The Services Events Planner contains programming suggestions to assist in developing smart business initiatives designed to help stimulate customer flow.
If you have ideas to share, contact us at AMC Services

Event Planning Websites
Bowling
Club/Food & Beverage
Golf
Marketing
Miscellaneous Sites
Trade Shows

  Hot Sites & Cool Ideas...    

Event Websites

Specialevents.com                    Magazine & website dedicated to event planners

Event-solutions.com                  Website and tradeshow dedicated to event planners

Bizbash.com                             Event and party ideas

Festivals.com                            Festivals around the world

Web-holidays.com                   Calendar of events w/ideas

Promoxtra.com                         Electronic newsletter of industry events and promotions

Plumparty.com                         Party décor and party ideas

On Target...Links to program specific ideas

Bowling Websites...                            

Bowl.com                                 Bowling news, links to other bowling associations

Bpaa.com                                 The Bowling Proprietor’s Association of America

Bowlexpo.com                         Bowl Expo annual conference & trade show

Amf.com                                  AMF Corporation

Brunbowl.com                          Brunswick Corporation

Pba.com                                   Official site of the Pro Bowlers Association

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Club/Food & Beverage Websites...

Profitablepromotions.com         Calendars, kits and products for promotions from nightclub.com

Johnnyroadtrip.com                  SchedulePro – Sports future dates and sites  

Pizzaexpo.com                         Magazine and October Northeast Pizza Show

Ihmrs.com                                International Hotel & Restaurant Show

Restaurant.org                         National Restaurant Association

catersource.com                       Magazine & tradeshow for caterers

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Golf Websites...    

Pga.com                                   Pro Golf Association

Pgatourn.com                           PGA Tour site

Usga.com                                 US Golf Association

Ngcoa.org                                National Golf Course Owners’ Association

Playgolfamerica.org                  Golf promotions/learn-to-golf

Marketing Websites

About.com’s Top Five Marketing Blogs 

Duct Tape Marketing Blog         Voted Best Small Business Marketing Blog

bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/  The Diva Marketing Blog

Miscellaneous Websites

Armymwr.com                         Official MWR website

Afnafpo.com                            Air Force NAF Purchasing Office

Imcea.com                               International Military Community Executives Association

Air Force Travel Online            Air Force Information, Tickets & Travel (ITT)

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June 21-23:      Billiard & Home Recreation Expo, Las Vegas  www.bca-pool.com

June 20-25:      Military Certification Training -In conjunction with Bowl Expo 
                         POC: Wanda Arthur (703) 681-5202.

June 21-23:      Billiard & Home Recreation Expo, Las Vegas  www.bca-pool.com

June 24-29:      Bowl Expo, Las Vegas  www.bowlexpo.com

 July 20-22:      Crafts & Hobby Assoc. Convention & Trade Show, Chicago   http://www.chashow.org/

 Aug 18-20:       Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, Los Angeles

Aug 20-23:       Event Solutions Idea Factory with CaterSource Summer Symposium
                         www.event-solutions.com or www.catersource.com

 Sept 7-9           Florida Restaurant Show, Orlando, (203) 840-5490 http://www.fraexpo.com/

Sept 11-12       PGA Fall Expo, Las Vegas www.pgaexpo.com

Sept 17-19       Promo Live, Chicago-Navy Pier, www.promoexpo.com

Sept 25-29       NRPA Conference, Indianapolis, IN http://www.nrpa.org/congress

October

November        Int’l Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show Jacob Javits Center, NY  www.ihmrs.com

Nov. 4-7          East Coast Bowling Trade Show, Atlantic City  www.eastcoastbowl.com

Nov 29-1 Dec  Athletic Business Conference, Orlando    http://athleticbusinessconference.com/

PGA Merchandise Show, Orlando.  www.pgaexpo.com

 January 2008:

15-18               The Special Event Annual Tradeshow  www.thespecialeventshow.com

PGA/Armed Forces Golf Course Manager’s Seminar & PGA Show, Orlando, FL

 February 2008

26-27               CaterSource Conference and Trade show Las Vegas www.catersource.com

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Monthly Calendar Ideas...
Specific calendar dates are for 2007 events

January

8       Elvis Presley's Birthday
8-12  National Thank Your Customer Week
15     Martin Luther King's Birthday
21     Wolfman Jack's Birthday
30     The Beatles Last Concert 1969
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Add 2  BLUE-PINS to each lane rotation; a strike with a BLUE HEADPIN wins a free game!

Clubs & Eateries
 Elvis Presley's  Birthday
Feature Elvis tunes all day long.  Special Price Menu Features could include;        
You Ain't Nothing But A Hot Dog
Love Me Chicken Tenders
Use your imagination!
 

Our Customers are #1: Using your cash register receipts, every customer whose receipt # ends in 1 is awarded a coupon special good for their next visit.

January 15  Martin Luther King's Birthday
Seize the opportunity to promote in-house specials and promote Black History Month (February) Events

Tuned-In; Step back into the 50's with music and consider dress-up day for your staff.  A good time to feature your Burger Basket and Ice-Cream Sundaes!

Bowling Centers
Howlin Offers! Remember the 50's with 50cent bowling / 50 cent sodas

The Beatles Last Concert 1969
Bowling Centers
We Love You Yeah, Yeah, Yeah:  Fill the lanes with Beatles tunes and offer up one free game for every game bowled that the total ends in 9.  Number 9, Number 9, Number 9

February                                                Top of this Page
Black History Month  
American Heart Month

1-7     Women's Heart Week
14       Valentine's Day
18-24  National Pancake Week
19       President's Day
20       Mardi Gras
22       National Chili Day

Here's an idea or two...
February 1-7  Women's Heart Week

Add 2  RED-PINS to each lane rotation; a strike with a RED HEADPIN wins a free game!

February 14  Valentine's Day

Clubs

Roses & Candlelight
Create a very special evening for two; dinner for two, to include a rose presentation for the lady, complimentary champagne toast, candlelight dinner and an optional nights stay in lodging--make this reservations only evening a true night to remember

Sweetheart Specials
Utilize red hearts to identify specially priced menu items and resale offering

March    
Honor Society Awareness Month
National Arts & Crafts Month
Youth Arts & Crafts Month
National Women's History Month
National Cheerleading Month

7 Monopoly was invented this day in 1933
11-17 Girl Scout Week
 

Here's an idea or two...

Honor Society Awareness Month: Promote scholastic achievement by offering special discounts for A's on report cards.  Consider an Honor Students eat/participate FREE when accompanied by a participating adult option.  The intent here is to promote family participation.

National Craft Month:  Great time to expand beyond your four-walls.  Develop local area contest/showcase--display contest entries throughout your, or better yet, a high-traffic area to encourage foot traffic and increase program awareness.

National Cheerleading Month:  Promote team spirit by offering special discounts for any aged cheerleader attending/participating in uniform.  Consider a Cheerleader eat/participate FREE when accompanied by a participating adult option.  The intent here is to promote family participation.  The same concept could easily be applied to Girl Scout/Boy Scout week etc--don't limit yourself or your programming opportunities.

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April           Top of this Page

Here's an idea or two...

Month of the Military Child:  One of our greatest assets--KIDS!  Create opportunities that showcase their creativity--display their efforts--build excitement/interest/foot-traffic.  Local contests/drawings/coloring contests... are always crowd pleasers.

National Poetry Month:  Seize the opportunity to highlight individual creativity.  Posting participant entries helps generate interest.  Consider expanding your audience/interest by posting entries on-line and steering traffic to your Services website.

Management Reminder...
Does it drive you crazy when a customer complains and you have to comp a meal? Do you get on your
staff when they agree to substitute a veggie for the baked potato? If so, you don’t understand the
value of building a loyal, repeat customer. Smart operators know it costs less to keep a customer
than to find a new one. Communicate this to your staff and find ways to turn casual customers into
loyal guests!

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May

June  Top of this Page

 1-7      National Fishing Week 
6          D-Day Anniversary (1944)
            1st Drive-in Movie Opens 
7          World’s Largest Garage Sale 
9          Belmont Stakes 
11-17   US Open (Pinehurst, NC) 
12        Baseball Hall of Fame Opened 
14        Flag Day & Army Birthday 
16        Ladies’ Day…initiated by the NY Giants in 1883
17        Father’s Day 
            International Picnic Day!
19        Garfield the Cat’s Birthday Lasagna Bash
21        Summer begins / National Ice Cream Day
23        Hula Hoop patented (1958)
27        “Happy Birthday to You” composed (1859)
27        1st Color TV demonstrated in NYC (1929)
29        Camera Day
 

Here's an idea or two...

“Happy Women Month” & Women’s Golf Month…A great month to begin a monthly ladies’ Bunco program at your golf clubhouse and kick-off a ladies golf lesson promotion. Offer a different theme—food and prizes—depending on the season. Menu would be a salad and chocolate bar! Promote this through local wives’ clubs as a way for newcomers to meet friends.

  National Beef-Steak Month…Fire up the grill and bring back “Steak Nights!” Pair those steaks with some hearty ale or some new red wines. Train your staff to suggest steaks and earn larger tips!

  National Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Month... Feature fresh fruits and vegetables to eat…to play with. Fruit smoothies to drink. Hold your own version of Spain’s La Tomatino Tomato Festival and world’s largest food fight. Feature a different fruit or vegetable on your menu each week in June—or throughout the summer.

July                Top of this Page                                                                                       

Tour de France Month
National Grilling Month
National Blueberry Month

1-9       Hemingway’s Pamplona Bulls & Rioja Wine Fest
 3-4      Redneck Days 
4          Fourth of July
8          Video Games Day…Games tournament
10-16   Take Your Daughter to the Golf Course Week
13        National French Fries Day
16        Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1969)  
18        USA’s 1st 18-hole golf course opened 
            Nat’l Ice Cream Day
22-29   National Salad Week
28        Hamburger created…
29        National Lasagna Day…
30        Henry Ford’s Birthday (1863)
            Elvis’ 1st Concert (1954), Memphis, TN.
            National Cheesecake Day

Here's an idea or two...

National Salad Week:  A perfect opportunity to rev up your salad bar or signature salad program!
Entree salads are big sellers in the chain restaurants—how about yours? 

Honor Thy Hamburger:  Created on 28 July...a long time ago--use this opportunity to promote your various burgers--create a Burger of The Week Special for each week in July

Daughter (& Son) Golf Specials: Build new customer; offer FREE or DISCOUNT rounds to kids when accompanied by a parent.

National Golf Month

Catfish Month

1          Girlfriend’s Day

            100 Years of Scouting Celebration

1-6       Psychic Week…

3          National Watermelon Day…

5          International Friendship Day 

6          American Family Day

6-12     Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

6-12     PGA Championship

7          National Night Out…

7-12     Scrabble Championship .

13        Book Lovers’ Day…

19        Aviation Day…

21        Hawaii Day…

23        Schuetzenfest (German Hunters’ Festival)

24        National Peach Day…Peach Margaritas

Here's an idea or two...

National Golf Month:  Practice Makes Perfect: Encourage your golfers by offering “Warm-Up/Cool Down” specials. Get them out before their game to hit some balls. Offer special practice rates during slow times for golfers.

Catfish Month…Catfish sandwich combos or dinner specials. Batter or sauté in beer and serve with the same! Coordinate with Outdoor Rec and hold a fishing derby.

Customer Service Tip
“Wow” your customers with the unexpected and
bring them back again. Kraft Foodservice Chef
Harry Crane offers these tips to getting it right:
“You’ve heard your kitchen is only as clean as your
bathroom…well the same goes for your menu.
Make sure they are free of dirt and fingerprints.
Always offer something new—it denotes freshness.
Greet your customers with a smile and sweeten up
the tab with chocolates. Don’t skimp on quality.
‘“The sweetness of low prices fades long before the
bitterness of poor quality.’

September                 Top of this Page

Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15

2          Marathon Anniversary (490 BC)

4          LABOR DAY

11        VETERAN'S DAY/PATRIOT DAY

12        Video Games’ Day

    Chocolate Milkshake Day

15        Hispanic Heritage month begins – October 15th.

15        Agatha Christie’s Birthday

16        National Football League formed (1920)

18-24   Singles’ Week

19        Dance Lesson Day

22        Oktoberfest begins in Germany

24        Love Boat premier (1977)

    Family Health & Fitness Day - USA

26        National Women’s Health and Fitness Day

27        World Tourism Day

29        Veterans of Foreign Wars established (1899)

Here's an idea or two...

Oktoberfest is the party that would not go away! What started as the wedding of the Crown Prince of Bavaria in 1810, went on for a week, then came back year after year! Invite your community to loosen their lederhosen and join in the fun. Cook up some brats and schnitzels, of course German wines and beers (22-Oct 2)

Hispanic Heritage Month:  Highlight your ethnic menu items, salsa music...and have some fun.

Customer Service Tip...
This month we recognize the Heroes of 9-11. Look for a hero of the month in your facility. Reward the
person on your staff who goes beyond routine to make the guest happy or to help a fellow staffer.
People notice when you make an extra effort to help…and they tell others. These are the acts that
will establish your reputation in the market, even to people who have never visited your operation.

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October

Fire Prevention Week
Octoberfest
Columbus Day
Halloween

4     National Taco Day

23    Ford Mustang was born this date in 1966

29    The Internet was created this day in 1969

30    Charles Atlas' Birthday--Pump It!

31    Halloween

  Here's an idea or two...

National Taco Day: Taco Bars/Taco Specials are the order of the day

Birthday of the Ford Mustang:  How about a Car Show?  Select a high-vis setting and encourage all car enthusiasts to show em' off!  How about a $1.00 Burger Special for all Mustang Owners?

Charles Atlas' Birthday:  A great opportunity for a bodybuilding/weightlifting contest/show

Customer Service Tip...
Nothing validates people’s opinions more than taking action on their suggestions. These may come
from an employee or a patron. Don’t pass up a good idea just because it wasn’t yours. If people see that something actually happens when they share their ideas and observations, they feel involved and
develop loyalty.

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November
Military Family Appreciation Month

Beaujolais Nouveau

3       National Sandwich Day

6       National Nachos Day

         Veteran's Day

13      National Bowling Association was established in NYC (1875)

17-23 Children's book Week

21-27  National Puzzle & Game Week

22       Thanksgiving

Here's an idea or two...

National Sandwich Day: Create a special menu for the entire week featuring Sandwich of the Day

Nachos Day:  Make it worth their journey to visit you for some Nachos!

Beaujolais Nouveau:  The annual arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau on the 3rd Thursday in November, is one of the most exciting events in the wine lovers’ calendar. It's a world-wide party
that to some is frivolous... to many it is the most important event in November next to Thanksgiving.

Sunday Spaghetti
Nights: Celebrate Military Family Appreciation Month with All-You-Can-Eat Spaghetti dinners
with a variety of sauces. Don’t forget the meatballs and garlic bread and sell wine.

Customer Service Tip...
The average person knows 250 people, either directly or indirectly. Motivate each of your
employees to bring in at least 3 of his or her 250 acquaintances. Have employees hand out special
cards with their names on them—each card good for one free soda or game of bowling. Record and
post the total purchase of each redeemed card next to the employee’s name. Reward the team member
whose customers have the highest total purchases among the cards redeemed. (From Jim Sullivan’s
book “Mind Your Own Business”)

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December

Bingo Birth Month (1929)

4    National Cookie Day

13  National Hot Cocoa Day

25   Christmas Day      

29   Bowling Ball Invented (1862)

31   New Year's Eve  

Scott AFB Outdoor Recreation:
OPEN HOUSE:
Outdoor Recreation at Scott AFB just held our first ODR / ITT open house in conjunction with Cinco De Mayo. We offered food for all that came in the form of chip and salsa, mini tacos, mini burritos and even hot dogs for those that did not like the other stuff. We had kids games, bounce house and fire department smoke house. We had a large group of sponsors that gave away free weekend stays and ball tickets etc.

The entire ODR facility was decorated for the theme and we even broke piñatas every hour on the hour. ODR also show cased all of our equipment rentals to include the new FEMA trailers (Got a lot of rentals on them that day) boats, and other equip. A paintball display was set up and people got to shoot paintballs, The YMCA brought out the climbing wall to help us advertise our outdoor adventure programs such as the rock climbing trip.

Since we are located so far from the main base many people do not know who or where we are. This was a great event and many folks commented that they did not know we had all of this stuff. We had approx 1,000 people here at the ODR facility and the event was a huge success.

If your base population does not know about you do an open house it will be well worth it.

Doug Hartung
Outdoor Recreation Dir.
Scott AFB Il.

Dover AFB Marketing:

 First Term Airmen Center (FTAC)
FTAC Classes are held once or twice a month here at Dover and number anywhere from 8 – 31 members. For every FTAC class, a tour of services facilities is conducted. The last facility visited is the bowling center where the class is introduced to our programs and receives a tour of the facility. 

Working with FTAC and Services Marketing, we set up a free game of bowling and shoe rental for each class member. This results in an increase in revenue in a couple of ways. The members purchase food and beverages through our snack bar on this visit and very often they stay and bowl another game of bowling.

Our Marketing Department provides the coupons and covers the cost. We charge the reduced amount of $2.00, $1.00 for lineage and $1.00 for shoe rental.

Overall this turns out to be a win-win situation for everyone. The airmen have an enjoyable afternoon, becoming familiar with what we have to offer and the bowling center cultivates new customers while making some additional profit.
 

Tuesday and Thursday Special (T&T)
During the week the bowling center offers two days of special price bowling (T&T) which is $1.00 game and $1.00 shoe rental.  This is our 2^nd full year and the program is growing in strength resulting in a significant increase in our customer and repeat customer base since starting this program. 

Originally we started the T&T program to attract our league bowlers in to practice at a reduced price.  We noticed over time that the majority of bowlers taking advantage of this program are actually just recreational bowlers.

These bowlers started coming in during lunchtime which hasn’t happened in a few years at Dover. At night time we ended up with a waiting list which once again is something that hasn’t happened here for some time.

Linda Sperry
Marketing Director,
Dover AFB, DE

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