Conventions & conferences
Convention & Conference Entertainment Booking: Dueling Pianos, Solo Piano and Piano Karaoke for Every Night of Your Event
A convention isn't one event. It's a welcome reception, a few dinners, an awards night, sponsor parties and a closing celebration, often spread across two or three ballrooms in the same resort. Most planners end up hiring a different act for each one and managing a stack of contracts, riders and load-in times. JMD Entertainment books convention and conference entertainment as one package, so every night of your event has the right music and you have one point of contact for all of it.
Recent convention work
This fall our talent played two Reno conventions back to back, with two very different formats:
- Asset Living at the Peppermill Resort. Modern Dueling Pianos, the dueling show JMD books, played Asset Living's convention at the Peppermill in Reno: a big, high-energy all-request show for a room full of colleagues from across the company.
- Title Sales Mastery at Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. JMD founder James Michael Day played solo piano for the Darryl Turner Corporation's Title Sales Mastery conference cocktail reception at Atlantis in Reno. DTC has already booked him back for 2027.
Same city, same month, two different jobs. One room needed a party, the other needed polished music that let people network. Matching the act to the moment is the whole point of booking through an agency.
Matching the act to each part of the convention
- Welcome receptions and cocktail hours: solo piano. One singing pianist with a small, clean sound system. Attendees can talk, meet and reconnect, and the music lifts the room without taking it over. Requests are welcome as the night warms up.
- Awards dinners, closing nights and sales kickoffs: dueling pianos. Two pianist-singers, an all-request show and plenty of shout-outs for award winners, top performers and the leadership team. It gets a mixed corporate crowd singing together without forcing anyone onto a dance floor.
- After-parties and hospitality suites: piano karaoke. Karaoke hosting with a live piano player behind the singer instead of a backing track. Attendees become the show, and the host keeps it moving and makes even nervous singers sound good.
- Dance nights: a live band. If your closing party needs a dance floor, JMD represents live bands for R&B, soul, funk, country and classic rock. James has also played a big band corporate event at Wynn and Encore Las Vegas for AppDynamics, so large-scale corporate dance nights are familiar territory.
Why one booking partner makes a convention easier
- One contract, one invoice. Book the reception pianist, the awards-night dueling show and the after-party karaoke together instead of chasing three vendors.
- Production included. JMD brings the pianos, sound, lighting and staging with the talent, and works alongside the hotel's in-house AV team when one is required.
- Built around your run of show. Send us the agenda, room flips and load-in windows, and we'll plan set times around keynotes, dinners, awards and speeches.
- A deep roster. Our talent roster includes dueling pianists, solo piano-vocal performers and karaoke hosts, so we can often cover more than one room on the same night.
Where we play conventions
JMD Entertainment is based in Northern California and books conventions and conferences across the Bay Area, Sacramento, the Central Valley, wine country, Reno and Lake Tahoe. Reno's convention resorts are familiar ground for our team; our guide to Reno and Lake Tahoe event entertainment covers planning details for Nevada events. For tech and corporate conferences in the South Bay, see our guide to corporate event entertainment in San Jose and Silicon Valley.
How to book convention entertainment
- Send the agenda. Convention dates, the hotel or venue, expected attendance and which receptions, dinners or parties need music. A budget range helps us recommend the right mix.
- We recommend a lineup. Solo piano, dueling pianos, piano karaoke, a band or a combination, with production and timing notes for each room.
- We handle the details. Contracts, performer coordination and day-of logistics stay with us, so your team can focus on the attendees.
To check your dates, use the booking form, call or text (408) 203-5563, or email [email protected].