Roxbury, N.J. – At the 2018 DJ Expo in Atlantic City, Artem Lomaz won the “Entertainer of the Year” prize after performing “Retro Paparazzi Bingo.”
Lomaz, owner of the Roxbury, N.J.-based NinetyThree Entertainment, describes the game as a scavenger hunt mixed with bingo.
“I called the numbers off of the board,” he recalls, “and once uncovered, there was a photo assignment for each team to capture with their instant cameras. Once they shoot the photo, they print it and stick it to the corresponding box on the bingo board. The second part of the game, which allowed everyone to participate, was to then share the images that the teams captured to social media – from our company’s social-media pages.
“The person whose re-share received the most likes wins a prize. So essentially, we combined classic party games with the social-media element, which I believe is so important now, as all guests want that social-media content to showcase how great the event is that they’re attending.”
Lomaz believes the game resonated with the Expo judges because of its versatility and simplicity – it’s games that people already know combined with socials. Voila!
“It can be incorporated into corporate events, mitzvahs, and even weddings,” he says. “There’s also a variety of ways to personalize the game to cater to everyone’s event or guest of honor.”
When we asked Lomaz how it felt to win, he replied, unsurprisingly: “Great!” He wasn’t sure how else to express it. “As a competitor, any time you’re in a competition, you want to win, and I was fortunate enough to do so. There was certainly a part of me that wished everyone could win something, as everyone that I was competing with is a colleague and many are friends.
“But ultimately, and I don’t want to patronize my competitors with platitudes, I felt that everyone that performed that evening was part of something very special, and only our small group knows what it was like to compete for the title in 2018.”
Lomaz says the victory has impacted his business – mainly on the marketing and public-relations end. “It’s certainly a portfolio-builder and very nice to have on the résumé,” he says. “It’s also extremely humbling and, in terms of performance, you certainly have an added pressure for each event to live up to the title. It’s a good pressure, it forces you to be continually better, and I love any excuse to look for improvement.”
