Repeat clients make up the backbone of my business, and I undoubtedly would not be where I am today without them. One of the businesses that has become a multiple-instance corporate client of mine is Avnet, for whom I performed at the Dell EMC in Horseshoe Bay, Texas. After the positive reviews I received regarding my magic show at that event, Avnet (in conjunction with computer manufacturer Lenovo) invited me to attend the Ascend FY20 conference in Dublin, Ireland.
While this wasn’t my first trip across the pond, Ascend FY20 was undoubtedly one of the largest and most well-attended conferences at which I have had the privilege to perform. Among others, corporations such as Intel, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, Avnet, and Dell sent representatives to Dublin in order to network and gather information on emerging technologies in the computer industry. As is usually the case, my job was to keep the attendees entertained between sessions and facilitate the speaker series as the emcee.
While my career is obviously centered around my work as a performance magician and professional card-thrower, I also have a degree in marketing which helps me to integrate the brand and message of my client companies into the performance I am putting on for them. In this case, I was tasked with working with the following phrases: Further Faster; Power Plays; All In; and Let’s Go Win. My first strategy was to integrate these terms into the main opener’s introduction – I explain to the audience that magicians can move “further faster” as we are always one step ahead of our audience, we have to make the right “power plays” by choosing the right audience members for our tricks, and we try to influence them to “go all in” so that we can “win” by leaving them amazed!
Given that the conference’s mission was to bring people together, support each other, and collaborate as one solid unit, it was my job to break up the monotony of the day in order to foster connections and positive memories between the groups attending the convention. Towards the end of the sessions, I spent about three hours showing my magic and mentalism routines to the attendees in a more one-on-one setting. Considering that the end of the night involved standing outside the hotel throwing cards all over the building, I’d say it was a successful attempt at engaging the employees and creating good memories!
Aside from providing me with a great business opportunity and a number of awesome professional moments, Ireland ended up being one of the coolest places to which I have travelled. My host Joe Bellanti from Avnet invited me out to the Guinness Factory (a place that held special meaning to me as a Guinness World Record holder) and a famous Roundroom in Dublin. One of my favorite moments of the trip came when I was walking through the streets of Dublin after my performance. While I expected to be treated like a stranger by the people of Ireland (from whom my home is located many thousands of miles away), I actually ended up being recognized by fans on the street! There was even a magician who saw my post on Instagram and took the bus one hour into the city to meet me at my hotel (check out the video we made together here!). It is moments like these that prove to me that the dreams of a 10 year-old kid with a magic kit have finally been realized in full.
If you are interested in hiring a performance magician or entertainment company to emcee, perform, or simply break up the speakers at a corporate event, please contact me today so that we can talk about putting together a show for your company!