So... has Martin finally confirmed which band he's actually bringing in? Personally I thought it was rather unfortunate to leave this to the very last minute. The Congress' unique selling proposition is its live Latin American salsa band - I simply do not understand why Martin decided to squander this away. He did alright last year - he got people excited about La Banda Sigilosa... but this year it's like, "Hey come to the Congress... pay first and we'll tell you which band you'll get later".

What we usually do is we set a deadline way in advance for the confirmation of the artiste. If cannot confirm, we move on and get somebody else who's sensible enough to give a definite answer. Must leave adequate time and space to promote the artiste so that people will be interested to come, unless we decide he's just a sideshow and not the highlight of the event.

I think that's pretty much SOP in any event management company, actually.