How to plan a successful End-of-Year Party

The end of the year is approach­ing fast. It is a great time to cel­e­brate with friends, co-work­ers and loved ones and rem­i­nisce over the past year. Organ­is­ing an End-of-Year or New-Year’s Eve Par­ty requires a few key steps to deliv­er the best pos­si­ble expe­ri­ence on this spe­cial night.

Are you think­ing about organ­is­ing a par­ty, a din­ner with friends or an office par­ty? Dis­cov­er the 5 key steps to orga­nize your event:

The key steps to organ­ise your par­ty: The steps you should fol­low to plan your Par­ty or New Year’s Eve are the same as those of any par­ty — whether it be a gath­er­ing with friends, an office par­ty, or any big event with a large audi­ence.

Summary

1. The bud­get
2. The plan­ning
3. The per­fect venue
4. The ser­vice providers
5. The guests

1. The budget

Any event requires a bud­get. It can be flex­i­ble but it will be a good way to set a lim­it between what you want and what can real­is­ti­cal­ly be achieved. It is impor­tant to plan an End-of-Year Par­ty that match­es your means. Spend­ing too much or too lit­tle will put pres­sure on some aspects of the project. You can set a bud­get per head and ask guests for a con­tri­bu­tion to cov­er the costs of your event. Whether you choose to charge your guests or not, you should use an online tick­et­ing ser­vice to man­age reg­is­tra­tion.

2. The planning

Organ­i­sa­tion is a mat­ter of plan­ning! The size and scope of your event will deter­mine how ear­ly you need to start plan­ning as well as the num­ber of tasks you’ll need to accom­plish. You should real­ly take the time to list all the steps, their sta­tus and plan each step care­ful­ly for a clear view of your mile­stones and whether or not you should del­e­gate some tasks. Start from the date of your par­ty to estab­lish what should be done 1 month before, 2 weeks before, 1 week before and the day before.

3. The perfect venue

This should be sort­ed well ahead of the big day. Find­ing the per­fect venue can be tricky. There are many par­ties dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son and the most unique and inter­est­ing places will be booked quick­ly. Start your research by sort­ing your cri­te­ria between the must-haves, the impor­tant and the nice-to-have. Define those in rela­tion to the num­ber of expect­ed guests, your bud­get, the equip­ment you need, the atmos­phere you wish to cre­ate for your par­ty, etc.

4. The service providers

Your par­ty nor­mal­ly requires food and drink for your atten­dees. Some­times these are includ­ed in the rental of the venue but you can also opt for a “dry hire” and look for exter­nal providers: cater­ers and bar­tenders tai­lored to the style of Par­ty you’re plan­ning — whether it is a din­ner, a cock­tail or a par­ty. The search for a sup­pli­er can be painful, but read our pre­vi­ous post about this top­ic.

Once your guests have food and drink choic­es, you may want to look into enter­tain­ment. You’ll need to ensure there is music if it’s not includ­ed in the venue hire. Choose the option that best suits you: a playlist, a DJ, etc. Ask around, friends and rel­a­tives can be a great help in these sit­u­a­tions.

Turn your par­ty into an unfor­get­table evening! If you wish to give your guests a mem­o­rable evening don’t hes­i­tate to pro­vide a unique expe­ri­ence such as a token to bring home: a pho­to booth, a small gift, a chal­lenge, a friend­ly game, karaoke or a quiz. Any idea that will pro­vide enter­tain­ment and impress your guests is a good one! Some venues will offer enter­tain­ment, don’t hes­i­tate to look into this.

5. The guests

Your guests are the most impor­tant part! Don’t take com­mu­ni­ca­tion light­ly if you want to reach a wider audi­ence than the peo­ple you know direct­ly.

Speak about your event on all your social chan­nels. Send out ear­ly invi­ta­tions and keep in touch with them so that your guests keep the date and the key infor­ma­tion in mind and more impor­tant­ly that they don’t for­get about your Par­ty or accept anoth­er invi­ta­tion.

When you send out your invites why not take that oppor­tu­ni­ty to ask a few ques­tions using a form. Some infor­ma­tion may be use­ful to col­lect include: food aller­gies, con­ve­nient dates, if peo­ple want to bring a +1, etc. This is also the moment to sur­vey guests, a theme may be appre­ci­at­ed which will give you a guide­line for your dec­o­ra­tion, enter­tain­ment and gifts.

If you would like to organ­ise a pro­fes­sion­al event or a par­ty with friends, some aspects will be dif­fer­ent and should be tak­en into account.

An office par­ty will need to meet some spe­cif­ic cri­te­ria that fits with the com­pa­ny cul­ture: for instance, you may need to include an assess­ment of the year, a pre­sen­ta­tion of com­pa­ny results or the great projects for the year to come. Some of these ele­ments will require equip­ment. Your co-work­ers should be told the date ahead of time so that they can make sure they are avail­able. Host­ing the par­ty after a work­day mid­week may be eas­i­er for all to attend.

A par­ty with friends requires less plan­ning, but you should keep the steps list­ed above in mind to organ­ise a great event. Per­haps you would like every­one to con­tribute finan­cial­ly to the par­ty. If so, you can cre­ate a reg­is­tra­tion plat­form where guests can con­tribute what they want or pay a fixed price. Set­ting up a form can be the most con­ve­nient way to organ­ise dif­fer­ent ele­ments. You may also want to keep the par­ty pri­vate. Set up your event so that it is pri­vate and only acces­si­ble with a pass­word that you can com­mu­ni­cate direct­ly to your friends.

Ready to organ­ise your New-Year’s Eve par­ty?

Plan a par­ty