Energizing restaurants with events

No matter how many stars of screen or scene eat dinner there on the weekends, a new restaurant that can't fill its tables the rest of the week is a goner. That's where Bryan Jacobson, a former assistant talent agent at the William Morris Agency, comes in. For him, all those empty new eateries created an ideal opportunity to fill a niche in the corporate event planning business.
Mr. Jacobson's company, Corporate Events Manhattan Inc., schedules midweek corporate events at about-to-be-trendy restaurants and clubs. The gatherings garner upward of $50,000 per night for the startup venues and a 10% commission for Mr. Jacobson, who also works the crowd for new clients.
To date, Mr. Jacobson has a database of 700 in-house corporate planners, which has generated another profit center: launch parties at which both a new restaurant and a new product from a corporate sponsor are introduced.
Most event planners don't have their antennae tuned to the next hot spot channel, but Mr. Jacobson does. An entertainment industry insider who books corporate parties into such A-list spots as Eugene's, Man Ray, Groovejet and Chateau.
His client base has grown from five in 1996 to more than 100 today, and runs from Revlon to Lehman Brothers. He projects that he will hit revenues of up to $3 million this year as he puts a greater emphasis on the public relations and themed event aspects of his business.