Featured image above is of the monthly improvisational Singing Circle hosted at Portal.
Proud as we are of our exceptional mineral display, the Portal Crystal Gallery has always been more than a gem shop. Our aesthetic is clean, white, and bright – it’s a beautiful space to be in – and we’ve hosted eclectic and wonderful events from the very start. We hope you’ll choose Portal for your next event!
You’ll see in this Blog thread – we have an independent Call to Artists as well – who present and consider a whole different set of variables when it comes to putting together a Show.
Fortunately, our space lends itself to the hosting of a variety of different types of events. All have access to a bathroom – it’s not officially handicap accessible – but it’s on the ground level, and the store is not entered with stairs. We have a full sized refrigerator; some kitchen amenities (hot plate, pitchers, a Brita), and some rolling shelves/working surfaces.
Our primary Wellness Space is called the Gallery / Class space. It has 20 chairs (here showing 2 presenters seats and 8 guest chairs). Its fourth wall is open and perfect for slide projection.
The Art pictured on the walls is that of Lidia Kenig-Scher (incidentally)…
Next, we have the (yellow) Sun Room, located downstairs on our “basement level”:
The Sun Room has those two lovely chairs – but across from them is a standard sized (and set up) massage table that can be taken down if need be (you bring your own linens if needed). We do shoes-off on this entire lower level, and the carpet space allows for 6-8 people to sit comfortably in a circle (more if the table is taken out).
Behind the Sun Room is the Back Stage room. You have to walk through the Sun Room to get to it, but they both have non-locking doors that close. The Back Stage room is where we most often host our Sound Healings. It holds 10 comfortably (as you can see below). This photo is an early event capture – we’ve added some design elements to warm it up since – but you get a sense of how it works and how it’s split up. In brightening it up, the main floor lamp seems blinding, but it was truly low light at the time. All rooms have a low light option.
Last but not least, we have the upstairs (blue) Sky Room, which is really just for two people (perfect for therapy, consultations, and Readings):
The Sky Room above is lit brightly from above, but has a table and floor lamp that can instead give it a more intimate feel. We also have a desk in there (just to the right of the scope of this image), which makes for a great a solo work space (if that’s what you’re needing). We do have Wi-Fi.
Historically, we’ve asked prospective presenters to fill out the SurveyMonkey located here (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5CX8YCB), which we still recommend. It can assist you in honing your thoughts regarding what you’d like to do at our space. First question many people ask is, what are your rates?
SPACE RENTAL OPTIONS Gallery/Class space: $65 per hour. Sun or Back Stage rooms: $45 per hour. Sky room: $25 per hour.
We understand there may be cheaper or shared spaces out there, which compete with these rates. To reward repeat renters and regulars, we often drop the hourly price if we can, to support what you’re doing.
Especially when we first opened – and some lucky folks have been grandfathered into this – we offered our space (and promotion!) for merely a percentage-of-the-door commission. If your event is during business hours – we don’t have to come in (or hire someone) specifically to be there during your event – which is helpful (including for your bottom line).
These prices are all for space only, for which we’d want you to prepay (non-refundably) upon booking. We learned some early lessons from people holding the space with no money down, and then cancelling. If you think there’s a chance you may need to reschedule (even if last minute, due to an emergency), we can discuss the possibility of making an accommodation for that contingency. If it’s far off, and you want to split payments, let us know,and we’ll see what we can do). Otherwise, the terms above will definitely apply.
We charge in hour increments, generally with a two hour minimum, which includes setup and breakdown time. We do this because we have to be there for you. And we want you to be realistic (and accountable) for the extra time it always takes to deliver programs. Fifteen minutes is not that realistic for a pre-and-post time buffer. Think “meet-and-greet” at the beginning, with conversational mingling afterwards.
Separately from our Space Rental offerings, we have some substantial Promotional Support we can lend to your event, if you like.
PROMOTIONAL PACKAGES Here are 20 things we deliver through our Portal Promotional Package.
GRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT 1) we create a custom graphic for Facebook (they have particular, and sometimes changing design specs we have to follow)…for this we need 2+ images up front: a photo of you – and/or a logo or a photo that represents the event: 2) we create a custom graphic for the Portal newsletter calendar (different size, less photographic, more of a horizontal banner)…for this we need 2+ images: a photo of you and/or a logo and/or photo that represents the event (could be same);
EVENT PAGE CREATION 3) we create a Facebook Event Page through our Portal Facebook Page (780 Likes + 831 Follows, as of Jan. 2019)…for this we need verbiage from you, as an event description, which we can craft together into final language; 4) we create a Portal Website event page with a unique and descriptive URL for your date(s); 5) we generate a Payment/Registration link, so people can sign up in advance, online (through us).
VIDEO (optional, but recommended) 6) we will discuss with you and schedule a short video session of you talking about your work for folks interested in attending…videos are single take, not edited, and taken on my iPhone (as have been all our Portal promotional videos); 7) we will upload your video to the Portal Facebook Page (sharing that link with you); 8) we will add subtitles to your video on Facebook (and verify/edit for accuracy); 9) we will upload your video to the Portal Crystal Gallery YouTube channel.
PROMOTION 10) we publish your event page onto Facebook & the Portal site ASAP upon contracting, for all booked dates; 11) we email you all event page links, as well as images created…so you can share them with your network, maybe invite people on Facebook; 12) I and our Social Media person (yes we have one on staff, to serve us and our presenters) integrate your events into our Social Media posting schedule for our various Pages & Profile, potentially reaching thousands of Followers; 13) we MAY invite people we think may be interested, through Facebook Messenger; 14) we MAY send out private (or Gmail batch) Messages where appropriate; 15) we integrate your horizontal event banner into our newsletter; 16) our newsletters go out to over 1200 Portal Subscribers (as of Jan. 2019) every week or so and routinely ASLO to our Crystal Concentrics metro-Boston list); 17) your event would appear in our newsletter’s “upcoming events” listing at least 2 weeks before your event; 18) your full image (promotional banner) would be included in at least 1 newsletter prior to the event; 19) we will hand-write your event onto our in-store sandwich board, which lists upcoming events (for visitors to see)…the sandwich board is by our front door now, and it’s readable from our side/front window after hours; 20) if you print a flyer, we’ll post it on our front shelves & bulletin board (used only for co-promotions now).
As you can imagine – all the above, including outsourced labor (our virtual assistants and tech people, as well as the cost of our platforms) – will cost us hundreds of dollars (and weeks) to implement. Think video, graphic, and social media chops…never mind the breadth of our own contacts and network…how can one easily put a price tag on all that? With our experience and expertise, the above could arguably be valued at a thousand dollars plus!
If we decide to work together, we wouldn’t charge you that full amount, because we want some ‘skin in the game’ ourselves, and we want to support your presence at Portal.
But I hope through enumerating all the steps above – that you can appreciate our painstakingly developed on-boarding process – and that you can easily understand why there would need for us to charge for our Promotional Services (quite independent of our Rental fees).
BONUS: FACEBOOK ADVERTISING We have years’ experience advertising on Facebook. It does not provide reliable outcomes, in terms of attendance, nor can any of our efforts be warranted to do so – but Facebook does supply reliable exposure for whatever it is you’re offering. We generally require our incoming Presenters to buy into this option, spending at least $20-50 per event to “get the word out there.” Our “cost per click” is generally below the standard $1-per-click in the industry, and in a recent promotion cost 66 cents per click to Boost an Event (and just a few cents “per view” on Video promotions!). This is something you’ll appreciate having booked into your budget.
PROPOSAL In conclusion – I would like to suggest whatever the rental fee is – that that be matched (at least) by a comparable amount to be invested in our Services. In other words – if your Rental fee is $130 (for just 2 hours in the big room) – you should consider (independently from your Facebook budget) paying us at least $150-250 (a very discounted rate, for example) for our additional Services. Remember, while the space rental could be for just a few hours, the Service provision is the same for a 10 hour event as it would be for a 1 hour event. We’ll look at your situation uniquely, and make an offer that seems fair to cover our costs. We want this experience to be affordable for you, particularly if you decide to work with us in an ongoing capacity.
Thanks so much for your consideration – again, here’s the Presenters’ Survey Link (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5CX8YCB) – feel free to email Kyle@PortalCrystalGallery.com or PortalPromotions@gmail.com. If you don’t hear back quickly, definitely write again, or call the shop line at 781-859-5397 and ask for Kyle.
Looking forward to connecting (and hosting your event at Portal)!
Sincerely, Kyle Russell co-founder of Portal Crystal Gallery
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