the floor in half. Ask the venue for a spot near the bar or the entrance.
Lighting design beyond the add-on
We offer three lighting add-ons: Small Venue Lighting from $450, Room Up-Lighting quoted per room, and Intelligent Moving Heads quoted per event. That covers a dance area and a room wash. It does not cover a lighting design: a programmed show, a logo gobo, pin-spots on centerpieces, a stage look for a keynote, or anything that needs a lighting operator through the night. That is a lighting designer or a production company, and when one is on the job, our fixtures stay out of their rig. Do you need lighting is the plain version of when the add-on is enough.
Décor and florals
Nothing on the tables or walls is ours. The one thing we ask is that décor not be placed directly in front of the speakers. A tall arrangement or a step-and-repeat parked in front of a speaker cabinet does a surprisingly good job of muffling it, and the far table is who notices.
Permits and noise variances
Outdoor events on public property, street activations and some rooftops need permits, and some neighborhoods have amplified-sound rules with cutoff times. We do not pull permits. The venue, the planner or the agency running the activation does, and they should tell us the sound limit and the cutoff in advance so we can plan the rig and the last song to meet them, rather than negotiate them with a community affairs officer at 9:50 PM.
Live musicians
We do not provide a band, a saxophone player for cocktail hour or a percussionist for the floor. If you want live music for part of the night, book the musicians, and we will coordinate the handoffs, share the sound system where it makes sense, and cover the breaks, which is usually where a DJ and live players work best together.
Catering, bar and the venue's own staff
Obvious, but worth writing down, because the DJ is often the vendor standing nearest the planner when a question comes up. We will tell you if the catering captain looks to be running behind, because it affects when we call dinner. We will not solve it.
How to use this list
Take your event and walk it from the front door to the last guest out. Everything a guest sees, hears, stands on, eats or is handed belongs to one of the roles above. Write the role next to it. Where you find a blank, that is a vendor you have not hired yet, and the earlier you find it the cheaper it is to fix. Where you find "DJ" next to something that is not music or a microphone, ask us. Sometimes the answer is that we can help in a small way, and sometimes it is the name of the person who does it properly.
What you can count on is that on the day we will know the other vendors by name, we will have spoken to the ones our work touches, and we will take our cues from whoever you have put in charge of the room. Send the date, the venue and the headcount through the contact page, along with any vendors already booked, and we will tell you where we fit. We reply within 24 hours.