Are you planning a company party? We know the ins and outs of planning a company party. Company parties are no longer simply about having a jolly and one or two drinks too many. We know from experience that businesses want to achieve more from their social events, and often see them as a way of improving team dynamics for greater productivity in the future or as an opportunity to introduce a change in the business. Whatever your reason for a company party, its success is determined by the planning and organisation, so here are our top tips to make yours the best ever.
Invest your time in the research
Planning a company party can take a lot of time and effort. So many different elements are involved and you need to build in time to do your research and make considered decisions if you’re going to get the best value out of the available budget. The more time you give yourself to plan and organise, the better the result will be.
Know your budget when planning a company party
It’s pointless forging ahead and planning a party that will cost £50,000 if you then discover you only have £10,000 to spend. Before you start doing anything, make sure the budget has been set in stone.
Be clear about what your company party needs to achieve
We could apologise for this one, but we won’t! Setting clear aims and objectives for your party will help focus your mind when starting to plan. It will be important to take into consideration your company’s culture – Company X might enjoy a sit-down meal with entertainment, while Company Y will be expecting less formality and more dancing and drinking.
Get organised
Lists will be your best friend when planning a company party. Start with a logical list of the key things to be done – from finding and booking a venue to catering, entertainment and deciding on a theme. From that, you can break down each element into further steps to be taken. This also helps make everything feel a little bit more manageable, especially when you can start ticking things off and see the list becoming shorter and shorter. It’s also a good idea to prioritise tasks, which will help you quickly identify the most urgent and pressing actions to complete.
Fix the date!
Once you’ve found the ideal venue, get it booked! Venues get busy so quickly, especially around Christmas. The same goes for marquees – no marquee company has an endless supply of marquees or construction teams. And once you have established the date, make guests aware – a formal invitation can be sent at a later date, but it’s a good idea to send a ‘save the date’ message, much like couples do for weddings.
Choose your suppliers wisely
It always pays to shop around and compare prices. If the venue doesn’t include catering, hiring external caterers will be a priority. Talk to two or three different caterers to find out what they can provide for the budget you’ve allocated, and then book the one that best answers your needs and the one that feels most ‘right’ for you. Depending on what kind of entertainment you’re planning, DJs, live bands and entertainers will also be key suppliers to secure. Price will, of course, dictate choice to some extent but do also check testimonials, video clips of performances etc to help in your decision making.
Don’t forget the smallest details
Whether it’s providing a cloakroom, making sure there is a working microphone if speeches are to be made, remembering to order awards if your company party is doubling as an awards ceremony, or booking a photographer to capture every moment of the event, making sure you’ve covered every last detail is crucial – keep checking those lists!
Cab share, anyone?!
Getting to and from the event is another thing to organise. This could be as simple as organising a coach to collect everyone from your workplace or it could mean organising flights and train travel from several different countries. Which leads us neatly on to…
What happens when the party is over?
Will everyone be making their own way home or are you providing overnight accommodation? This will largely depend on where the party is, what time it will end and where everyone is coming from. Certainly, if you have guests coming from overseas or the party is in a remote countryside setting, you’ll need to help organise accommodation.
That’s a lot of things to sort, but we do it all the time, so if you’d prefer us to take the strain just contact us! We are experts in organising and planning a company party and will work with you to ensure you achieve your objectives.
