Mistakes to Avoid When Planning Your Office Christmas Party
If you are in charge of this year’s office Christmas party, you better get a move on! Time is ticking away and it is already way late in the year. You will find that the most common mistakes, as detailed below, are made because the planner left it until too late in the year. Here are those common mistakes to avoid when planning your office Christmas party. Read quickly because time is running out!
Not Securing a Venue Early Enough
In previous years, it was common practice to wait until autumn to begin planning a Christmas party because many directors and business owners thought they would get a better deal due to last minute cancellations. This could be a very grave error in judgement, as has often been the case, for two very good reasons.
Many venues are no longer offering a discount for last minute bookings when another group has cancelled because they are in high demand and will go at almost any price at this late date. A great number of businesses are scurrying around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to find a venue on sites like venuesearchlondon.com. If you want a great venue, get it before you can’t get the date you want.
Booking Entertainment Too Late
Another common mistake is procrastinating when booking entertainment. You will see that most of the top name entertainers are even booked years in advance for all the main holidays. What is an office Christmas party without entertainment? If you have any hope of getting talented performers, book them early in the year at the absolute latest! Many companies have learned to line up top name acts the year before to ensure having great entertainment.
Setting the Wrong Date
You may be asking how you can choose a ‘wrong date’ when planning a Christmas party but if you aren’t in administration, you may not be privy to large work orders that will be coming in around that time of year. As well, if you aren’t in human resources you might not know when key employees have requested time off for annual holiday leave. It is important to be aware of scheduling conflicts before booking a date at the venue and hiring talent for entertainment. If you need to change your date, you may suddenly see yourself back at square one looking for both a venue and an entertainer.
So by now you can see that planning an office Christmas party needs to be completed well in advance. Some businesses book the same venue year after year, thus avoiding the frustration of that last minute search. If you are looking for a venue, start right now. The same holds true with entertainment. This will give you plenty of time to plan menus, find gifts for the staff and also to order decorations at a reasonable price. (If you find a venue that does the decorating for you, all the better!) Just remember that you can’t leave things until the last minute or you could be in for a not-so-nice surprise and a huge headache.
