"Coming to America" Celebrations: The Impact of Film on Special Events

Coming To America is a comedy/romance film staring actor Eddie Murphy, and directed by John Landis  released in the summer of 1998. Murphy portrays a African Prince of a fictional nation, Zamunda. The Prince, Akeem Joffer will set out on a journey to America in hopes of finding a women to marry. For additional information about the film click here. Although the film is mainly based in Queens, New York, the scenes in Zumunda are the ones that are the most portrayed.

Moving forward, several celebrations have been based on the movie Coming To America. For instance, Real Housewife of Atlanta, Kandi Burruss wedding was based on the iconic film. Here are some images courtesy of Bravo.com

Several celebrities have celebrated special events inspired the comedy "Coming To America". More recently celebrated was the birthday party of rapper/actor Snoop Dogg or Snoop Lion's son Cordell Broadus. Also added to list is  producer, Swizz Beats, who's African affair was arranged by his wife Alicia Keys. 

With the biggest trends surrounding the celebrity world of celebration being based on the film, Coming to America, there is no wonder why my company Birthday Sugar: Party Designers was contacted to create not a birthday party.... not a wedding... but, a BABY SHOWER! Yes, Birthday Sugar recreated a theme that has been duplicated several times prior and produced a "Coming To America" inspired baby shower. The wait is over... I present to you, the royal shower...

Business Plan Experts

Industry expert Tim Berry has been called the Obi-wan Kenobe of business planning. Guy Kawasaki made Berry his business plan expert in "How to Write A Business Plan". " The father of business Planning" is a name given to him by Jim Blasingame. So what make Mr. Tim Berry so great in the eyes of many? Let's analysis his method of business plan reviews to see what make him the holder of all of these titles. 


Plan-run-review-revise is the template that Berry recommends for people who run or own a business. Berry operates on the idea of "plan as you go" or as he like to call it "PRRR" plan-run-review-revise.

If Berry's expert advice sounds simple to you, well... that's because it is. 

"It’s not that business plan document you do once and then forget. It’s a core plan, just big enough to run your business, that you keep live and on a computer. You review it monthly. You don’t dress it up with fancy summaries and descriptions until you need them for a specific business plan event." (Berry, 2015)

However, Berry also says that he works on more complex business plans but of course he prefers his method of "PRRR". Above all Berry tells his reader on TimBerry.com that he recommends that before you hire him please review the free business plan material that he always has available on his site. 

The next business plan expert I will discuss is Bill Payne of Bill Payne and Associates. Mr. Payne is a business executive, entrepreneur and a "angel investor". Payne's website helps business owners primary learn how to pitch to angel investors. Under his web link "Get Angel Money", Bill has a definitive guide to raise money from angel investors. Because Payne's guide is $37 to purchase there isn't much information on the website that you would find in the book. 

"Angel Investing is a Miracle of the modern world. In fact, I believe history will show it to be the most important development in funding this century. Never before has it been possible to take a small idea, stand in front of 20 to 30 highly successful business persons for 20 minutes with the realistic possibility of securing capital from them. These small Angel Groups are all over the world, funding more businesses every year than even Venture Capitalists." (Payne, 2015).

The Digital Society

 Did you read the Sunday paper today? If you answered yes then you are 1of  23% of consumers who still read the tangible Sunday paper. Although it's been discussed several times before, print is still a option and will possibly always be a option for newspaper. I mean let's face it.. statistics change and so do people. A while back I was contributing to a discussion post about things going digital. Looking around at the World today, its a no-brainer that all things all going digital, but at the same time, a lot of things are still the same. 

Personally, I do 97% of projects and media digitally, such as magazines, books, and music. However I still purchase cd albums, I am still subscribed to magazines, and I still appreciate a hard back every now and then. Without a doubt the World around us is primarily digital, and there will be more to come, but with all of this digital technology there will still be the original way of doing things. Take mail for instance, many people believed that once email was created, regular mail would be non-existent  and people still rely on the mail system weekly as a means of sending and receiving, not just mail, but everything. Digital contents are convenient but it won't wipe off the physical, and tangible things in life. 

Moreover, it seems as if majority of society realizes that everything is going digital. Check out this Youtube video "Everything We Touch Turns Digital" by Burke W.

A article that was written in 2005, Totally Digital was expressing the ideas of everything going digital and used photos as an example. Once upon a time having photos printed was a process that involved a chemicals, a actual camera, and a lot of other things that we are not sure of. Fast forward to today, to apps like  instagram, and services like cvs photo center... just to name a few, and not to mention wireless printing. 

The World has evolved, thats a fact, but I think we will always have physical libraries and book stores. True enough record stores are a thing of the past, and you may find a vintage music store here and there, but music is forever, and history repeats itself. So just as the music stores cease to exists, they may come back with more digital content along with physical cd's. 

Reference:

Florina, Carly. Totally Digital, (2005) http://www.economist.com/node/3372202 retrieved December 17. 2014

Birthday Sugar: Party Designers

Birthday Sugar Party Designers is a full service event planning company located in Metro, Atlanta, Georgia. If you're not familiar with the company, let me be the first to tell you that this is not your average event planning services. This company offers not only full service, but they also provide professional, edited videos of your event included in certain packages.

Another cute promotion that the company Birthday Sugar does is after the event is complete they will make it the featured event. Here are some videos of some of the work that they've created.

Here is the cutest Nightmare before Christmas Birthday Celebration

Before the Gouls and Goblins started taunting "Sandy Claws" these images were captured of the designs for this event.

Oh, did I mention that Birthday Sugar specializes in children events... but there is more cuteness where this came from. 

Here is a fancy video of a Good Luck Party designed by Birthday Sugar.  

 Any princess could see that this party was fit for a princess. From the cupcakes with crown toppers to the pink tulle, and decorative napkins, this event was perfect with a tiara on the top! 

For more events and photos, check out the website at www.BirthdaySugar.net 

But wait, here are more videos to get you in the festive spirit of partying. 

Milk and Cookies Party

Zoo Party 

Birthday Sugar Party Designers 

Facebook/BirthdaySugar  

Instagram/BirthdaySugar 

Youtube.com 

Controversy with Bounce House Inflatables

        As a person with a business in the event planning industry, there are many obstacles that can arise. My company specializes in children event, and with the recent controversy around bounce house inflatables it makes a person think about the legalities of party rentals.

Today News reported, Bounce House flies Away Injuring Kids, What to know before your children Play, "All of a sudden it picks up and there's a girl going down the slide,'' witness Vannessa Atencio told TODAY. "She flies out about eight feet in the air. It was pretty horrific and scary. You just kind of freeze in the moment. You don't know what to do." 2 toddlers injured in inflatable bouncy house accident in New Hampshire

 ABC 7 reported, 2 toddlers injured in inflatable bouncy house accident in New Hampshire "Witnesses said they saw the bouncy house fly up in the air before it came crashing down in a neighboring orchard."

It seems as if these stories are constanly arising with bounce house inflatables, and the rental companies are 100% covered by their insurance company, and in most cases the consumer cant not sue because they already signed the contract with the information stated that situations like this can occur. Inflatable companies also do not recommend renting on days with high winds.

Sources: 

www.wjla.com 

www.today.com

Find The Cutes and Mr. Noot: Part 2

Some months ago I introduced you to the illustrated book Find The Cutes.  I interviewed the Author Vincent Noot and he informed us about his project. To bring you up to speed I will have the first interview below. Moving forward, Mr. Noot's is still on kickstarted.com with a pledge of $7,843.00 and so far they are down to $7,098.00 with 24 backers. 

Mr. Noot is also talking about making a sequel to Find The Cutes, here is what he had to say...

Will you make a sequel? 

     Yes. We are planning on an entire series of 10 books. We created two new characters for the 3rd and 4th book. The 2nd book will be called “Find the Cutes - Festival Fun” and will have fun search pages about Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, but also about the Tomato Festival in Spain, Songkran in Thailand, and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. It will also have 12 pages and a story line. We already started working on it. 

For more information on how you can help fund the Find The Cutes project please visit kickstarter.com 

First Interview 

I was recently contacted on my business Facebook page by Vincent Noot,  Mr. Noot sent me a message informing me of a project he and his wife just completed. Well, how about I let you read the message for yourself...

Hi there, 

I saw your Facebook page. It looks nice. I have a request, something that could be good for both of us, if it would be the right kind of content for your page of course. But either way, I would appreciate your response. For the past year, my wife and I have been putting hundreds of hours into drawing a children’s book. It is not just an ordinary story, but a search book. Have you ever heard of “Where is Waldo?” Our book is a similar concept, but it’s more focused on kids, with pages that are about a birthday party, petting zoo, swimming pool, playground, etc. The title of the book is, “Find the Cutes.” 

Now that the book is finished and that my wife and I are investing in printing, we need some help. On March 1st (2014) we will launch a project on kickstarter.com. You might have heard of it. It's a crowd funding website. And to get our name out there and achieve our goal, we would love to put a story on your Facebook page, your blog, or any other places where people could see it... whichever you would like of course.






So after I read the message, I checked out there website findthecutes.com and took a look at there crowd funded efforts on kickstarter.com . We posted this interview from Vincent Noot. 


Q. What is Find The Cutes? 

A. "Find The Cutes is a kids book, of hand-drawn illustrations, it's sorta like a modern day Where Is Waldo but exclusively for kids."


Q. How long have you been a Artist? 

A. "I have been drawing since I was 4 years old, and I am 32 now, so I've been doing this [drawing] for a while."


Q. What made you want to start Find The Cutes?

A. “I was doing a lot of cartoon assignments for the owner of a child daycare franchise. It made me realize that this was really my style, that I should do more with my cartoons. As a kid, I always spend hours looking into search books, but there were some elements missing. ‘Find the Cutes’ focuses a lot more on children. It contains drawings of kids playing at birthday parties, school, a swimming pool, etc. I love children, and I love drawing. What better way to combine them?” 

Q. Was there any other motivating factors to help you get Find The Cutes up and running. 

A. "Absolutely!" My wife Celestial she pushed me to bring the cutes to life she likes to say that (“I help set goals for Vincent, so he knows when to get the next page done.”) so she is without a doubt my motivating factors."

Find The Cutes and Mr. Noot

I was recently contacted on my business Facebook page by Vincent Noot,  Mr. Noot sent me a message informing me of a project he and his wife just completed. Well, how about I let you read the message for yourself...

Hi there, 

I saw your Facebook page. It looks nice. I have a request, something that could be good for both of us, if it would be the right kind of content for your page of course. But either way, I would appreciate your response. For the past year, my wife and I have been putting hundreds of hours into drawing a children’s book. It is not just an ordinary story, but a search book. Have you ever heard of “Where is Waldo?” Our book is a similar concept, but it’s more focused on kids, with pages that are about a birthday party, petting zoo, swimming pool, playground, etc. The title of the book is, “Find the Cutes.” 

Now that the book is finished and that my wife and I are investing in printing, we need some help. On March 1st (2014) we will launch a project on kickstarter.com. You might have heard of it. It's a crowd funding website. And to get our name out there and achieve our goal, we would love to put a story on your Facebook page, your blog, or any other places where people could see it... whichever you would like of course.





So after I read the message, I checked out there website findthecutes.com and took a look at there crowd funded efforts on kickstarter.com . We posted this interview from Vincent Noot. 

Q. What is Find The Cutes? 
A. "Find The Cutes is a kids book, of hand-drawn illustrations, it's sorta like a modern day Where Is Waldo but exclusively for kids."

Q. How long have you been a Artist? 
A. "I have been drawing since I was 4 years old, and I am 32 now, so I've been doing this [drawing] for a while."

Q. What made you want to start Find The Cutes?
A. “I was doing a lot of cartoon assignments for the owner of a child daycare franchise. It made me realize that this was really my style, that I should do more with my cartoons. As a kid, I always spend hours looking into search books, but there were some elements missing. ‘Find the Cutes’ focuses a lot more on children. It contains drawings of kids playing at birthday parties, school, a swimming pool, etc. I love children, and I love drawing. What better way to combine them?” 

Q. Was there any other motivating factors to help you get Find The Cutes up and running. 
A. "Absolutely!" My wife Celestial she pushed me to bring the cutes to life she likes to say that (“I help set goals for Vincent, so he knows when to get the next page done.”) so she is without a doubt my motivating factors."