What does Casino Night Party Prep look like at the venue?
When the excitement of a casino night is chosen for the entertainment for the night many questions come to mind. One question is ‘what time will your guys be there to set up?' This is a common question we get in the industry. All events have a number of moving parts and the entertainment is an important one. To start, the venue needs to prep the room which may include clearing out tables from a prior event, putting tables in place for the new event, setting up the food and beverage stations, etc., a DJ may need time to set up, lighting may need to be installed, registration tables, décor companies occasionally play a role, maybe a photobooth…etc. Many internal and external partners work in unison to make the big event happen.
Should I Allow Extra Time for Set Up?
The rule of thumb for entertainment is for the casino equipment to be set up 1 hour before your guests arrive. And depending on how many casino tables you have ordered the timeline for setup can vary. It’s safe to say one hour for set up is the minimum. We can do it in less but compressing the timeline too close to guest arrival puts extra stress on an already stressful event. For 5-7 casino tables, 60-90 minutes is a good timeline. More tables can take up to 2 hours and for very large events, we plan to have 4+ hours to set up. Other factors to consider for a casino night party include freight elevator traffic, the number of stairs to navigate, and how far the event space is from the loading dock.
So what does that mean for our load-in the timeline? If the guests are expected to arrive at 6:00 pm, we want to be finished with our set up by 5:00 pm. If it takes us one hour to set up, we will plan to arrive no later than 4:00 pm. We typically allow a buffer for traffic, loading dock congestion, security check-in… etc., and tell the client that we will arrive ‘between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm.
Casino Event Timeline-Example
Arrive at Venue: 3:30pm-4:00pm Set up 4:00pm-5:00pm Guests arrive at 6:00 pm
Gaming from 7:00pm-10:00pm
This amount of time allows for a comfortable set-up time that protects our staff, our equipment, the venue walls and elevators and ensures a timely set-up and prep for a great event. To read more about how to host a successful virtual casino night head over to our blog here.