Poker Night – For Your Corporate Event

A corporate poker or casino event should always be thrilling, fun and well staged, writes Aran Wood. That much is obvious. Here though, we investigate what you should be looking for in your poker or casino event provider, give you some clues about the questions you should be asking before you sign on the dotted line and, perhaps most importantly, give you an insight into how corporate poker and
casino events can help you achieve your business objectives.

You need to stage an event for whatever reason and you’ve heard that poker and casino nights can be fun. They are fun; and the great thing about poker and casino games is that they take literally minutes to learn and everyone can quickly get on with the serious business of having a great time.

So you google ‘corporate poker’ and, sure enough, Google returns 17,000,000 search results. Out of all of those companies, which one can you trust to ensure your event is a success and your objectives are met?

Like any service provider, you need to look for longevity of establishment and, ideally, testimonials. Anybody can say they run corporate poker events - but there’s more to it than turning up with some cards, tables and chips. What you want is proof: does the event provider already work with clients with similar interests to your own organisation? How many events have they staged? Can you tell from the way their website is written that they know what they’re talking about in a businesslike and coherent manner? And when you call them, ask about some of the events and what the outcomes were. If you like the answers, you’re probably already onto a winning partnership.

To make a big impact and achieve your goals, presentation is everything. And serious poker and casino event companies will be able to ensure your brand messaging is at the forefront of everyone’s minds by, for example:

- Supplying high-quality branded cards, chips and tables - even the dealers’ and croupiers’ clothing can be emblazoned with your company  name and logo
- Helping you produce banners and signage
- Bringing cribsheets and ‘hand-ranking’ guides for beginners
- Experienced, Fun and entertaining dealers
- Providing well-presented event assistants
- Arranging catering - whether you want a finger buffet or a sit-down dinner
- Booking entertainment such as comedians or live music
- Buying suitable prizes in line with your budget
- Sourcing a suitable venue.

In short, you should be looking for an event provider that can take the brief and run with it, leaving you to get on with the rest of your job. Look at your list of prospective providers again: which ones can do everything you want - without you having to call round a whole range of other suppliers?

Let’s take a look at just some of the applications for corporate poker and casino events.

Product or service launches
If you’ve got a big noise to make to your potential or existing customers, colleagues or journalists, a poker and casino event is ideal. Of course, your launch need have nothing at all to do with gaming: these events are simply a tempting vehicle to get your message across. There’s a big difference between asking people to come and listen to a launch presentation and inviting them to an evening of fun,glamour and entertainment. Which sounds more tempting to you?

Charity and fundraising
Poker and casino events are simply perfect for raising money and promoting the values of your cause. You want people to feel good about giving and have fun while they’re doing it. Buying more chips is just so much more fun than putting money in a bucket. Again, if your event concerns fundraising, make sure your event provider understands how to raise the optimal amount of money (without being pushy). There are, for example, ways of structuring poker tournaments and briefing dealers so that people can be gently - almost subliminally - persuaded to give slightly more than they would do ordinarily.

Team building
In most work environments, there’s a certain amount of competitiveness. The trick is to harness this emotion in a constructive way. Poker, by its very nature, is a competition and can be used to engender new relationships within the company, introduce different people from different departments and so on. Poker tournaments can also be structured as team events so departments can play against each other with an overall winner scooping the star prize or trophy. If you’re running a poker or casino event for team-building purposes, it might be an idea to let one of your contacts from HR know what you’re doing. Here’s why: poker has a remarkable tendency to make people exhibit their, shall we say, true behaviour. It can be enlightening…

Just plain old entertainment
Summer do? Christmas party? Targets exceeded? Poker and casino events are such fun, they’re a great way to entertain your colleagues or staff. They’ll thank you for it. (The author of this piece knows of a corporate poker event that happened six months ago and they’re still talking about it.)

A quick note on the law
Without giving you chapter and verse on the Gaming Act, if your poker or casino event is run correctly by a knowledgeable and reputable provider, you’ll be well within the law. In essence, people can’t play for money and it’s against the law to take money from the players (a rake, as it’s known) unless the premises has a casino licence. What you can do, is put up prizes for, say, the top three to five players at the end of the evening.

To sum up, for your event to go well, you need to pick a reputable event provider with an attitude that’s as brilliant as their gaming equipment. A little research and a couple of phone calls to people in the know can go a long way.

Aran Wood is a freelance writer and marketing consultant.
He can be contacted on 0759 028 1736.

For more information on Corporate Poker please visit www.poker-vision.co.uk