Every year the same thing happens. Nothing is planned until October. By November the venues are booked, the team is already mentally checked out, and someone tries to cram 4 events in 3 weeks, because that’s the only time left. A calendar used earlier can prevent this.
There Are Not Too Many Events, But Not Enough Planning.
December corporate events fail because there is no planning involved. Corporate events are scheduled one after the other without any consideration for other events. An awards show between two client lunches and a team social is not a recognition moment, it is just another thing on the to do list. December is the end of the year and people don’t want to work.
If people show up to the event, it means they enjoyed the event and this won’t be the case if they are already burnt out from the events leading to it. You can have the best catering, and the best venue, but it won’t matter if people are burnt out. You can plan as many events as you want they all need to be spaced out.
Mapping The Holiday Rush
Think December. Not as in vague intention, get a calendar, cross off the Christmas break, and work backwards from it. Most teams check-out from the 19th or 20th, so that’s about three working weeks. There’s a Goldilocks effect to scheduling December events, and perhaps this is the primary reason so many people choose to check-out before December has really begun.
Week one is for the hard stuff. Awards, client appreciation events, and anything that requires multiple people’s complete attention. People are still fresh, the work month has not yet ground them down, and first week December bookings are a hell of a lot easier than anything post 10th.
Week two becomes the easier stuff, team building, smaller celebrations, department lunch. Best to keep it to mid-morning and early afternoon. Evening team building in the second week of December is a bad idea and responsible people, even the ones who keep Christmas and holiday events easy to manage, will disappear from the event.
Week three will solely be dedicated to the Christmas party, ideally scheduled for the week of December 15th. Please keep week four free, as people need it to focus on other work. It’s best to not spend the end of the year on the wrong note by using the end of the year as an overflow space for postponed Christmas events.
Client Events: The First Week or Not at All
Your clients will have an equally, if not, more chaotic December. If you are planning an event, the first week really does not compare to the third week of December. There are less competing events, less holiday fatigue, and people will be more likely to show up.
Client work events are their first week of December, ideally at 7:30 to 9:00 AM — without having to be an unscheduled end point during the week, and without having to be an actively unwilling participant to attend — and not their third week of December. If breakfast does not work, lunch during the first week of December is also great.
Every discovery in November: AV Technology
In December, each company feels it needs to procure one or several of screens, microphones, or a sound system. The best AV suppliers get booked out in late November. This is a December event planning certainty that catches the same people out year after year. If your awards ceremony or client presentation is going to have more than a laptop connected to a screen, hire the gear in October.
For a formal awards ceremony to go as planned, there is a minimum set of requirements that is vital: a sufficiently large screen for every person in the back of the room to see it without squinting, wireless microphones as speaker podiums are restrictive, and a good, professional, on-site technician to do the managing. If you think asking your IT manager to do it as a favour while also being a guest is a good idea, then get ready for a number of small but embarrassing incidents that people won’t say a word about but everyone will remember.
Book in October. Don’t compress it.
There are two key things to concentrate on: starting in October, and having a no-changes scheduled policy. Everyone’s instinct when things get busy in November is to start moving everything together. Don’t do this. The empty slots you put in October are not wasted space, they are what make December slots actually work. December is the month you want to get the load off everyone’s back. A good December means people get to feel good about a year’s worth of work wrapped up nicely. Leaving December poorly done means that people are going to be glad that they get to leave the work behind. That is not the right note you want to have as your final one.
