Corporate Events That Do Double Duty
Sometimes, when companies want to celebrate something, they need to create an amazing event. But it doesn't always make sense for them to spend thousands of dollars on a party that won't last.
We're talki...
"There's a video tour of the company and an introduction to what we're doing every month. We'll have some food and prizes." said Tracie at the end of the meeting."
"I think you should have something like that!" I said enthusiastically--I had just seen my favorite band play this past weekend, so I couldn't help but get excited about our event.
"That's a great idea. I'll see what we can come up with." she said.
A couple of weeks later, I received an e-mail from Tracie with the following message: "Since you are so awesome, I am going to arrange for you to participate in our next corporate event."
"It will be this Friday. The theme will be 'Rock and Roll.' We have a band coming in and dinner at our local burger joint. After dinner we'll all go downstairs for dancing and Karaoke." she explained.
I couldn't wait. The company had previously done some events like this last year, but the band hadn't been very good, so they wanted to try it again. This time they would be bringing in a professional band and there would be no waiting around for someone to be a DJ because we'd get to dance and sing with the band!
"We'll have an interesting way of evaluating your performance. During the dance portion, everyone will have some type of scorecard. Those with high scores are invited to stay for the Karaoke portion." she said.
"I'm really looking forward to it--I think I can help out." I said. "Let me know what else needs to be done before Friday so I can start making some phone calls."
So excited was I that everything seemed to go smoothly that first day of work. I picked everyone up at their homes and everyone seemed to be really happy with the way the night had turned out.
"I think I might want to work something else in!" Tracie said that afternoon while we hung out in the office. "The kids enjoyed the party, but they've been asking all weekend when it will be again."
"That sounds great! How can I help?" I said, thinking that this would be another great opportunity for my job-hopping experience.
"Well, let's talk about what we have left to do for next Friday." She said as she walked towards her desk and sat down. "I think we need to have a bunch of prizes--something that will be desirable, not just trinkets like I gave last time."
"Okay, so you want to know if there are any ideas I might have or anything I've done before?" "Well, there were two events that were different than what we've done in the past. The first was a Halloween party at our local high school and the second was an afternoon at the county fair. We bought t-shirts and streamers and the kids got a chance to go to booths with local businesses. Both times it was well worth it."
"That's good--those are two things I did for my company before," I said. "I didn't have any big ticket events, but I did throw some small ones and they went really well."
"Okay. Look, I know that you're going to try to get into the Halloween Party and maybe the fair." She said. "I think it would be nice if you could work something like that in anyway possible. We could even have a theme for the party..."
So I began looking for things I had done in the past for my company and Tracie began thinking about themes for our corporate event next Friday. About a week later, Tracie came into my office.
"I have a few things that I'm going to send you." She said, sitting down at my desk. "I wanted you to see these because I think it will help you when you try to get a theme planned for the party."
"What is this?" I asked, looking at the pictures of some simple decorations and face paint. "It's for the kids at our last party and it was really fun!" Tracie laughed as she explained how they had done it.
"So we made like fifty different kinds of face paint and then we printed out instructions on how to use everything. We put all of the paints in bags and put instructions with them." she said excitedly.
"That sounds like a good idea." I said, "It will help me when I try to put everything together. How many kids did you have at the party?"
"About fifteen and it was so much fun for them!" she said. "Their parents were coming in with them all day as well, so it was just really cool."
So, she sent me the pictures and told me that she still needed to get some decorations, but if there were any things that she had done before that we could use at our party, let her know. So one evening while I was watching TV alone, Tracie came into my room.
"I have some things for you to look at." she said, holding a few sheets of paper. "I'm looking through the options and I think we could use these."
"What are they?" I asked, still not looking up from the show that was on.
"Well, there were two events in particular that I thought that we could use for your party." she said softly. "You remember when we had the Halloween party at my house?"
"Yeah," I replied, "We had like fifteen kids and it was awesome!" I said enthusiastically.
"That's what we did for our last corporate event." She gloated.
"That's good!" I said, realizing what she was saying. "What else did you do?"
"We had another corporate event at the local fair." She said.
"So what you're saying is that we could do the same thing on a smaller scale." I laughed.
"Actually, I have an idea! This year--we had a good time with our corporate event. The band was great and the kids had an awesome time." She said as she walked towards my chair and sat on my lap. "Maybe for next year we could try to do something different."
"Yeah, it seems like everyone really enjoyed themselves--but what would we do differently?" I asked.
Conclusion
I had a lot of fun working for the first time in my life. I enjoyed the work and I've had the chance to meet some great people. For example, Kiki, the girl that I danced with was one of my coworkers and she came to my house a few months ago while I was still at work. We got to talk and it turned out she also liked dancing, so we danced together again when she came to pick me up after work one night.