Have A Spooktacular Halloween from Banquetevent.com!

Wishing you all a safe and fun Halloween!

If you like carved pumpkins but don't want to deal with the hassle of cleaning out the insides and making a mess, click here to start carving your very own pumpkin.

Check out our work below. Okay, okay, we admit it's the prettiest pumpkin of all, but give us a break!

7-Election

Last week we blogged about the sales of political Halloween masks and how their sales can often predict the winner of the presidential election. Now comes another, so-called "predictor" from 7-11 convenience stores. Let us introduce you to the 2008 7-Election, where 7-11 coffee drinkers show their support for one candidate over another by drinking from their respective choice's coffee cup.

Now you may be like us and wonder if any of these "predictors" are really accurate. Well, according to 7-11, during the 2000 7-Election, the George W. Bush cups outsold the Al Gore cups by just 1%...and we all remember how that election turned out. 7-11 also states that during the 2004 7-Election, the results tracked identically with published national election results: 51% George W. Bush and 49% for John Kerry (within a few percentage points of actual poll results in many states!).

So where does the 7-Election stand today? According to the national results tallied thus far, Barack Obama leads John McCain 60% to 40%. In Washington State, Obama also leads McCain 68% to 38%.

Can this all be true? Time will tell. Click here to track the results yourself.

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Advertising For Your Holiday Event

The holidays are just around the corner, and chances are, you are busy as bee planning your company holiday event. How will you market it to your fellow employees? We highly suggest using online meeting registration and marketing to spread the word...here's why...

Company Meeting and Event Websites
The Internet has quickly become one of the most efficient and cost-effective meeting marketing and communication tools. A meeting website, e-mail marketing campaign and online registration will boost attendance for almost any event, meeting or conference. Consideration for a unique event website might be applied as an incorporated part of your company or groups permanent website, or a standalone site or both! Effective meeting/event web site components you should consider including on the site could be:

• On-Demand Attendance Reports
• Email Invitation and Attendance Campaign
• 24/7 Meeting/Event Registration
• Venue Information
• Accommodation Details
• Program & Agenda
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Web Casting (video options)
• Content Archiving
• Post-Event Follow-Up

Online Event Program Management
Event planning online through use of on-line form submissions, emails and updates quickly and easily creates a unified affect that when done well, will narrow the physical or perceptive distance that might exist within your team(s).

• You can track the progress of program development more easily.
• Your team will communicate more effectively with each other and with the meeting presenters.
• Much of the information in the program development system can be automatically used in emails and on web pages.
  

Online Meeting Registration
Online meeting registration can increase registrations while decreasing registration costs! In fact, the simplicity and convenience of online registration is a critical contributor to assuring high attendance for many events. When considering companies to work with make sure they can offer you a visible proven track record for many unique types of events they have setup on-line registration within your company’s needs and details.

• Do not overlook a company who is not a “known” factor.
• Do your research. It will pay heavy rewards in the end.

Meeting Webcasting
Web Casting and archived audio, video and presentation content enables expanded distribution of meeting content. It makes a very efficient tool to connect with those who may not be able to attend your meeting or event.

HOT Tip! You've all heard about eVite, but have you checked out PINGG? PINGG is an online event invitation and management service. And it's free!

I WILL VOTE 2008

Hey all you voters? Want to spread the word that you will be voting come this November? Send in your "I Will Vote" photo to the Secretary of State website. Check out some of the great photos we've found of local voters pledging to vote.

Mock Election 2008

If you have children in grades K-12 and want to teach them about the importance of the upcoming election, encourage them to vote in the Washington State Mock Election. Voting starts at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, October 27 and the polls close at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 31. Results are posted after 5:00 p.m.

When voting begins, students participating in the Mock Election must "register to vote" by submitting their name and school. They will immediately receive a unique voter ID number, a printable voter registration card, and their ballot. Ballots are cast online. Election results will be available after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 31.

Students will vote on all the same issues facing adults and will also vote to elect the next President and Vice President of the United States as well as local Governor.

Click here to learn more about the Mock Election.

A Computer Like You've Never Felt Before

HP is introducing a whole new option for PC lovers. And even we Mac users have to admit, it's pretty darn cool. Meet the HP Touchsmart IQ804 and IQ816 All-in-One Desktop PC that works similarly to your iPhone or iPod touch, only it also has all the conveniences of features of a regular desktop computer.

What The Retailers Are Saying:
Redesigned with a next-generation, touch-enabled 25.5-inch high-definition LCD screen, the HP TouchSmart IQ804 all-in-one desktop PC is designed to fit wherever life happens: in the kitchen, family room, or living room. With one touch you can check the weather, download your e-mail, or watch your favorite TV show. It's also designed to maximize energy, with a power-saving Intel Core 2 Duo processor and advanced power management technology, as well as material efficiency--right down to the packaging. It has a sleek piano black design with elegant espresso side-panel highlights, and the HP Ambient Light lets you set a mood--or see your keyboard in the dark.

The touch-enabled 25.5-inch widescreen BrightView LCD offers height/tilt adjustment for optimal viewing. It offers a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. Video is powered by the Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS HD graphics/video card, which provides 256 MB of dedicated video RAM and offers up to 2047 MB of total available graphics memory as allocated by Windows Vista. Enabled by PureVideo HD, movies come to life with outstanding picture clarity, ultra-smooth video and vivid color. The lifelike images have up to six times the detail of standard DVD movies. Delivering state-of-the-art graphics performance, GeForce 9300M GS graphics card is sure to give you the power and performance you crave to play the hottest DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 titles. Its 16x full-screen antialiasing technology delivers superior quality along with astounding performance and since it's optimized for Windows Vista. The integrated audio card is configurable to 6-speaker surround sound, and it can provide two-channel audio via its integrated speakers.

Watch the ad below:





The Touchsmart is not available yet, but you can pre-order yours at Amazon.com.

Blonds Have All The Fun

There is just no denying it. The staff at banquetevent.com loves animals. And in honor of Halloween, which is just around the corner, we wanted to share some photos with you of an adorable dachshund named Honey. We dare you not to fall in love.

View more pictures of Honey and her furry friends, check out Honey's flickr site.











Are you planning on dressing up your pooch for Halloween? Send us your pictures and we'll post them on our blog! Email us.