Dear Fellow ’04 Sharks,

When a poll was created it came down to two dates: June 15thand June 22nd. When quotes/proposals were obtained we were being reminded by venues that June 15th is the Father’s Day weekend and there may be an upcharge to hold an event, because they as the venue view it as a “holiday” weekend.  After consideration, we did not pick June 15th in order to families to plan something together with their loved ones and to avoid any potential increase costs to the budget.

The event is in June, and we all know with Florida whether it will either be (i) raining and balmy, or (ii) hot and humid.  Not to mention Florida’s ferocious beast, the mosquito, will be at its peak during that time.  Therefore, we decided an indoor event will work best for everyone to be comfortable and to avoid potentially being rained out.

When we tried to engage the group, we were hoping for a bigger response to help us plan the location.  We know that our class was over 650 people and yes, we would like to everyone be able to bring a plus one, but we needed more than the normal few answering polls to do so.  If we had received the responses that we needed, we would be looking for a venue that could hold 650 people or more, unfortunately, we did not get such a response.  Why?  The main feedback we received was that they were waiting to see what happens.

o Bigger venues mean bigger upfront costs (deposits) and overhead. If we had picked a bigger venue minimum pricing comes into effect and would be a risk of not meeting the numbers for the lower ticket price, subjecting those who already paid a lower cost ticket to come up with money.

o If we see tickets coming in and reaching capacity sooner rather than later, we will revisit looking at a bigger venue.

Due to the potential of human error, we wanted to make sure that there is a clean record of those who paid either full price (general admission) or the deposit.

o All ticketing platforms had some type of service fee and processing fee for procuring tickets.  Just like how we sometimes get our  food delivered we are paying for its convenience.

o The ticketing platform receives the fee.  The Planning Committee will only get the face value of the ticket selected and deposited in a separate bank account that was opened just for this event.

o We decided to move away from Eventbrite due to the exuberant fees that they were going to charge not just for setting up the event, but also the cost for obtaining the event.

o Eventbrite would charge a service fee ($1.79 per ticket + 3.70%), plus a processing fee of 2.90% per order, which resulted in a total $11.90 of additional cost to the general admission ticket, i.e., $150 became $161.90.  So roughly 7.93% fee to the base ticket price to the general admission ticket.

     ▪ After reviewing this, the Planning Committee was not comfortable on using them knowing this increase of cost, so other options were looked at in the eleventh hour.  Luckily, we found Ticketspice (thanks to the Vault who used it for an event) and the fees were less and simpler process to set up and check out.

o Ticketspice service fee is $0.99 per ticket and 3.5% processing fee, which is a resulted in an additional cost of about $6.27 per general admission ticket, so overall out of pocket cost of $156.27 for general admission ticket.

o As we have all seen, the cost of living has gone up due to inflation, and with the increase in costs to vendors it is being passed on to us as consumers.  Therefore, the cost of venues to hold a capacity of 100 people or more is not cheap.

o When looking at venues, al la carte vendors, everything has a service fee, plus delivery fee and cutlery/plate fee (if catering al la carte), and sales tax?

     ▪ When we looked at venues that were bare (no tables, no chairs, no lighting, no basic décor, etc.) just the building, it added up pretty quickly just obtain those items that we would need for the event.

     ▪ This is why we went to a venue that offered tables, linen, uplighting, in-house catering and bar, to avoid numbers service fees and sales taxes.

o The cost of the ticket is at a per person concept; therefore, we are not looking at minimum requirements that would need to be reached.

o Venue

▪ What about the sponsor/donor?

     • The ticket price is inclusive of the venue donation we received, lowering the ticket price.  However, since the donation was a flat amount, the service fee and sales tax associated with renting the venue would be covered by us as attendees.

o Food

     ▪ Winner, winner, this will not be your average chicken dinner event. The venue provides a robust option of food items from hors d’oeuvres, food stations, and dessert.

     ▪ We are still pending selecting the food menu, since we wanted to make sure we know what type of food allergies there may be and speak with the chef at the venue regarding ingredients in certain items and accommodations. 

o Drinks▪ What about an open bar?• At this point in time, we decided to do a ticket-to-cash bar, due to the cost of an open bar would increase the price of the ticket.

o Entertainment (DJ)▪ We are looking to obtain a DJ that will play the music of our time, the 90s/2000s and the hits of 2004.  That’s right those throw-back-Thursdays songs that have juking in the car with your little ones staring at you like you lost your mind.

o Photobooth/Photography▪ The photobooth is an open-air concept booth that takes pictures of individuals or groups, you would receive the photo via text message, email, and print.

▪ At the end of the event a gallery will be sent over to the Planning Committee to upload on the website and Facebook without having putting that on you to do.• However, if you do take candid pictures, please feel free to forward them to the Planning Committee or upload them to the group yourself. The only ask that we have is that you double check what pictures you are sending, we want to avoid seeing accidental NSFW pictures to the website (Yes, this has happened before).