If you want to make it an even merrier holiday season for your holiday party guests, choosing the best venue for your company holiday party is key to success. Â To assist you, here’s our gift: tips to help you choose the ideal venue for your corporate holiday party.
Choose a venue in line with the goal of your holiday party.
One of the first steps of planning a holiday party is setting a goal. Once you have a clear and specific objective for your holiday party, screen potential event venues based on your goal. For example, if your goal is to show appreciation for your employees’ families, look for conveniently located family venues. For a holiday party with a goal targeted at your employees, research venues that are in line with the type and formality of your affair.
Get started on a guest list.
For a variety of reasons (including safety) and optimal results, make the size of potential venues a key set of criteria in your holiday party venue search. With regards to budget, pay special attention to any minimums imposed by the venue to ensure that you are not charged for more guests than you expect to attend your holiday party.
Ask for recommendations and expertise.
Professional advice can be worth its weight in gold, especially when the success of your holiday party is on the line. No company wants to invest their time and efforts into holiday party planning and not achieve their goal. If you are not familiar with the city where you are hosting a holiday party, such as our national clients who host a corporate event for location employees in Chicago, contact a local event planner that knows the area and can make venue recommendations or plan your holiday party for you.
Set a budget.
Knowing your budget for your party and venue—and not going over that number—is a key component in any holiday party venue search. If the budget for your holiday party budget is tight, allocate your resources into areas that make the biggest impact on your guests: food and entertainment. To ensure that you don’t blow your holiday party budget, ask event venue staff for a final invoice with charges to avoid add-on charges (i.e. set-up, overage, etc.).
Be aware of your holiday party needs.
There are various needs that the guests of your holiday party need: acoustics, amenities, audio visual, kitchen, event equipment (i.e. tables, chairs, etc.), full service staff (i.e. coat check, bartenders, servers, set up & take down staff, etc.), parking, handicap accessibility. Vet your holiday party venues with those event needs in mind. If you need a full kitchen, discuss your options with venues in your desired area. Depending on the weather, if your event venue doesn’t have an on-site kitchen, you may be able to bring a tent in for your catering needs (even during winter).
Use atmosphere to plan the details.
Once you’ve determined and set the practical criteria for choosing your holiday party venue (budget, space for guests, purpose, location),think about what kind of atmosphere you want at your holiday party. With your desired atmosphere in mind, plan all your event details so they play into your holiday party atmosphere. If you are planning Santa’s workshop, choose a venue with adequate space for a village and tree, and hire entertainers that make your guests feel like they are visiting the North Pole. If you don’t have a large budget for décor, select a venue with ambiance that doesn’t require a lot of décor—the success of your holiday party depends on it.
