Archives for October 2013

Good Clean Fun for Halloween

For all of you who read my “serious” article last time about how hotel managers pick and choose which meetings to pursue, you can relax because this week, I am just having fun.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Before I was a meeting planner, or a hotel geek or even just a hotel employee, I was a child who grew out of trick-or-treating early and moved on to scaring the pillowcases out of the hands of my friends and neighbors.  It all started when I took over the exterior house decorations from my parents and spent after school hours in October building a fake guillotine from scrap wood, to complement the spider webs and tombstones.


I was so excited about my decorations, I wanted to be part of the action, so I dressed myself as a grim reaper with a big gown and hood, and I sat slouched over in a chair on the lawn looking like a stuffed mannequin, while my mom waited on the porch with a bowl of candy looking perfectly friendly.  As groups would advance up the driveway, I would lunge toward them, eliciting screams and making some people run back to the sidewalk.  It was tons of fun.

Now I am a Dad, and I have my own little trick-or-treater to follow around, but I still appreciate a good clean prank.  The internet has made it possible to see how some people go to great lengths for the pranks.  One of the best is a guy who pranks fast food drive through windows.  I wanted to share one of his recent videos because it made me (and anyone I can corner in my home or office for 3 minutes) laugh really hard.  In the video, the prankster uses his invisible driver trick, along with a full size skeleton to get some truly genuine gasps from the restaurant employees he visits.  This video is completely safe for work (no bad language or violence), but you do need to be able to hear it.

And for anyone who needs a hotel for an upcoming meeting, or group trip, but is scared to start calling around and facing the terror of high hotel room rates, just call or email me at VenueQuest.  I promise I won’t scare you!  Contact me by email at dan@venuequest.com, or by phone at 678-977-1977.