Many people rank the holiday party as one of their favorite “perks” of working for a company in Milwaukee. Office holiday parties are a great way to celebrate your team’s hard work, the goals that they have reached, and build rapport between people. Read on for our expert tips on how to plan a fun company holiday party that everyone talks about.

Choosing the Right Kind of Company Party

Every workplace has its own company culture, vibe, and feeling. Choosing the right kind of party can not only reinforce that, but it can also help bring employees together! In some cases, employees may not know people outside their day-to-day team members. A holiday party is a perfect opportunity to bring people together and help them interact and feel part of the bigger team.

Creating a company party that shows your employees how much you value them and is a huge morale booster, and allows you to continue building on that feeling throughout the year. By creating an epic holiday party, your employees will be more likely to go into the next calendar year feeling supported and appreciated.

Consider these ideas when planning a fun company holiday party:

• Music: Great music helps set the tone from the mingling to the events planned
• An MC: Do you want someone to help guide the party, make announcements, or help with prize or reward recognitions? You got it!
• Lighting: A club wouldn’t be a party without lights and a disco ball, and your event needs great lighting too! We can help you create any kind of atmosphere with unique lighting.
• Events: Think beyond dinner and dancing. How about a trivia game, karaoke, photo booth, or a roving caricaturist? Live event productions such as dancers or magicians can also be a lot of fun

Start Planning Your Holiday Party Early

Choosing the date is just the start of it! When you’re planning an event with many moving parts, you can really never start too early. For example, there may be things you have not considered, such as chair rental, outside caterers, DJ and Entertainment, lighting, and valet parking; the list goes on.

Better to start early in the year and then finish up the details as the event draws closer so there are no surprises along the way that happen too close to the date of the party to rectify. 

Choose a Venue Early

If you’re having the party outside your office, then you’re going to want to book a venue as soon as possible. Holiday parties are popular in Milwaukee, and event spaces can book up quickly for the prime dates between Christmas and New Year. Some of our favorite Milwaukee event spaces for Holiday parties include The Pritzlaff, The Atrium, and Vista.

However, there’s no rule that you have to have your company party in December! Many companies opt to have their parties in late January or early February, too. It’s a nice way to break up the winter months, and you may find many more options for venue space.

Summer holiday parties are also a great idea because no one does summer fun like Milwaukee!

Decide on the Holiday Party Theme

Having a theme for a party helps define and refine what you need! It makes it fun to plan, fun to decorate, and memorable for your guests.

Here are a few of our favorites Holiday party themes:

Casino/James Bond

Playing games is a great ice breaker, and many companies will bring Vegas to you! This can be a really fun theme because you can take it anywhere from James Bond-esque to Rat Pack Vegas.

Don’t forget that lighting will make a huge difference here! Dramatic lighting can give the place that casino-like feel, and there are also awesome effects that can be done like video projection and pin spot lighting on tables that can make it pop. 

Trivia

The great thing about trivia is that you need a wide variety of people with varied interests to make a great team, so this is the ultimate team-building exercise! 

Trivia needs a great MC; this can make or break the experience for people. Make sure that your DJ is comfortable on the mic and knows how to run a successful trivia night.

Photo Booth

Theming a photo booth is a great way to bring the flavor through the party. For example, if your theme is The Roaring Twenties, a photo booth can provide feathers, boas, pork-pie hats, and flapper hats.

Photobooths are great for getting people out of their shells and getting some hysterical photos to share after the party!

Other Themes/Ideas for an Amazing Holiday Party for Your Business:

• Packer/Bucks/Brewers themed
• Olympics
• Cirque/Circus
• South Beach
• Disco
• 60/70/80s theme
• Star Wars
• Hollywood
• Dancing with the Stars
• Tropical Escape/Hawaiian Holiday
• Masquerade Ball
• Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory
• Ugly Sweater

Vary the Activities Depending on Your Audience

Most workplaces have a varied age spread, so having something for everyone is how you ensure a great party vs. one where people go home after dinner. When choosing your event activities, think about who would be most interested in them and begin to plan the flow from there.

Any activity that brings people together is a great idea for the start of the evening, such as games, trivia, or karaoke, or live entertainment. As the event goes on, you can begin introducing things such as dancing, food trucks, or late-night after-parties.

Have a Great Timeline and Flow for the Night

Ensuring that the schedule is set will be the key to ensuring the event runs smoothly and everyone knows what is coming next. Providing a timeline to the participants builds excitement for what is coming next and makes them want to stay until the end for the fun events planned.

Good signage and someone to host the evening is key. Having these little touchpoints can make the night move from one event to the next without awkward breaks that can kill the feel of the party atmosphere.

Event Entertainment in Milwaukee

If all of this sounds like a lot of coordination and you don’t have the bandwidth for this in your life, we can help!  Our experience in the Milwaukee market is vast; we can help you plan a fun company holiday party, everything from suggesting the right venue to stage and event design. 

Some clients we have worked with include The Milwaukee Brewers, Kohl’s, Marcus Hotels and Resorts, Harley Davidson, The United Way, Marquette University, The Medical College of Wisconsin, and The Bartolotta Restaurants.

We can help you with any size event with our services, including:

DJ+MC

Our highly trained DJs and MCs will help guide the party and make sure everyone is having a great time. We use only the best professional sound equipment and come prepared for everything. Before your event, you’ll meet 1:1 for a design meeting with your DJ, and we also have karaoke and vinyl options to really kick up the party.

Lighting

Lighting makes such a difference to the look and feel of your event. From having your company logo prominently displayed to marquee letters, we can make your event shine! We also provide:

• Uplighting
• Chandeliers
• Spot Lights
• String bulbs/Edison bulbs
• Pin lighting
• Tent lighting
• Custom fabrication and woodwork

Photo Booth

Our modern, open-air photo booth is what people are loving at events. We bring a variety of backdrops and props themed to your holiday party or event. You’ll have a dedicated onsite attendant who will guide your guests, helping them with unlimited prints and having the photos sent directly to their phones.  We also provide an instant online gallery, custom printouts with logos, super-sharable GIFS, filters, and boomerangs.

Videography

Our talented, award-winning videographers will come to your event and capture the fun using high-quality camera equipment. We also have drone capabilities! Footage from your holiday party can be incorporated into marketing videos, recruiting videos, and brand and promotional videos.

Advanced Event Production

When you’re taking that holiday party or event to the next level, we can help. We provide full-service, customized event production services that will blow everyone away. From custom installations to live-streaming of the event, here are just some of the things we can provide you with:

• Audio/Visual Services
• Stage Lighting
• Stage Design
• Installations 
• Media Production
• Projection Services

The Perfect Package for Your Milwaukee Event

Because no two events are alike, we provide custom packages for our clients to truly build their own adventure! Events by Design provides as little or as much help as you need to make your holiday party or event a huge success.

Get in touch with one of our dedicated event professionals, and we can help you design the event of your dreams!