- Start planning as late as possible to get that wonderful knife-against-the-throat feeling.
- Forget about the objective and purpose of the event. All you need to know that partying is fun!
- Set a very strict budget from the outset. Just let anything go when it’s panic stations at the end.
- Assume that all staff/all customers will turn up, that they’ve been waiting for this very invitation and that they’ll therefore be both happy and grateful when they arrive.
- Try to encourage all subcontractors to sign up to barter solutions. This creates a wonderfully varied host of logos, and everyone will know exactly whose event it is.
- Make sure that your suppliers use subcontractors. That makes it especially exciting when something goes wrong. Who’s actually responsible?
- Assume that the guests can socialise unprompted. Let them sort themselves out and just enjoy yourself with those you know already.
- Plan according to your own taste. Choose entertainment that only you like, people can either take it or leave it!
- Don’t hesitate to go for the long version of the company description. This is just the evening for that 100-slide PPT! Don’t kill your darlings.
- Give free rein to the company joker. All evening.
- Keep it fairly chilly in the room.
- Offer an outrageously strong welcome drink and make sure the glasses are never empty. Aren’t the old tricks still the best?
- Cut back on the food.
- Don’t evaluate the result. You have good intuition and you can tell a good party from a dull one.
- Do it all yourself. Preparations, all contacts, finances, logistics, entertainment… If you want something doing, best to do it yourself, and after all you’ve nothing else to do.