•
.,..k.,
,
•
mess
Left:
Chili's employees work
together at the "Chiiimpics."
Above:
Other Chili's employees work
on "team float."
Right:
Carol Parven at the door of her
new office.
(,) These
LI entrepreneurs
I are in the
ID- business of
having fun.
LLJ
1-E STEVE STEIN STAFF WRITER
52
ilI
lhe responsibility for making sure a bar or bat mitzvah par-
ty, wedding reception or corporate outing is a success doesn't
, . have to fall on the shoulders of the family or company orga-
nizers anymore. There are experts in the field, and they have
turned parties into a big business.
The party people include ex-Bloomfield Hills resident Car-
ol Parven, the former coordinator of Family Camp and "Bub-
bie, Zayde and Kinder Camp" for the Fresh Air Society. She
is now the owner of the Fun Factor in Boston, which she found-
ed shortly after her arrival there in 1991.
Then there's Star Trax, a West Bloomfield firm owned by
founder/CEO Marc Schechter, 28, and vice president Renee Cher-
rin Erlich, 27.
Both Ms. Parven and Mr. Schechter began their companies work-
ing by themselves out of their homes.
After flying solo for four years, Ms. Parven now has a 2,000-square-
foot office in a historic building in Newton Upper Falls, Mass., two
full-time employees and 50-70 part-timers. Her company does about
700 events per year.
Charges for Fun Factor
services range between
$160 for 90 minutes of ac-
tivity at a birthday party to
$12,000 for Fun Factor's
role in a recent Reebok hol-
iday party which was at-
tended by 700.
Star Trax clients can
spend between $100 and
$30,000. Mr. Schechter said
his company did about 700
events last year — roughly
half of them bar and bat mitzvahs — and he hopes to increase that
number to approximately 1,100 in 1995.
In addition, Star Trax's less-than-year-old valet parking service
will be provided at about 240 events this year. Star Trax has 12 full-
time employees, including operations manager Mitch Rosenwass-
er, and about 70 part-timers.
Besides her work with the Fresh Air Society, Ms. Parven was a
nurse's aid, counselor, program director and yearbook editor at Camp
Sea-Gull and chairwoman of the Associated Students of Michigan
State University programming board.
She's brought her experiences from all those jobs to her Fun Fac-
tor offerings.
Ms. Parven focuses mainly on interactive entertainment at cor-
porate events, summer outings, holiday functions and corporate
team-building sessions. She has done events in all six New England
states, Detroit, several other U.S. cities, and New Zealand.
President Bush attended one of Ms. Parven's functions in Boston
— a dedication of a new building at the Perkins School for the Blind.
Ms. Parven's parents, Howard and Marcia, were at the event to work