3 Steps to a Successful Office Party

How do you make your corporate holiday party a success?  The answer is simple, create an atmosphere that encourages guests to get up and mingle.  Engage them in activities that get them interacting with each other breaking the social barriers that separate us.

Here are few simple steps to set the stage and make your party a huge success.  People will talk and reminisce about it for a long time. 

1. Get people mingling right away

Introduce an icebreaker game to play when your guests first arrive or sit down to dinner.  This will get guests more relaxed and encourage socializing and interacting and get the evening off to a smooth start.  An example of a good icebreaker is one that asks intriguing questions of guests that encourage them to open up or say something funny or interesting that would not ordinarily come up in conversation.  For example “What is something about you that would surprise most people’ someone always has an unexpected response which encourages others to share as well.  No one will feel uncomfortable or awkward wondering what to talk about because the icebreaker will get the ball rolling.  

2. Make teams

If having dinner, each table could be a team or mix them up randomly or sometimes strategically works best.  Teams could be created by a draw from a hat, a list posted on the wall or drawing a card from a deck.  Another fun idea is to create words or sentences that can be cut up and given to each guest.  Each guest will have to find their teammate(s) by matching their partial word with that of another.  For example “mistletoe” could be split to make the guest with “mistle” find the guest with “toe” and vise versa.  For larger team sizes post a list of words that would combine into teams. Example, “mistletoe” and “evergreen” make a team of 4.  This really mixes the group and prompts them to make contact with almost everyone at the party.

3. Have structured interactive games
Now that you have them up and split into teams, eagerly anticipating what is next, introduce some fun and interactive games.  Implementing games that get guests interacting and laughing is the key to creating a memorable evening.  Getting the teams to progress through the games in an organized fashion is a must.  With proper direction given to each team, group sizes of up to 300 or more can make their way through all of the games meeting up with opposing teams at just the right time.  This keeps the fun and excitement flowing as teams will not get lost or confused or wondering where to go and what to do.  Much like a scorecard and hole signs on a golf course, that filter hundreds of golfers around a course all day long, a similar scorecard can be developed and game area signs used that will guide your guests flawlessly from game to game.  Organization, especially with bigger groups, is essential however including games that are easy to understand, fun or interesting to play will also guarantee the success of your event.