Anygig

Whether you’re holding a Memorial Day cookout, Fourth of July cookout or just a cookout with family and friends it’s a great time to socialize, relax and have fun.

Below are 7 tips to help you start your summer season off right. Most of us are very busy in todays world and let’s face it, that leaves us little to no time to plan a great cookout. Why not take advantage of all the services and products that are available on the web today to help you plan your party right from the comfort of your desk?

Here are our suggestions:

1. Make a guest list and send invitations

Figure out how big (or small) you want your party to be and make a guest list. Once you have made the guest list then it’s time to send out invitations. Traditionally invitations where sent out via snail mail but now, with the high cost of stamps (up to 44 cents per stamp) we suggest using an electronic invitation service, social networks or even email.

Web based invitation sites:

• evite: This web based service makes it easy to send invitations and keep track of who’s coming and who’s not.
• pingg: Another web based invitation site. Very easy to use and FREE!

Social Networks:

• facebook: Love it or hate it, facebook is a great way to get in touch with friends and to notify them about your event.
• myspace: Yes, people still use myspace. You can easily setup an event and inform your friends that it’s party time!

Simple Solutions:

• email: It’s pretty obvious, just type up an email and send it to your friends. At least it will help you save on stamps!
• text messages: I know that this is not the best way of inviting people to a cookout, but it is easy. Most phones allow you to send a message to multiple people at once. It’s not fancy, but it is quick and easy.

2. Plan your food

Since most cookouts consist of some type of grilling or bbq-ing make sure that you plan your food in advance. Once you have a good idea of how many people will be at your party figure out what you will be cooking so that you can buy the correct amount of food. Also, it’s a good idea to ask people to bring side-dishes and desserts, actually, most people will insist.

If you don’t have time to run to the store you can easily purchase your needed groceries online and have them delivered to your home:

Steaks & Seafood:

• Omaha Steaks: What’s a cookout without great steaks. Omaha steaks will deliver steaks, poultry, pork, lamb and even seafood right to your door.
• Allen Brothers: Great selection of Steakhouse quality products. They even have an online cooking guide to get you going.

General Grocers:

• Schwans: An online grocery store that will deliver food straight to your door via UPS in insulated cooler bags with dry ice to keep the food cold.
• NetGrocer: Another online store, very easy to use site. NetGrocer will deliver you food, for a fee, via FedEx.

Desserts:

• Dancing Deer Baking Co.: Large assortment of cookies, brownies and cakes.
• Gourmet Grocery Online: Huge assortment of cakes, pies, cookies, cupcakes and chocolates.

3. Decorations

To make your party stand out try to decorate your house in patriot fashion with American flags and red, white and blue ribbons. As an added touch, buy some small American flags and give them to all the children that will be attending, it will add to a touch of patriotism seeing them waving the flags. You can get everything you need online:

• Oriental Trading: Offers a huge assortment of decorations, toys and novelties.
• Shindigz: Party decorations ranging from Luau’s and birthday’s to graduations and weddings. They have it all.

4. Activities

Horseshoes can be a great way to pass the time during a Memorial day cookout. To put a modern twist on your party by picking up a beanbag toss set. It’s like horseshoes but without all the preparation and maintenance.

• Horseshoes Online: If you’re looking for the cream of the crop in competitive horseshoes then this is the site for you. They’ve been making thoroughbred horseshoes since 1978!
• Baggo: This has to be my favorite cookout game of all time. Some people refer to it as “corn hole”, I think I’ll call it bean bag toss.

For the kids find a friend with artistic abilities and set up a face painting stand. Kids love face painting.

5. Drinks

Typically, when we have cookouts, we offer some beer and wine but usually ask people to BYOB. Supplying alcohol for an entire party can be expensive and also, with all the choices in drinks, it’s almost impossible to please everyone with your selection. So, BYOB is the safest bet.

Check these sites out to find some great drink recipes:

• The Bar: If you want to make some mixed drinks then The Bar is the perfect website for find some great drink recipes.
• Drinks Mixer: Online directory of mixed drinks, 20,500+ to be exact.

6. Entertainment

Music really helps add to the ambiance of the party. There are many good applications and services for playing music through your computer or internet enabled home theater system:

• iTunes: Probably the most popular music management application out there. Create playlists and play music through your computer or connect it to an entertainment system.
• Last.fm: A popular Internet radio site for music. Users can create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm’s music library. Just type in your favorite artists and set the mood for your party.
• Pandora: An automated music recommendation service and custodian of the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. This service is very similar to last.fm.

If you are really looking to make your cookout stand out against all others then you should definitely hire a dj or solo-artist or live band for your party. If you don’t know where to start looking for an entertainer in your area then search through AnyGig’s artist directory. Don’t forget to check noise ordinances in the city or town, you don’t want to disturb the peace! There are some great sites that can help you find live entertainers in your area:

• AnyGig.com: You can search for actively gigging entertainers in your area. AnyGig allows you to search by Location, Genre and Entertainment Category. It also allows you to search for artists by keywords and even exact name searches. There are no bookings fees so feel free to contact as many AnyGig Entertainers as you would like. It will make your cookout the talk of the town!

7. The cleaning crew

Before the party even begins ask some of your closest friends and relatives if they could hang around for a little bit after the party is over to help you clean and take down any decorations. You’ll be happy that you did. Remember, many hands makes light work.

If you want to stay on the hi-tech side of things then before the party pick up a Roomba! Set it to start vacuuming after the party is done. When you wake up, your floors will be clean!

The AnyGig Team

As part of our “Using AnyGig” series the feature we are going to focus on today is the Twitter integration. Twitter is a very powerful social networking tool that is a great way for bands and performers to stay in touch with their fans. Your fans really do want to hear from you and keep up with what you are doing. Now, you can post directly to Twitter from AnyGig using a tool called Twire.

Twire allows AnyGig members to post tweets directly to Twitter and it also displays ALL your Tweets regardless if you posted then from AnyGig or from Twitter. It’s a very useful tool and easy to setup. So, how do you do this? Here’s how:

Enter your Twitter Credentials

1. Login and go to the Setting Tab – Login to your AnyGig.com profile – http://www.anygig.com/login – and click on the Settings tab on your profile. You will see three options to choose from, click on Twire to bring up the Twire settings.

In the Twire settings enter your Twitter username and password. There is also a section called “Prefix”, you can use this if you want everyone to know where the tweet originated (the default is From AnyGig:). If you don’t want a Prefix then simply leave it blank.

Where is Twire?

2. Open Twire – Twire can be found as one of your tabs in your profile. Just click on it and Twire will be displayed.

Write something!

3. Now write something - Now that you have setup your Twitter credentials it’s time to write something. Click in the text box and start writing. Remember, since we are posting directly to Twitter you will be limited to 140 characters.

Post your tweet...

4. Post your tweet - After you have finished writing your twitter post simply click on the post button, your post will instantly be updated on Twitter.

Your Twitter posts displayed in AnyGig

5. View your Posts – All your Twitter posts will be displayed in your AnyGig profile. Anytime you post, whether from AnyGig or from Twitter your posts will be displayed in both places.

There you have it, a quick an easy way to display your Twitter Posts on AnyGig. Go ahead and try it out, if you have any questions or problems please contact us!

Thanks,

The AnyGig Team

Since many of the features on the site are new we figured that it would be a good idea to take some time to explain the benefits and how to use the new features.

Our first feature that we would like to focus on is the YouTube integration. When developing the site we debated whether to have AnyGig host videos for our artists or to have a plugin that would reference videos that artist already have hosted on YouTube. Since YouTube is a highly popular video hosting site we thought that it made sense to go with the later.

Most venues, promoters and general entertainment buyers want to see a band or entertainer in action before hiring them for their event. The easiest way to do this is to display your YouTube videos directly on your AnyGig profile. So, how do you do this? Here’s how:

Configure YouTube Integration

1. Login and go to the YouTube Plugin – Login to your AnyGig.com profile – http://www.anygig.com/login – and click on the YouTube tab on your profile. You will see two options to choose from, “Show” (which displays your current videos once you have configured the YouTube integration) and YouTube Setting. Click on the YouTube settings option.

Enter your YouTube User Name

2. Enter your YouTube User Name – When the YouTube settings section opens you will see a field called “ID Number”, this is a fancy name for your YouTube username. Enter your YouTube username in this field.

Select the type of videos to display

3. Enter your display options - Now that you’ve entered your username you’ll need to choose what types of videos that you’d like to display on your AnyGig profile. There are two options, “Uploaded Videos” and “Favorites”. Most likely you’ll want to choose the Uploaded Videos option since you’ll want to display your own videos on your profile.

Save your YouTube settings

4. Save your Settings - Just click the Save settings button and you are done. It’s that easy. Now AnyGig can retreive all your uploaded or favorite videos on YouTube and display them in your profile.

Your videos from YouTube displayed in AnyGig

There you have it, a quick an easy way to display your YouTube videos on AnyGig. Go ahead and try it out, if you have any questions or problems please contact us!

Thanks,

The AnyGig Team

AnyGig improves upon their web-based live music community, adds social networking aspects.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) May 3, 2010 — (Dynamic Endeavors LLC)—AnyGig.com, originally released in 2005, announced a new website for entertainers and entertainment buyers/venues. Entertainers from around the world are using AnyGig to help them promote their talents and get more live performance gigs. Entertainers, Entertainment buyers and Venues can now access the new site at www.anygig.com.

“We are thrilled to bring artists and entertainment buyers together via a worldwide stage on AnyGig.com,” said David Aubin Jr, CEO of Dynamic Endeavors LLC, “It’s amazing to see artists using Anygig’s tools in order to expand their fan base as well as reach more venues and entertainment buyers. We’re very happy that our technology can help them get more gigs.”

AnyGig.com is a web-based, live music community that presents entertainers with an opportunity to showcase their talents by offering online profiles that display the entertainers biography, pictures, music and videos while helping them to get more paying gigs.

Aubin added that live performers will have an incredible opportunity to gain more exposure to a larger audience through the creation of their own artist profile pages where they can promote upcoming shows, music and videos.

Some of the key features of the new site are the social aspects that have been added. Entertainers can now interact with each other via site mail, groups and forums. The site also has twitter integration where entertainers can easily update their twitter accounts directly from AnyGig to easily keep their fans and friends informed. In addition, AnyGig has also introduced a new blog as well as a customized how-tos section to help entertainers and venues maximize their experience on the site.

“In order for our members to get more bookings we have developed an easy to use, cutting edge booking system”, said Eric Latour, Director of Development for Dynamic Endeavors LLC, “The new booking system will allow venues and entertainment buyers to easily hire artists on AnyGig.com and in turn allow for better communications throughout the overall booking process.”

Since the release of AnyGig.com, performers, musicians, bands, models, comedians, dancers, DJs, magicians, impersonators and more have jumped on board and made AnyGig.com their promotional tool and website of choice.

AnyGig has already established relationships over the past five years with a hundreds of artists, bands, venues and sponsors.

About AnyGig

AnyGig is a web site that helps live entertainers get gigs and entertainment buyers book the right bands. AnyGig offers a diverse range live entertainers, these entertainers represent an international community of artists, with a wide range of genres for any type of event. The company was launched in 2005 by Robert Young and James Merrill and was recently acquired by Dynamic Endeavors LLC. For more information about AnyGig.com and Dynamic Endeavors LLC, visit www.anygig.com & www.dynamicendeavorsllc.com.

For media inquiries please contact:

AnyGig.com

Robert Young

Hiring a band is not as easy as it sounds. At AnyGig, we try to make it simple and straight forward but sometimes it can be a little difficult. The entertainment you hire is the heartbeat of your party, if you hire great entertainment I can almost guarantee that you will have a great party.

We’ve put together a few easy steps to help you hire entertainment while protecting yourself at the same time.

1. What type of entertainment do you want? The first step is to decide what type of entertainment you want for your event. Do you want a band? A clown? A pianist? Get recommendations from friends, relatives, co-workers, etc.

2. Don’t disturb the peace! Make sure that you check with your venue for any noise or space restrictions. Find if there are any noise ordenences in the city or town where you are having your event. Oh, and make sure that you ask the manager what size band has worked best in the past.

3. Watch, Listen and Learn! On every AnyGig.com profile entertainers have a “media” section. In there you can listen to the entertainers songs, see their videos and view their pictures. Take your time and get a feel for the entertainers that will be right for your party. AnyGig even has event calendars, so get off the couch and go see some entertainers at their next public event. You’ll be happy you did!

4. Let’s get the party started! Now that you’ve done your research and found some bands that you are interested in it’s time to make contact. Use the booking tools on AnyGig to easily and quickly contact some entertainers. Tell them what type of event you are hosting and what you expect from them. If you’re hiring a band or a musician it’s a good idea to ask to see their playlist.

5. Cover your Assets! As a quick recap so far we’ve decided what type of entertainment that we want, made sure that the venue was right for the event, listened to and watched the artist perform and made the initial contact, Whew! At this point the entertainer will email (or call) you back to discuss the details of the event. It is very important that you make a contract that specifies the date of the event, setup and finish times, breaks, musician and emcee duties, rates, deposits, and cancellation and refund policy. Get this all in writing!

And there you have it, five easy steps to hiring entertainment with AnyGig.com. It’s sounds like a lot of work but believe us, it’s well worth it.

The AnyGig Team!