How to Give Your Guests a "Dream Experience" At Your Celebrity Golf Event
Inviting a sports star, famous musician, or actor to your event is a powerful draw. Unquestionably, your guests will look forward to the opportunity to meet their hero in real life, and they will make plans to attend your event, play in your golf tournament, or even visit your trade show booth.
The people who sign up for these events want to feel like they’ve “met” the celebrity. They want to feel like they’ve exchanged some conversation and authentically connected with this person.
But if you’re hosting a celebrity golf tournament where the celebrities are your headline entertainment, that’s a problem.
There’s only one Derek Jeter. You only have three spots in his foursome. If you rotate celebrities at the 10th hole, you’ve got six spots. That leaves at least 48 disappointed people who will not connect with Derek Jeter.
With Masters Champion Bob Golby in St. Louis
That’s what makes the evening events - welcome receptions, VIP parties, pairing parties, awards dinners, and the cocktail time that surrounds them - so incredibly important. This is everyone else’s best chance to meet the celebrity of their choice. Good event celebrities are excellent minglers, and they can glad-hand anyone, tell a quick quip about their career, and patiently sit through hundreds of “you’re my hero” and “I saw you at…” stories.
Everyone’s free to roam the room and, if you’ve got the guts, you can talk to anybody.
Which creates two more problems: one, a lot of people just don’t have the guts, and two, the people that do tend to mob the most famous person in the room. Either way, a lot of people are not going to connect with the celebrity of their choice.
Both the celebrities and the guests need a little help.
As a magician, I have a unique ability to insinuate myself into almost any group at the party, attract a small crowd of laughing and applauding guests, and do some mind-blowing magic and mentalism for the group.
This is important: The magic is a “shared experience” that connects each member of the group to everyone else.
They were all blown away by the magic. Whether they’re celebrities or guests, they’re equally amazed.
And in that moment, they’re all functional equals. The traditional interpersonal barriers drop. They’re not celebrity and golf guest, they’re two guys who just witnessed something impossible.
That means Bob, the soybean farmer from Iowa, can easily turn to Donald Trump, President of the United States, and say “jeez, I can’t believe it, where the hell did those oranges come from?” And Donald Trump will say, “I have no idea… they were HUGE…”
And that’s all it takes to create that moment of connection. Bob’s happy because he can say he really “met” Donald Trump, and Donald had fun not being the center of attention for a minute (this might be a bad example, but you get the idea).
Entertaining VIP guests including PGA Tour Player Jay Delsing and US Open Champion Hale Irwin
In fact, the moment of connection doesn’t have to be one-to-one. I’ve entertained crowds of ten to forty people during a charity golf tournament cocktail parties and after parties, integrating both the celebrities and the guests into the magic. Guests love reading the celebrity’s mind, or having the celebrity read theirs. They love watching the celebs react to the magic, too. Even if they’re one of fifty people in the crowd, they go home saying “I watched some incredible magic with Billy Andrade and Hale Irwin.”
The sense of connection is actually more important than who the celebrity is and what they’re famous for. I know several people who authentically have no idea who our Champions Tour guest at The Masters was, but they enjoyed meeting him so much they enthusiastically looked forward to talking with him again a year later.
By now, you can see the implications. By engaging your guests to your celebrities in a fun and unique way, you connecting people to each other. Interpersonal barriers come down, and people feel comfortable at your event and with each other. They look forward to seeing each other again, and they look forward to participating in your event.
That means repeat players who are ready to commit to your tournament early, the ability to raise your tournament price each year, and a group of celebrities who look forward to supporting your event each year as well.
And, if you’re raising money for charity, there’s nothing as powerful as a group of wealthy donors who feel committed to each other and united in their support for your cause.
That’s a pretty good trick, isn’t it?
Interested in having Mike entertain at your golf event? Check out our golf events page here.
Just released: Mike Duseberg reveals all the “how to” steps to creating events that create sales referrals, and repeat business in his third booklet The Event ROI Revolution: A Planners Guide to Hospitality Events that Create Connections, Build Rapport, and Schedule Sales Appointments. Download your complimentary copy here.