If you’re in Coventry in December and are responsible for organising your office’s party, then Christmas Parties Coventry festivities means different things to different people. To you, it means a great deal of stress and worry. To everyone else, it means a chance to indulge in mulled wine and embarrassing dance moves while you’re stuck trying to make it all happen.
It’s a peculiar kind of stress. If you manage to make it all go off without a hitch, then congratulations, you’re a genius until at least February. If not, then congratulations, you’ll know all about how to plan a successful office party for the rest of your days whenever someone starts talking about last year’s shambles.
The Numbers Game
First off, let’s talk about how important numbers are. Twenty people can go to a small restaurant. Fifty people start to become a problem. One hundred and fifty? Well, at that point, you’re essentially planning a small wedding, except everyone’s already familiar with each other, and half of them would rather not be there anyway.
Coventry’s got plenty of options for all sizes. Private dining rooms in cathedral quarter restaurants, function rooms in suburban hotels—the trick is to plan early enough to ensure that there’s choice rather than whatever’s left over in November when everyone else realizes they forgot to plan anything.
Location, Location, Something About Location
The location of your office plays a big role in where you can go. If everyone comes in from different directions, then central is probably a good place to go. The Cathedral Lanes area is good for this. People can come in independently, nobody’s going to travel from the other side of town to get there, and there are plenty of other places to go if someone wants to slip off early.
Of course, if your team is mostly local or willing to travel in a group, you have the whole of Warwickshire pretty much at your disposal. Some companies prefer to get out of the city altogether. A countryside venue provides that “event” feeling that a city centre restaurant sometimes lacks. Of course, you then have to think about transport, and that’s another headache.
The Dry Run Debate
Something nobody ever tells you about corporate entertaining is that going to visit the venues you’re considering is not being picky; it’s being smart. Anyone can make a venue look nice on a photograph on their website. Visiting in person lets you know whether the “spacious function room” is actually someone’s back room with delusions of grandeur, or whether the “atmospheric lighting” actually means you’ll be eating in the dark.
You should also check out the acoustics of the room you’re considering. A room may look fine, but when you fill it with people trying to talk to each other, you may find that it turns into an echo chamber and nobody can be heard unless they yell. And let’s be realistic; you want people to be able to talk to each other without shouting, or you might as well not bother and just have an expensive buffet of adjacent eating.
The Food Situation
People tend to dislike buffet food, and quite rightly so, most of the time. However, a decent buffet, where food is regularly replenished and hot food actually stays hot, is infinitely better than trying to organize a sit-down meal for a large number of people. People eat when they’re ready to eat; vegetarians don’t have to hang around while the meat-eaters get served; and nobody is stuck at a table with someone they’ve been avoiding since the April budget meeting.
Of course, if you do decide to go for a sit-down meal, you should check the menu to see exactly what you get and whether any special requests can be accommodated.
The Entertainment Question
Of course, this is where opinions vary greatly. Some think that a Christmas party should have a DJ, casino games, or a magician strolling between courses. Others think that good food and conversation are enough.
There’s no right way to do this; there’s just a wrong way to do this—booking entertainment that nobody wanted in the first place but everyone’s too polite to get up and leave. If you’re unsure, optional entertainment can be better than compulsory.
The Timing Tightrope
Friday night might seem obvious, but it’s also the night of the week when every where’s heaving with people and prices are at a premium. Thursday can be a good choice—far enough away to feel like the weekend’s just around the corner, but close enough to feel like the weekend’s nearly here without being completely deserted or expensive.
Early December leaves plenty of breathing space before everyone’s social calendar goes completely bonkers. Late December can be a problem—trying to compete with family commitments and pre-holiday exhaustion.
The Morning After
Finally, there’s the fact that some people are going to be regretting their life choices the next morning. If you work in an office that operates on the day after the party, you’re either an optimist or completely unrealistic. A lunchtime party? A rubbish afternoon at work the next day. An evening party? Write off the next morning entirely.
Increasingly, companies are making it official—party on Thursday, work from home on Friday. Good on them; honesty’s an underrated virtue when it comes to office parties.
Your task isn’t to have the best party ever; it’s to have the sort of party where everyone has a good time, nobody feels left out, and the only thing they can complain about is having to go back to work in January.
