The Perfect Host: Indy’s Jim Cerone Lives Up To His Title

“He’s a gentleman and a scholar.”  That’s a  phrase you can’t use too often anymore and probably why Jim Cerone stands out from the crowd.   I’m sure being 6ft. 4 also helps the cause.

Cerone is the only  certified Wedding Entertainment Director from Indianapolis and one of the finest special event performers in the country. Need some more street cred?  No problem…  (or as Jim likes to say, “My Pleasure.“  Cerone was recently elected to serve as Indiana’s President for the International Special Events Society.

This past week, Jim hosted an exclusive  business conference at the luxurious Conrad Hotel.  The V.I.P list of attendees were treated to three days of top-notch educational seminars from some of the best and brightest speakers on the circuit.  I’d love to reveal the line-up and what we all learned, but then you’d see a pop up window saying that your computer will self-destruct in 5 seconds. What I  can divulge is that MMP’s social and corporate clientele will appreciate what we implement in the coming months.

To earn the reputation of The Perfect Host, you’ve really got to be firing on all cylinders as a professional and be:

1) Someone who not only picks you up from the airport, but comes inside for an hour just so you can watch the extended time and shootout of the U.S Women’s Soccer Championship game…

2) Someone who continually asks “is there anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable” when a 104 degree heat-wave hits town…

3)  Someone who personally guides a walking tour along the gorgeous canals in the morning for those who like to exercise and see the sights…

4) And Someone who prioritizes his life by making time to sit down and eat with his lovely wife, Rosie, and play with his well-mannered sons, Jimmy and Joey, at the pool even though he has a formidable list of type A over-achievers to  coddle for the week…

With sincere gratitude and a humble tip of the hat, I offer kudos and congrats to The Perfect Host… my dear friend, Jim Cerone.  -mp

 

Hot Town, Summer In The City: The NYC “Life Is Good” Bike Tour ’11

Once again- Tony, John and I tuned-in to our favorite radio station, WKIP (We Keep It Positive) and rode our bikes 35 miles to Brooklyn just to have a slice of Margarita pizza at Grimaldi’s.    This year- we were joined by my good friend and co-creator of the fictional feel-good frequency, Mike Walter.

It was sunny and 87 degrees in the big apple… this song kept playing in my head throughout our excursion. Everybody was outside doing their thang; running, walking, praying to trees, fixing the roads, sight-seeing, playing chess like they do in one of my favorite movies of all time, and lots of folks playing a little hooky.

As always, the highlights of the ride revolved around the food and the company.  Our friend, Terri, who couldn’t make the ride but joined us for breakfast at Le Peep, recommended  “The Spinnaker.”  It’s a delicious egg-white omelet with spinach, bacon, mushrooms, chives, cheese and tomato.  Yummy! The day was off to a great start.

Mike featured the trip route on his blog, so I’ll just focus on the pizza and the pics.

There’s something about Gramaldi’s home-made mozzarella, the perfect crust, and a red sauce so nice it should have a crayon named after it...  that will keep me coming back to Brooklyn on my bike year after year.

4 slices is usually just what the doctor ordered at the 17 mile half-way point.  But this time… John and I raced up the Manhattan bridge right after lunch…  that fourth slice wasn’t doing me any favors.       No unnecessary drama ensued, but note to self: next year you may want to wait another 15 minutes before challenging anybody to a race.  Especially someone like John, who is a ridiculously-strong rider and spins 8 days a week.

Throughout the trip… we joked, laughed and got personal.   We saw “every kind of people” and enjoyed a fun, alternative workout.

We all agreed there’s no doubt that being outside-  soakin’ up a sunny day & just livin‘, is a very good indication that Life- is indeed good.    See ya next year!    You are welcome to join us.   -mp

 

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WeddingWire.com Publishes Marcello’s Latest, “7 Ways to Bring The Wow & Have The Best Wedding Reception Ever!” on Wedding Aces

I’m honored and delighted that the Wedding industry mega-site, WeddingWire.com, has featured my latest article “7 Ways to Bring The Wow and Have The Best Wedding Reception Ever!” in their exclusive Wedding Aces portfolio.

The WeddingWire network reaches over 8 million people each month via their impressive online social network that includes; Martha Stewart Weddings, Wedding Bee, and Project Wedding.

Wedding Aces is an online community that offers advice and tips for engaged couples via articles and blogs from experts in the Wedding industry.

The 7 Ways article highlights some of the best Wedding professionals in the New York City metro Area as well as several unique ideas that can make your event an exceptional experience.  I wrote the article for engaged couples that are like many of MMP’s clients who feel that the entertainment, ambiance and hospitality are a priority.  They demand dramatically different results from what they’ve seen and they are willing to invest accordingly.

A high resolution pdf of the original article can be viewed & downloaded here.

If I can be of service in anyway to help you Bring The Wow and Have The Best Wedding Reception Ever!, please call 973-366-9776, text 732-547-1677 or e-mail mmp@mmpentertainment.com to schedule a design session.  Best wishes! -mp

Special thanks to the Wedding industry rock stars who gave me permission to interview them for the piece and to share their excellence with the world.  Jason Jani,  Peter Merry, Martin Hardy, Greg Lassik, John Arcara, Jim Cerone, Alan Berg, Mike Walter & Andy Ebon.

And to Sonny and Jeffra from WeddingWire.com, my sincere gratitude for including my work on their incredible site.

Grace Under Pressure: Robbie Britton Impresses at ArmDjs 4.0

If you’re in the middle of producing a jammed packed two-day business conference and a curious squirrel somehow finds its way inside the hotel’s transformer- which subsequently blows up the transformer, causes the entire hotel to lose power- and obviously sends the little varmint to an early grave…. what would you do?      Some people would panic, some would start to make excuses and then some people, like Robbie Britton, would keep their cool, inform the attendees of the back-up plans, and then proceed to get a generator from their personal work vehicle to restore power to the essential audio/visual components within the hour.

As luck would have it, seasoned professional speaker, Rick Brewer, was on stage when the outage occurred.  Without skipping a beat, Rick continued his insightful presentation sans microphone and power point slides.  Robbie and his crew got the power restored in time for Rick to wrap up his excellent marketing advice regarding the psychology behind designing  appealing package options for your clients and to show a highly impactful video clip that gets me every time I see it.

That afternoon, I had the chance to sit down for lunch with Rick and Tom Haibeck, author the book, Wedding Toasts Made Easy.  If you’ve ever been to an elegant reception, gala or intimate dinner where the best man or person giving the toast was…  let’s just say… less than stellar- to put it nicely, that’s the reason Tom’s book has sold over 100,000 copies and people like Regis Philbin used it to prepare for his daughter’s wedding. After Tom’s presentation,  I bought a case of his books (that Tom was gracious enough to autograph) and couldn’t wait to give a signed copy to the next bride and groom that I met with.   This past week, I had a consultation with Jackie and Rody, who just hired me to Emcee their wedding reception for July of 2012.  They mentioned that the Best Man and Maid of Honor might want to propose a toast so I gave them a copy for each.  Look for Wedding Toasts Made Easy to be featured in an upcoming “Marcello Recommends” article.

As always, I gave Jackie and Rody a copy of The Best Wedding Reception…Ever! as well.  Peter Merry, TBWRE’s author, was also a featured presenter at the Armdjs conference.  Like his book,  Merry revealed some unique ideas that we can pass along to our engaged couples with regards to personalizing the  entertainment and tastefully highlighting traditional moments.

David Louis, who flew all the way from Hawaii to join the Tennessee roster, introduced a genius concept that I’ll be incorporating very soon to assist the 1/2 of MMP’s newly-engaged couples that usually need more help than the other…  David created a Groom’s Workshop.   There’s tons of information and resources out there for the brides, but not so much for the grooms.  If you’re a groom-to-be and would like to know… “What do I do now??!!” after you make an awesome proposal that’s worthy of a bazillion hits on youtube…  contact us at 973-366-9776 to schedule a private workshop.   And if you’re a bride who wants to sign up your future hubby so he doesn’t screw anything up, you can call us too and we’ll help you sign him up. These workshops are complimentary for our clients and simply considered part of the customer service level that MMP clients can expect when working with us.

Fellow Wedding Entertainment Director’s Guild board member and author of Customer Service A to Z, Larry Williams, went pretty deep into the finer points of customer care and hospitality during his session.   It was quite evident that he practices what he preaches…  His good friend and mentor, the legendary Dick Clark, has unfortunately been under the weather lately.  Larry arranged for several of us to record video get well cards for Mr. Clark to help raise his spirits. Larry knew that a situation like this required more than a generic Hallmark card.  It was a very classy and thoughtful gesture.

The ArmDjs conference gave attendees numerous ways to go above and beyond the public perception of the norm and the status quo.  Industry veteran, and one of the most talented performers I’ve seen in action, Todd Mitchem, drove this point home when he warned the audience not to become a Ferrari on the Freeway.  It’s a ‘reality bites’ type of expression that I learned as a kid through a basic sports example.   If you are an exceptional athlete in high school, chances are you’re going to be in good company when you get to college.  Meaning:  You ain’t that special kiddo.  And if you happen to be fairly awesome compared to your university counterparts, don’t celebrate until you get to the pro leagues because again, there are already some incredible athletes out there.   Now, if you manage to stand out in the Major Leagues, the NFL or the NBA… then you can pop the champagne and celebrate a little.  THEN,.. If you can combine your uber-athleticism with intellect, social graces and business savvy… you’ve earned the title of a Ferrari on the F1 (Formula One) circuit.

Author of his first book release, Running Your Multi-Op, Mike Walter, who we featured here on the MMP Blog last month, should have rented a Ferrari to get to Tennessee to give his seminar.  Instead of flying out from New Jersey, he chose to break-in his new car and drive 10 hours to avoid one of his pet-peeves…  a connecting flight.   Fortunately,  in addition to being one of the most successful businessmen in the mobile dj world, he’s also a marathon runner- so he still had plenty of energy when it was showtime. The attendees expected Mike to dish out a lot of training and management-related nuggets from his book like he normally does when he’s on the speaking circuit, but they (and I) were also treated to video examples regarding common performance-related pitfalls that Emcees can avoid.  Essentially, knowing when to say something is just as important as knowing what to say.

While we’re on the subject of  good timing, I want to thank my friend, Alan Trisler, for sharing his photo coverage of the event. Like all great photographers,  he knows how to be in the right place at the right time.

 As we often do when we are brought in to speak at the same conference, Mike and I met up before the seminars began on day one to start the morning off with a nice run.  (We always invite everyone to join us, but it’s usually just us who end up meeting in the lobby at sunrise.)  I’d have to say that this run was one of the most memorable in the 10 years we’ve known each other.  Check out Mike’s running journal for the detailed recap.

As a father, something that was said that I’ll  never forget was delivered by Gitomer Cerified Speaker standout, Patrick Henry.   This was the second time I’ve had the pleasure of watching Patrick light-up the stage with his musical anecdotes that strike a sharp and humorous chord with his audience, but this was the first time I’d heard him say this…  “Some nights, I’ll be holding my beautiful baby daughter, Meredith, in my arms.  And all I can think about when I look into her gorgeous blue eyes is… Please don’t grow up to be a skank!” It was hysterical.   I don’t really tweet that often, but this one had to be shared with other fathers and anyone else in the world who needs a good laugh.  And if you appreciate this type of real-world humor with an edge like Patrick’s tweetable moment, check out Tina Fey’s prayer for her daughter from her new book, Bossypants.

  

When I think of professional goals, Book Yourself Solid, which was written by the Keynote speaker, Michael Port, can easily be considered one of the entrepreneurial bibles that I looked to in my formative years for insight and inspiration. His “Red Velvet Rope” philosophy is right in line with my business model and hard-earned company reputation.  Port gave an enthusiastic presentation that featured one gem after another on the subjects of marketing and branding.   No notes or slides necessary.   I guess that’s one of the perks of being considered an expert in your field and being the author of a NY Times Best Seller… the ability to effortlessly speak on your specialty subject matter becomes second nature.   Just fly to the next destination, engage, teach and wrap it up with a standing ovation.    Highlights from his seminar included Michael telling the famous, “If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass goodbye” story and his strong recommendation that you focus your efforts on “commitment and fulfillment” and “sharing information and compassion” when you are looking to build a deeper relationship with prospects and colleagues you already know.

The chance to see Port in person was very exciting.  The opportunity to speak with him for 15 minutes after his presentation was exhilarating.  And now that I’m kinda out of big adjectives, the fact that by chance Mr. Port and I sat next to each other on a connecting return flight home from Tennessee to Charlotte and talked about everything from the economy and the UFC, to the politics of politics and Donald Trump, to cross training, yoga and how to travel fashionably...well.. let’s just say… WOW!-  Life is pretty cool sometimes. And as if I needed another cherry on top,  Mr.  Port extended a  very gracious  lunch invitation for sometime in the near future. How surreal would it be to break bread at the home of one of your literary idols?

I’m delighted to report that my performance workshop on Energy, “The World Belongs to the Energetic,” was well received by the  attendees and that a lot of positive feedback has been buzzing around the industry’s social media outlets.

These are two comments that came in via MMP’s Facebook Page:

“I traveled to attend this event from New Zealand. I loved Marcello’s presentation.” -David Seel, The Perfect Wedding, NZ

 

“I have been a DJ for 24 years and although I perform at over 250 Mobile Disc Jockey events every year I have chose not to attend DJ Conferences during my career…..until ARMDJs 2011. The presentation put on by Marcello and Mike Walter was the best 2 hour investment of my career. Marcello not only gave us great ideas but he demonstrated how to implement them first hand. He is truly a highly talented performer. Mike Walter has an incredible perspective on business and talked about the details of our job that really matter. I look forward to learning from these two pros again in the future!” -Rob Vollmar, Grant Hemond and Associates, FL

Special thanks to Mark Maillet, from Eternal Lighting Company, for spotlighting my stage performance with the sleek  Premier 120- LED fixture.  It really enhanced the over-all presentation and helped me demonstrate how professionals can use lightscaping and special effects to adjust the ambiance accordingly and raise the level of energy in any room.

Apparently, Robbie Britton already knows how to create energy, end an event on a high-note and leave a crowd wanting more.  Like a little kid on Christmas Eve who couldn’t wait to open his presents, Robbie finally showed everyone a video clip of  next year’s keynote speaker giving a pre-recorded teaser of what’s in store for ArmDjs 5.0 in the summer of 2012…    Gary Vaynerchuk, the author of Crush It and The Thank You Economy will be  bringing “the hustle” and “the thunder” in a “serious way” because “that how he rolls.”  The attendees (including yours truly) were totally amped.

See you next year!  -mp

“Astounding” – MMP Entertainment Brings the Fiesta to Costa Rica for Melanie’s Masquerade Bat Mitzvah

When I was 16 and providing the entertainment for my first special event, a wedding at The Brownstone-… the thought of someday being flown out of the country with my team to perform and help a family celebrate life never crossed my mind. This whole experience reminds me of that saying from the lottery ads… “Hey, you never know.”

After one of the most logistically challenging events in the company’s history, second only to the Allen & Company Media Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho, I’m delighted to report that MMP’s first international event in Central America was a great success.

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Neil and Yasmin Kahn for over 10 years.   After meeting them on my first surfing excursion to Costa Rica, their family has become my family.  Neil’s mom and dad, Norma and Ken,  always invited me over on Friday nights for Shabbat and made me feel like I was home- even though I was 2500 miles away from Jersey. The funny thing is, from doing so many Bar and Bat Mitzvahs here in the states throughout  the past decade, I learned the prayers and was finally able participate in the blessings instead of just standing there quietly.

The joke is that I am an honorary Jew. Or, a Jew by occupation. Whatever you call it, one thing is for sure.  I’ve noticed that Jewish and Italian families are very similar.   Hospitality and friendship are made readily available to everyone they consider a fellow mensch or pisan.  When you combine the best of both these nationalities and put them together in a paradise locale like Costa Rica… Fuggettaboutit.   Mazel Tov & Pura Vida!  -Life is good.

After watching the kids grow up over the years, it was an honor to return to my second home and help produce Melanie’s Bat Mitzvah.  If you’ve seen some of the other events in our Bar/Bat Mitzvah portfolio, you know that we are extremely fortunate to work with some very talented and super-cool guests of honor.  Melanie kept the streak alive and then some.   Not only is she a gifted athlete, dancer and singer… she read her Torah portion in perfect English, Spanish and Hebrew!!! And as you can see from the photos, Melanie is also a beautiful young lady.

The celebration was billed as Melanie’s Masquerade.  It’s an excellent choice for a theme if you are looking to do something fun and different. We incorporated personalized  visuals on the big screen and  colorful masks for all of the guests to wear.  This really seemed to put everyone in  a festive mood when they walked through the doors.  *A mask can do wonders for a guest who has dance floor inhibitions.

One of the highlights came during the candlelighting ceremony.   We knew ahead of time that one of Melanie’s favorite cousins, Bailey, would not be able to make the trip out for the celebration.  No problem.   With the help of some pre-production and modern technology, Bailey made a surprise guest appearance via video after candle #12 when Melanie just finished saying how much she wished Bailey could be there. It was definitely a tweet-worthy moment that WOW’d Melanie and her guests.

When Melanie had time to reflect on her Bat Mitzvah the next day, she shared a comment that was a good indication that we did our job…  “My friends were blown away...  they all want to be Jewish now.“  I’ll take that.       -mp

On behalf of the entire crew, I want to thank Neil and Yasmin for setting up an awesome Kayak Snorkeling trip, a Canopy tour, and sunset drinks at the world famous Villa Caletas the day after the celebration.

Special thanks to Melanie’s aunt, Julie Kahn, for capturing and editing some of her personal video highlights and post-event testimonials for us.   What a nice gesture! …  Typical of the Kahn family.  Julie has been nominated twice for a National Emmy Award for her work on the children’s TV show, Zoom.  She’s also worked on PBS documentaries, independent projects and music videos for the Indigo Girls. (who happen to sing one of my favorite songs of all time, Closer to Fine).   Julie can reached at Julie.Kahn@me.com

I also want to recognize Steven Sandi and the staff from the Hotel Amapola.   They were instrumental in organizing all of the on-site logistics in the weeks leading up to the event and provided us with necessary assistance the day of to help facilitate a seamless production.

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