Client: Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) Event: Convention entertainment night Venue: Vancouver Convention Centre Date: October 24, 2024, and booked again for November 5, 2026 Entertainment: Party Pros Vancouver: close-up magic, a feature magic show, buzzer games and karaoke, with MC Mike Oulton
The objective
HEU represents health care workers across British Columbia. Its convention night is the members' own: a night to unwind with people who do the same hard work they do.
Nina Hansen, who was organizing it, found us through the website and wrote in with one line: a corporate event at the Vancouver Convention Centre, looking for a quote.
The challenge
The night ran across two rooms. The main room had a live band. The second room was ours.
A second room is where events quietly lose people. If nothing is happening when guests wander in, they wander back out, and the room sits half-empty for the rest of the night. It also had to work for everyone who came, including the families who brought their kids.
The solution
Mike Oulton and I came in as Party Pros Vancouver, one team running the room from start to finish, so it never sat waiting for the next act.
- Cocktail hour: close-up magic in guests' hands as people arrived.
- Games: buzzer games and minute-to-win-it rounds, including a set for the kids.
- The feature show: an interactive magic show built around audience participation, and built for every age. The kids came in to watch it with their families.
- Karaoke: HEU asked for it in the same room once the show finished, not in a separate booth. So the show ended and Mike turned the room straight into a karaoke party until 11.
We asked HEU for a few prizes for the games, and Nina's team sorted out ten for the winners. A game with something on the line plays very differently from one without.
The result
Our room was packed, and it stayed packed. By karaoke the whole room was up, waving and singing along.
The next day I sent Nina a clip, since she'd spent most of the night running things in the main room. Her reply:
"Clearly our group also had a great time. I did pop in a few times and heard some amazing talent!"
Nina Hansen, HEU
The amazing talent was her members. That's the job, really: give a room of people the excuse, and they turn out to be the show.
Getting invited back
When HEU started planning 2026, most of the people organizing it hadn't been in that room in 2024. A great night doesn't sell itself to people who weren't there.
So I'd stayed in touch: a holiday card, a note at Chinese New Year, a few posts about the night. When the date came up, I made sure the people planning it heard what the second room had actually done. We're booked again for November 5, 2026, back at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
This year there are more young kids coming, so the childcare team asked if the magic could come to them for 15 minutes instead of the kids coming to the show. It can.
The principle
Every room at your event is the main room for whoever is standing in it.
If you're splitting a night across two spaces, the second one needs a host, not just a playlist. Give it a team that runs it from the first guest to the last song, and it stops being the overflow room.
If you're planning a convention night or members' event with more than one room to fill, let's talk about how to run the second one.
Frequently asked questions
What entertainment works for a union convention night?
Interactive entertainment works best, because the point of the night is members connecting with each other. At HEU's convention night at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Party Pros ran close-up magic at cocktail hour, a feature magic show, buzzer games and karaoke, all in one room with one team hosting it end to end. Members went from watching to taking part, and by karaoke they were the show.
How do you keep a second room busy when the main room has a band?
Give the second room its own host and a reason to stay. At HEU's event the main room had a live band, so Party Pros ran the other room from cocktail hour to 11 pm with no gaps: magic, games, a show, then karaoke straight after. A room that never sits idle doesn't empty out.
Can a magician and MC entertain adults and kids at the same event?
Yes. At HEU's convention night, the kids had their own set of buzzer games and minute-to-win-it rounds, and they came in with their families for a feature show built for every age. For HEU's 2026 night, the magic is going to the childcare room for 15 minutes, so the youngest guests don't have to leave it.
How far ahead should I book entertainment for a convention at the Vancouver Convention Centre?
Book six to twelve months ahead for October through December, since Q4 dates regularly sell out by August. HEU's 2026 night was confirmed at the start of September for a November 5 event. Outside peak season, six to eight weeks is usually enough. The Vancouver Convention Centre is in my home base, and travel is built into the quote instead of added as a separate line item.
