STRESSED ABOUT BOOKING TA Let Eventique Do the Matchmaking for You
A s you read this, someone looking for love is sitting at their kitchen table, writing a check to a matchmaker. You might associate matchmaking with cultures outside the U.S., over-the-top Hallmark movies, or the disastrous scene from Disney’s “Mulan,” but The New York Times reports it’s still a thriving industry in America — and some professionals charge up to $25,000 a pop to help their clients fall in love. Why is matchmaking big business? Well, finding a date on your own is time-consuming, stressful, and rife with uncertainty — just like booking an act for a 6,000-person charity gala where hundreds of thousands of donation dollars are on the line. After a few hours of making phone calls and skimming celebrity bios, you’ll end up with your head in your hands, an impossible question revolving in your mind: Is this person really a good fit? Fortunately, event matchmakers like Eventique can take the stress out of that process. Bring the team a list of traits you need in a host, performer, or musician, and they’ll hunt down your perfect “date.” No order is too tall! Just consider the ideal match they made in 2018 for Uncommon Schools. “We were producing a 20th anniversary event for Uncommon Schools’ North Star Academy, and they asked us to identify a speaker who had an educational background and who could resonate with both parents and students in their community,” recalls Eric Weilander, Eventique’s Vice President of Creative and Strategy. “We did our homework and identified the hip-hop artist, actor, and activist Common.”
Common’s mother, Dr. Mahalia Hines, was a public school teacher and principal in Chicago, and Common himself checked all of Uncommon Schools’ boxes. Like the majority of the Newark, New Jersey, students, Common is Black, and the combination of his rise to fame in the mid-90s and his successful 2016 album (“Black America Again”) made him an exciting pick for both students and parents. Plus, he runs his own nonprofit focused on empowering young people from tough backgrounds: the Common Ground Foundation.
“We thought that his delivery could be a mix of speech and rap, and he could freestyle about his upbringing in the education system,” Eric says. “We knew he would be a good fit for the role — and it turned out he was.” On the day of the event, Common stepped onto a custom stage shaped like a 13-point star and wowed the audience side-by-side with student performances, keynotes from executive staff, and a message from Senator Cory Booker. This was far from the only time Eventique made a perfect
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