Big Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is a big big day for Diagio Spirits, The Loop Event Management, Captain Morgan, and by extention, me. It is the launch event for our month-long test marketing campaign in KunMing, and the guests who we will be entertaining are not regular customers, but the bosses of all the clubs in KunMing where we will be throwing our later events, as well as the bosses of Diagio (the largest spirit company in the world), The Loop, and its parent company, Shine, who have all flown in from Shanghai.

Our launch event is a great deal more complicated than the promotional events that we will be holding during the rest of our campaign, and involves 15 performers, a 30 foot inflatable galleon, and a 10 foot tall wooden drawbridge to be lowered down by 4 men at the stroke of 8 when our 4 cannons go off.

I wish I could say that I have been deeply involved in the extensive preparation work that has gone into this event, but my role has been mostly limited to box carrying and light translation. I have had a fair amount of input into the choreography of the Captains entrance moment and subsequent 10 minutes of elbow-swinging, thigh-slapping dancing with the Morganettes, but ultimately the responsibility for the creative element and the show management lie with other members of our team. Though for most of the time our team here will be comprised of myself, a project manager, and a tour manager, for the this event 6 additional workers are on hand to ensure that everything goes off smoothly. Right now three of them are scampering around, taking inventory of the 65 or so boxes of lighters, pirate hats, crowns, glasses, t-shirts, eyepatches, tatoos, ice trays, lamps, mixing pitchers, platters, beads, keys, hooks, mustaches, posters, flags, compases. table cloths, dice cups, costumes, and bottles of rum which are stacked all over my living room.

Across the table from me, another team member is splicing together various clips of pirate music for the show tomorrow. In that respect, I was somewhat helpful, helping sift through the various pirate themed artists on the world wide web- the most interesting to me being Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew, whose pirate rap stands alone. http://www.myspace.com/captaindan

Am I nervous? Good question. On the one hand, it is hard not to be a little bit nervous, when people are constantly reminding you what a huge opportunity for market expansion this campaign represents, how important this event is to the campaign, and how crucial the Captain Morgan character is to the success of this event. On the other hand, it is hard to stay nervous when my job is so easy and fun. Fret as I might, I find it hard to conjure a disaster scenario. Essentially, I am expected mount a stage, strike a pose, say 6 sentences in english, dance with some girls for 10 minutes, walk around a bar playing rock paper sissors for 45 minutes, then leave- all without embarassing myself or the brand. So, I understand that they want me to be rested for my big performance tomrrow, but I did protest at the suggestions that I should go to bed by midnight tonight. After all, my performance is from 9 to 10 tomorrow night. I think Ill be able to keep my eyes open for it. It is sure to be a memorable event, and I expect will produce some amusing photos. Stay tuned.