Testimonials

Hello, Lak -I’ve just booked a couple who heard about Mount Misery from a friend who read about it in your newsletter. I don’t know what your article said, but it was clearly encouraging enough to beget a booking. Thank you!
Thanks again.Stacy & Malcolm Ringel
You’re a sharp cookie, good businessman and nice guy! I like that combination. Best,Jerome Barry
EmbassySeries.com
By the way, i think your fax marketing is GREAT!Gary Silversmith
Owner, US Presidential Yacht SEQUOIA
The Watergate
Washington, DC
I’ve advertised now twice with Party Digest and I believe that they are definitely hitting folks who wouldn’t normally be on our email list — although it can be difficult to measure who comes from which areas of advertising (since we do lots of marketing — web, email, snail mail, flyers, etc) – our own 4500 person email list, website ( www.blameitonjane.com ), press placements, links from other venues, etc., but i would recommend giving them a shot and see how it works out! one way to measure (which proved that their folks were indeed clicking in) is to have them publicize with a link to your website and then count your hits after the ad — and then send out your own solicitation to your folks on another day — good luck! lak is a great guy and lots of fun!jane
“We’re delighted to be a partner with the Party Digest who is providing us with additional off-line presence and visibility,” said Connie Ling,
President & CEO, Foofoo.com. “With the PartyDigest, Foofoo.com members have
another quality source of information to be ‘in the know’ and a way to participate in events that are about the fun and finer things in life.”

Phil Hawken, co-founder/Director of Operations, Foofoo.com:

“I wanted to let you know how pleased we’ve been with everything you’ve done for us. You’ve really done a good job with getting the Foofoo name out there and introducing us to the Washington scene. Thank you for all your hard
work…If we can be of any help in terms of references or customer
testimonials, just let me know and it shall be done. Party Digest has really
been a great relationship for us, and we really do appreciate your efforts.”


Washingtonian
Want to feel like an insider and get advance notice of parties and events? Some singles use a “party newsletter” to help plan an active social life.ThePartyDigest, published by Lakhinder Vohra, is aimed at an audience in its thirties and forties and concentrates on embassy receptions, private parties, wine tastings, and balls. It’s $25 for a six-month fax subscription, $40 for a year; $30 or $50 by mail. Call 703-313-8703; fax 703-313-8705; e-mail prtydigest@aol.com; or visit https://partydigest.com
The Washington Times
Party Pages Pay
Festive-events fax fills foreigner’s financial calendarBy David FieldEven after the nonstop parties of the holiday season, Lak Vohra is up for more, as many as five parties a week.

After all, they’re his job as editor and publisher of the Party Digest, a new fax news service for Washington networkers, hearty-partiers and other year-round celebrants.

This is not so far away from his first job as a “calendar boy” at the Indian Express in New Delhi, India’s largest English-language newspaper; and his first U.S. job as an editorial assistant helping out on the calendar at the Washingtonian magazine.

“Everyone does calendar and party listings as part of a larger publication; there’s no single central source, and, in this city, there’s a need:’ said Mr. Vohra in his Falls Church home office.

“After all, there is a demographic here, plenty of single people between 24 and 30 years who go out two or three times a week and are willing to spend $65 for an average event,” he says.

He gets most of his information about coming events by going to events and finding new contacts.

“I won’t leave a party until I have at least five business cards” or other pieces of paper with a useful tidbit, Mr. Vohra said.

After winning a Rotary scholarship that brought him to the States, Mr. Vohra studied at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he took a master’s degree.

Mr. Vohra, 30, launched the Party Digest in September and now claims about 3,000 readers for his two editions a month (with an extra last month.) The introductory rate is $19 for six months.

His target audience includes music lovers, wine connoisseurs, executives of nonprofit groups and of trade associations, professional meeting and party planners, catering companies, hotel concierges, night-club and health-club managers, advertising agencies, political consultants and public relations executives.

The Party Digest lists happenings, clubs to join, restaurant galas, charity balls, art gallery openings, concerts and other events, many of which do not make the city’s two major daily newspapers or its variety of weekly and monthly publications.

The Digest, Mr. Vohra said, tries to pick up the slack left by the demise of two of the area’s glossy magazines, Washington Dossier and Museum & Arts Washington, but aims at a younger crowd than did those upscale books.

“People party to meet other people but they also want to set up networks, to get into groups:’ he says.

“There’s almost a business cycle of new people coming in and mixing for a ‘few months and then going off and forming their own groups. They need guide.”

But Mr. Vohra joined the party circuit in his three years as an editor for Association Trends, which tracks one of Washington’s largest industries

trade groups and associations, from the potato chip society to the fertilizer institute and so on.

“I was going out and working receptions three, four; sometimes five nights a week and I realized that ‘there was market here,” he says of his duties for the Bethesda-based publication.

It was only after several years that the ownership bug struck.

“I was approaching my 30th birth-day and wanted to have my own business aria be my own boss. I approached my publishers and asked that they let me become a publisher so that I could learn the business side but it soon became clear that I would have to be on my own.”

Two weeks before his birthday, Mr. Vohra launched Party Digest.

His start-up capital, “somewhere between $7,000 and $10,000;’ came from savings, from borrowing on credit cards, bartering and “hustling really hard.”

He had to buy a computer (Apple Macintosh), modem, printer and programs, as well as his tuxedo. Early sponsors and advertisers included players in Washington’s sharply competitive catering and events industry, photographers, and ads for specific parties at area hotels.