How To Party – Like A Professional
By admin
Issued on behalf of Eventute Ltd
A Christmas party is a chance to celebrate a year of successful achievements with staff and clients, but if it’s badly organised, the hangover will last well beyond the new year.
Karen McGrath, Managing Director of corporate event specialists, Eventure UK gives her top tips to businesses in Gwent for getting the most out of their Christmas celebrations.
Planning is the most important factor in making any event successful, and starting early is the difference between securing your first choice for the venue, entertainment and catering, or settling for second best.
An event organiser’s role begins long before the night itself. Consider how the details of the party will be communicated to staff- through formal invites, or will managers inform staff? Also consider requirements of guests with disabilities, or dietary requirements.
Always consider how you can make your event stand out from the rest – thinking outside of the box can not only make the event memorable for all the right reasons, but also make far better use of your budget.
We always advise our clients to use a meet and greet service, as it gives the event a fantastic atmosphere as soon as your guests arrive. In the past, we’ve had everything from celebrity lookalikes greeting guests, to Santa on stilts. A good tip is to book multi skilled entertainers to maximise the budget – a Santa on stilts at the beginning of the evening, can become a juggling elf during the meal, or a unicycle performing snowman before the speeches!
Similar savings could be made by cutting out coffee or dessert cheese and biscuits, which can often cost upwards of £2.50 per head, and is usually wasted as people leave them behind and head straight to the dance floor after the meal. A better idea is to set up a coffee station in a quieter room on a pay by consumption basis. The money saved can be used for something fabulous later on in the evening – when we organised a Christmas party for Ikea, we arranged for the DJ to play ‘White Christmas’ at midnight, and brought out white chocolate magnum ice creams. The response from the hot and tired guests on the dance floor was fantastic, and at under £1 per ice-cream, was a far better use of the budget.
When planning your event, put yourself in the position of the guests, and think about what they really want from the evening. Many companies assume an elaborate four course meal is what will impress, but in reality we often find people value the fun and social aspects of the event far more. In that case, £30-40 per head on a meal is a waste of the budget, and we would recommend substituting the meal for a buffet or luxury canapés, and spending the saving on better entertainment.
A great example of a bespoke evening of amazing entertainment was when we held a Las Vegas-themed party for Legal & General – we organised nearly 20 different suppliers including indoor laser-shooting with a Vegas-style back -drop, booked showgirls and showmen to meet and greet the guests, and had an Elvis impersonator to sing throughout the evening – a bit of razzmatazz goes a long way!
At Eventure UK, we are also very conscious of the timing of an event. It’s important that you ‘drip feed’ interest throughout the evening to keep surprising people. We always suggest giving guests a small goody bag at the beginning of the evening, but then returning later on to give out tinsel hats and sparkly feathers. Small details really do make the event memorable, such as hiring ‘Powder Puff Girls’ for the ladies toilets to hand out sweets and perfume.
Bringing these creative touches to an event is the fun part – but organising an event also has a serious side. Do the suppliers have sufficient insurance cover and up to date PAT Certificates? Who will be responsible for first aid on the night? It’s unacceptable to expect the company first-aider to stay sober and responsible for the evening, and we would always recommend hiring a qualified first aider for the event.
Businesses also have to remember they have a responsibility to their staff in terms of not promoting excessive consumption of alcohol. At a recent event organised for Clerical Medical Group, we implemented a bottle or glass swap throughout the evening. With this system, no guests are ordering huge amounts of drink all at once, and there is less chance of glass being left lying around and causing injury.
Never forget the dirty work – we always appoint a ‘Head of Yuck’ at our events to deal with blocked toilets, and other nasty disasters! The biggest mistake a business can make is spending thousands of pounds on an event, only to be remembered for flooded toilets!
Ultimately, skilled planning and professional organisation with a touch of creative flair are all the ingredients you need to make your Christmas party sparkle, and not fizzle out.
