New Zealand Press & Media School Ball Contact Details:

What is a School Ball?

What is a School Ball? A school ball is a formal school dance held once or twice in a year. These events are formally hosted by high schools, universities and polytechnics all around New Zealand. Most of the events are held in commercial venues such as hotels, sports arenas and community halls however, several throughout the country are still taking place in the school hall or gym.

The events usually include food, most commonly cocktail/finger food but in some cities such as Auckland and Rotorua a full buffet dinner is provided. All school balls include photography, decorations and entertainment such as a DJ and/or a Band. The average duration of the ball is 4.5 hours with a start time of 7:30pm and a finish time of 12midnight. Saturday night is most common however, Fridays and some week days are starting to become popular in the bigger cities.

The New Zealand school ball season starts in March and finishes in December (with the exception of November) with June, July and August being the busiest months. Most schools only invite year 12 and year 13 students to attend however, it is known that many small area schools in the New Zealand rural communities will also allow year 11 students to attend. Students dress in formal wear such as evening gowns and suits; they arrive in all types of vehicles including limousines and party buses.

School ball events are organised by a committee of students and teachers and in some regions parents. These events are generally called school balls or “The Ball” however in the south island they are more commonly referred to as “The Formal” In other countries around the world such as the USA these events are comparable to “The Prom” or in Australia the “Grad Ball” or “Gradutation Ball”

What is schoolball.co.nz?

School Ball Planner limited was registered in August 2007 and is currently trading in Hamilton New Zealand. The schoolball.co.nz website was first launched in 2006 for the purpose of having an online information resource and business directory available to students, parents and teachers who maybe organising or attending their schools annual ball.

Who is Scott Eichler?

Scott Eichler is the business manager and company director who created schoolball.co.nz to help businesses advertise, promote and brand their product/services to high school students throughout New Zealand. Scott Eichler’s experience with school balls began in 1993 when he was working in professional photography and photograph development for Kodak Express, Dinsdale. Scott Eichler put aside photography in 1996 became a professional DJ and entertainer working for Sounzgood DJ Entertainment in Hamilton. In 1998 Scott Eichler was hired for his first school ball and since then he has performed for more than 560 school balls. In 2005 Scott Eichler developed the original school ball forum and from that date on he has been part of the school ball expo and forum presentation that takes place in several cities around New Zealand every year.

The original concept of the school ball presentation forum was to invite all schools to take part in a Q & A about the organising of school ball events this resulted in successfully educating students and teachers about event planning. In 2006 Scott Eichler worked with the Cambridge and Waikato police to implement a simple and safe system for teenagers to manage afterball events. Scott developed a how-to-guide from a ALAC publication written in 2000. Students from all around the Waikato had a extremely successful, incident free run of these events until 2010 when Auckland´s negative publicity filtered down to Hamilton resulting in the banning of all such events taking place in most of the Waikato.

New Zealand Press & Media School Ball Contact Details:

Key Contact: Scott Eichler
Phone: 0275438335
Email: scott@schoolball.co.nz
Linkedin: Scott Eichler

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