HOW TO THROW A REALLY BIG SHOW

PROFESSIONAL PARTY-THROWER

1. ALWAYS START WITH A MISSION,GOAL AND THEME. A mission is your events reason for existing. You might be throwing a dinner party to create fellowship, a cocktail party to improve business or a benefit to help cure cancer. A goal is your event's purpose. Are you in it to raise funds, impress clients or simply encourage conversation and communication? A theme is what invites attention and interest in what you're doing. It might include timely events that pique curiosity. It's no accident that everyone in the advertising industry had a sports theme last year, an Olympics year.

2. WHATEVER EVENT YOU PLAN,DON'T GET IN OVER YOUR HEAD! I once did a dinner party in which I served an entire menu of things I had never before prepared. Nothing worked. I learned a lesson: Go with what you know. If you need to do something new, bring in people to do it for you.

Martin is executive vice president of Bands ofAmerica, a Schaumburg, Illinois-based non-profitevents company that throws 20 mega-events ayear. Some of his bigger coups include pulling together a 5,000-voice gospel choir in Atlanta andorganizing New York City's "Operation WelcomeHome" parade following the Gulf War in 1991. Hemajored in American studies.