Speak Easy Night

How has this idea enhanced your club's operation, etc.?

This event took place at the Country Club of Roswell in January 2019. The idea was to spontaneously surprise and delight our members with a pop up event open to a limited amount of members. This would then create a buzz among the members by creating FOMO (fear of missing out) and lead to even more excitement for our member events in the coming years. Our concept was a pop up "Speakeasy" theme to be announced via member eblast only two weeks prior to the event. Sign up limited to the first 30 members to sign up and then they would be texted the location and secret password the day of the event. We did tell them to dress in 1920's theme attire. Due to the secret location being limited in size and space, we could only accomodate 30 members for the event.

How was this idea implemented, and what have been the club members' reactions?

Our staff did a wonderful job of creating characters and dressing in the appropriate attire to entertain the members during the event. The staff even rehearsed skits that would be used during the evening to get participation from the invited members and to make the event feel like a real 1920's Speakeasy.

On the day of the event we texted out the secret entry password "Pumpernickel". We also told them to come to the Clubhouse basement loading dock door which was illuminated by a red bulb in the light fixture. Since most of the members had never been in the basement storage area, they had no idea what to expect upon entry. The door was locked and was only opened by our staff when we heard the correct password. Our entire basement storage area had been converted into a warehouse style "Speakeasy" by combining our existing fixtures and materials and renting a few items that made the space into a makeshift bar and dining space. We used soft lighting to create the correct effect and used a bluetooth speaker to play music of the 1920's. Both the staff and the members really got into the event and we had dice games using fake money, a cigarette girl and other mobster type characters. We matched the food and drinks to the theme. After an hour of cocktails, we created a skit using a siren and told the members that the police were coming and we had to escape down a back hallway. We led the members into our fitness classroom space that we had converted into a small dining room that also was decorated to match the theme. At the end of the evening, numerous members in attendance said that the event was the "most fun they ever had at the Club"! This event kicked off a great season of member events that even led to a season-ending pop up party with a "Caddyshack" theme that took place in our golf course maintenance facility.