The global pandemic has put a huge strain on people all over the world in 2020, and it looks like we’ll be stuck with potential lockdowns and other restrictions for a little while yet.
It’s not all doom and gloom however, and with a little ingenuity and a lot of planning, you can still pull off a pretty epic celebration.
Today we take a look at the lessons learned from how businesses and the general public handled the festive season to bring you the ultimate guide to celebrating under lockdown.
Keep Your Distance
The golden rule of pandemic partying is to maintain social distancing (and any other quarantine protocols in place) and ensure your staff can stay safe throughout the event.
For many of us, this means holding virtual events and “celebrating from home”. For those getting together in the real world, ensuring your venue of choice has enough space for everyone is paramount. We recommend utilising outdoor areas – parks and beaches are great for small picnics.
Share the Love
If you can’t bring your staff together for the night, then bring the night to your staff. You wouldn’t expect people to BYO to a work party, and virtual celebrations are no exception.
Utilise courier services to get party packs sent to your employees on the day so everyone can eat, drink and make merry together.
If your employees live with roommates or family members, you can also get them involved. This works great with award nights, as you can organise with the families of your winners ahead of time to present prizes in real time.
Get Interactive
If you have a lot of people coming to your virtual event, you need to have a plan to keep them entertained. You can’t rely on conversation to keep the party vibe going if everyone will just be talking over each other in the same zoom channel!
The last thing you want is people just sitting around on mute. Bringing in a special guest speaker to run a webinar is a great way to keep your audience engaged and having fun throughout the event.
Virtual party games can also improve the mood and keep people interacting. Simple ideas like having people hide an object in their room (visible on the web camera of course) for others to find, or holding a quick quiz will make your event feel a lot more special.
Handmade Holidaying
Similar to the above, another way to get your team involved in the event is to make something. This can be as simple as crafting Christmas cards, to more complex things like cooking together or decorating your work from home space.
These types of activities are great as pre-game events held before the main night to build up the hype. Be sure to help provide at least some of the required materials to make sure enough people get involved for the event to be a success.
Avoid Forced Fun
The main priority of a virtual celebration is to have a good time, and nothing ruins the vibe of a party like forced participation. Making any of the activities (or even attendance) mandatory will create the feeling of obligation rather than celebration.
Make it as easy as possible for your staff to get involved with your event. This can be done several different ways, such as:
- Sending party packs to people working remotely
- Holding the event during work hours / at a suitable time for people working from different time zones
- Segment your event into multiple parts, so that people can pick and choose which ones they attend
Have you held or attended a virtual work party? What did you do to make the night memorable and exciting? Let us know in the comments or join us over at facebook.com/upgradetorise to share your story.
