A couple of years ago, I spoke at a Women In Biz Network event, discussing the topic of how to use social media in small business. I’ll always remember it because the audience was packed with really dynamic business women, many of whom I’ve stayed in contact with. One in particular, Jen Schlumberger, approached me afterwards and explained her business idea to me. What she had created was a party concept that I had never come across in my many years of struggling to throw countless birthday parties. Her company, Hollywood Birthday Parties, actually has the party-going kids make a movie. They write, direct and act in their very own film. Sounds awesome, right? Well I got to experience the awesome a couple of weeks ago when she threw a Hollywood Birthday Party at my house!
There were a few remarkable things about this party:
Every kid had input. I’m not sure how Jen managed to listen to all of them – but every child there felt like they were the brains behind the operation
She could magically steer them into a decision without children fighting and crying
She never lost her cool – even when their ideas sucked, even when they all tried to speak at once, even when they got silly. There were several times I would have shut the ol’ party machine down and gotten a bit control freaky about the whole thing. Not Jen. Nope. She’s clearly a better person than I am
The kids had the BEST TIME EVER
And the result? Well, the party-goers’ film genre of choice was the predicted “horror film”. After two hours of production and filming, each child made a DVD cover for their copy of “The Infected”, a frightening film about a girl who seems innocent but goes on to poison/infect her birthday party attendees. Look out Alfred Hitchcock.
The DVDs arrived in the mail within 2 weeks, and the kids have watched nothing except “The Infected” ever since. The party was such a success, I predict a “The Infected 2” in my future.
**Find out more about Jen and Hollywood Birthday Parties by checking out her website: www.hollywood-birthdays.com
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