We're havin' a party, a scientific party...
September 12, 2008 5:14 PM Subscribe
We're scientists. We're in Frederick, MD. We need entertainment.
It's a regional meeting (potomac division), and we're stuck hosting it, so we have to come up with a venue and entertainment for the banquet. Normally, the entertainment is a band, but last year the WV hosts had a great bluegrass band, so we have to come up with something else. Germanic polka band? Or do we think out of the box? Educational wine tasting of Maryland wines? Rent a mechanical bull? Since I'm deciding, I want no storytellers and no re-enactors. Anyone ever provided entertainment for a banquet?
It's a regional meeting (potomac division), and we're stuck hosting it, so we have to come up with a venue and entertainment for the banquet. Normally, the entertainment is a band, but last year the WV hosts had a great bluegrass band, so we have to come up with something else. Germanic polka band? Or do we think out of the box? Educational wine tasting of Maryland wines? Rent a mechanical bull? Since I'm deciding, I want no storytellers and no re-enactors. Anyone ever provided entertainment for a banquet?
Have you met many scientists, Rubbstone?
acrasis - wherever you decide, make sure that booze is available =)
posted by porpoise at 5:52 PM on September 12, 2008
acrasis - wherever you decide, make sure that booze is available =)
posted by porpoise at 5:52 PM on September 12, 2008
Seems like Frederick has several theater groups. Maybe arrange for them to perform something at your banquet? Not necessarily a fully staged play with props and costumes, maybe just a dramatic reading. I went to one conference where the big entertainment was a reading of "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" and it was more enjoyable than I expected.
Rubbstone, you remind me of a story my dad likes to tell. He was a scientist too, and every year he would go to a large scientific conference that, in those days, always met in Atlantic City in June. Year after year a few thousand scientists would arrive in Atlantic City in mid-June, and one year Dad caught a taxi at the train station and the cabbie asks him "So you're a scientist, right?" Dad says "Yeah, how did you know?" Cabbie says "I can always tell when the scientists are in town because that's when the hookers take their vacations."
posted by Quietgal at 6:01 PM on September 12, 2008
Rubbstone, you remind me of a story my dad likes to tell. He was a scientist too, and every year he would go to a large scientific conference that, in those days, always met in Atlantic City in June. Year after year a few thousand scientists would arrive in Atlantic City in mid-June, and one year Dad caught a taxi at the train station and the cabbie asks him "So you're a scientist, right?" Dad says "Yeah, how did you know?" Cabbie says "I can always tell when the scientists are in town because that's when the hookers take their vacations."
posted by Quietgal at 6:01 PM on September 12, 2008
Get in touch with the owner of Frederick Brewing Company. He's pretty cool about providing brews for things like this. And they make awesome beer. If you have a few FBC kegs on tap, no one will care how lame the entertainment is. And I'm not just saying that because I may end up at the event.
posted by Patapsco Mike at 6:55 PM on September 12, 2008
posted by Patapsco Mike at 6:55 PM on September 12, 2008
A friend of mine has ties to the big jazz/swing/brass bands in Frederick. If it sounds like this would be a type of entertainment your group would enjoy, I could get you in touch. MeFiMail me.
posted by Alterscape at 7:53 PM on September 12, 2008
posted by Alterscape at 7:53 PM on September 12, 2008
I gather you want the entertainment to be kind of in the background as people eat and mingle? So something like the nerdy NASA a cappella group The Chromatics would be out?
posted by sarahnade at 7:55 PM on September 12, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by sarahnade at 7:55 PM on September 12, 2008 [1 favorite]
Local beers and wines. Good.
Anything that smells of dance. Bad.
Mechanical bull. Strangely appealing.
I missed Rubbstone's comment, but, let's just say, where is the page where the people in the humanities or social sciences show off their tattoos?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:15 AM on September 13, 2008
Anything that smells of dance. Bad.
Mechanical bull. Strangely appealing.
I missed Rubbstone's comment, but, let's just say, where is the page where the people in the humanities or social sciences show off their tattoos?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:15 AM on September 13, 2008
I don't have any specific recommendations, but you're definitely close enough to DC that any entertainment provider there would be willing to drive out to Frederick. Should expand your options a bit.
posted by valkyryn at 5:15 AM on September 13, 2008
posted by valkyryn at 5:15 AM on September 13, 2008
Beer tasting.
Comedy show
Steel band
Ask the people at the venue what they've seen recently & loved.
posted by theora55 at 6:25 AM on September 13, 2008
Comedy show
Steel band
Ask the people at the venue what they've seen recently & loved.
posted by theora55 at 6:25 AM on September 13, 2008
Response by poster: I don't know what rubbstone said, but when our society met in Las Vegas, we were asked never to come back, because none of us spent any money. And we'll have something in the low hundreds to work with here, Cool Papa Bell.
We've got the beer angle all figured out, believe me. We're thinking of having the business meeting at Brewer's Alley, because, well, that's the only way I would go to the business meeting.
My problem with storytellers, theater groups, and nerdy a capella groups is that it requires the audience to stay polite for an extended period of time. I would prefer something where people coud chat and mingle without being cruel to the entertainers.
I'll be talking to you, Alterscape. *I* would enjoy a big band.
Wear a red carnation, Patapsco Mike, and I'll know it's you.
posted by acrasis at 7:41 AM on September 13, 2008
We've got the beer angle all figured out, believe me. We're thinking of having the business meeting at Brewer's Alley, because, well, that's the only way I would go to the business meeting.
My problem with storytellers, theater groups, and nerdy a capella groups is that it requires the audience to stay polite for an extended period of time. I would prefer something where people coud chat and mingle without being cruel to the entertainers.
I'll be talking to you, Alterscape. *I* would enjoy a big band.
Wear a red carnation, Patapsco Mike, and I'll know it's you.
posted by acrasis at 7:41 AM on September 13, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:18 PM on September 12, 2008