By Claudia Hirsch

NEW YORK, Nov 20 (MNI) - If the economy is beginning to brighten, it's not evident in the holiday party plans of U.S. corporations, many of which won't be holding year-end celebrations, according to event service providers.

Whether because of appearances, finances or both, corporations are spending less or not at all on holiday festivities, venue managers and event planners said. In 2008, cancellations were rife as the economy and Wall Street imploded. This year, employers won't have to walk away from non-refundable deposits because they didn't make plans to begin with. Holiday revelry remains a casualty of the recession, as surviving companies continue to slash overhead and expenses. But private, non-corporate bookings have very recently started to revive.

The general manager of a New York City venue said corporate holiday business is down from a rocky 2008 season, despite competition having thinned during 2009.

"This is going to be a quiet year for parties," said Bill Kaelblein, who runs the Edison Ballroom, a high-end event space near Times Square. "It's not our losing events to anybody else it's people not having events. I'm getting very little in the way of cancellations."

The hard-hit financial services industry comprises the bulk of the lost business, Kaelblein said. Certain big names in that world have managed to make money this year, but because they're under both public and official scrutiny they're reining in discretionary outlays.

"Some companies don't think it's appropriate for public relations purposes to have a holiday event," he said. "They just don't want to read about themselves."

Kaelblein said fewer media companies are throwing year-end bashes for their employees. Some media and financial firms have held different types of events this fall, like anniversary parties or product launches, which cater more to their clients and leave most employees out of the equation, he said.

Despite the holiday fizzle, the Edison Ballroom has held more events in total this year vs. last, thanks to aggressive marketing and fewer New York City event spaces, Kaelblein said. After a slow start to the year, private bookings came around as the stock market did.

"We've had a nice influx of private parties, and that's a different economic indicator," he said of weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs. "It means that there are people who feel like they can spend a few dollars again. But companies are not ready to make that leap right now."

A Philadelphia-based party planner said his private bookings rebounded beginning in September, but corporate holiday events have lagged more than in past recoveries.

"A lot of companies are still not having parties this year," said Matt Ostroff, an event planner at EBE Events and Entertainment, which arranges events from Washington, DC to New York. "Corporate business all but died over the course of this year, but it seems to be slowly moving in the right direction."

Though firms started showing more signs of life this fall, Ostroff said total business year-to-date is down slightly vs. last year. Many existing corporate customers have scaled back, he said. One client in medical insurance decided to hold its 2009 year-end frolics at the president's home. After inquiring about a solo piano player for the reception, budget constraints prevented even that.

"They went from having a $9,000 band in a very expensive restaurant two years ago, to a $2,000 music ensemble at an upscale hotel bar last year, to zero this year," Ostroff said. "The one industry I thought was bullet-proof was healthcare."

But Ostroff said private party commerce is fairly bustling right now. Robust advertising campaigns across a variety of media have helped.

"There's definitely been an increase in revenue going into this fourth quarter," he said. Two non-corporate customers with parties in the making upgraded from a DJ to a live band this week. And a showcase of EBE's musical talent last weekend packed the theater with potential clients.

"We did over $100,000 in business in just one day, and we're elated," Ostroff said.

An event planner on the West Coast said corporate holiday bookings are at least 40% behind those of 2008.

"We're definitely behind, and we're getting very few repeat customers from last year," said Ashley Mitchell, of Events Extraordinaire, in Renton, Washington, just south of Seattle. "But we are getting last-minute business."

She said the economic downturn affected commerce last holiday season, but this year's impact has been more dramatic. Existing clients who have cancelled parties have had to forfeit non-refundable deposits, while others didn't start the planning process this year at all.

Stung by layoffs, technology clients who comprised the biggest part of Events Extraordinaire's business have cut back the most.

"They generally spend a lot on these parties, and now they're not doing them at all," Mitchell said.

Medical clinics continue to celebrate, however, only with slimmer budgets.

"I don't think anyone is spending as much as they would normally," she said. Entertainment, menu, liquor and venue outlays are all more modest. Many clients are opting for venues that don't have food or beverage minimums, which can reduce the per-head price from $20 from $60, she said. Likewise, a DJ might cost $500 compared to a live band price of $1,500. Mitchell said her casino-themed entertainment bookings are also off this season.

Like Kaelblein and Ostroff, Mitchell said that private affairs like birthdays and bar and bat mitzvahs have held up the best this year. In the last couple of months, her wedding bookings have bounced back, and so have pre-recession-level budgets. Wedding spending had been bruised in 2009, but brides who waited and saved are back and ready to go in 2010, she said.

A production manager for the online division of a major New York-based publishing house said this year's holiday party was scrubbed altogether. But he said signs were pointing toward the company's reinstating salary reviews late this year, after freezing pay through much of 2009.

Editor's Note: Reality Check stories survey sentiment among business people and their trade associations. They are intended to complement and anticipate economic data and to provide a view into specific sectors of the U.S. economy.

** Market News International New York Bureau, phone 212-669-6430 **