Virtual Office Party Checklist and Examples
We are event planners based in Chicago who have pivoted our in person event planning business to a virtual party company who plans virtual corporate events and office parties! Here is an easy checklist for you to help you celebrate with your team virtually in a fun and organized way!
Pick a Date and Time
When it comes to an office party the right time and date is always key! There are families to consider, after work activities, and other unforeseen conflicts. If you are having a smaller event you can always send out an email to capture availability and interest amongst your team. If you have a larger team try to pick a date and time that is not going to conflict with any holidays, meal times or weekends. Weekdays in the late afternoon are always a great time - think Happy Hour! You know your team best.
Create your Guest List
Virtual or in person it’s so important to have a guest list. An easy way to track your guests is with a spreadsheet! Here are some free guest list templates you can use for your virtual office party. Having your guest list consolidated into one place will help you track RSVPs and even prizes if there is a friendly virtual office competition! Read more below on this.
Pick a Theme
A great way to kick off a team celebration is with a theme! A theme can be a certain era in time like an 1980s party. This encourages your team to be creative and have something to dress up for! Other themes can include wearing certain colors, celebrating certain holidays like Valentines Day or St. Patricks Day and even themes that relate to the culture at your work place!
Send a Virtual Save the Date
Once you have your guest list, the date, time and theme make sure to send out a virtual save the date! If you want people to attend your office party make sure to give them a heads up so they can plan for it. You can find some really cool virtual save the dates here. Make sure to include your theme so people know to dress up!
keep the event short but sweet
Your team is probably working remotely on their computers all day long. Make sure that your virtual office party doesn’t exceed 90 minutes! We have found that 90 minutes is plenty of time to have fun!
Plan Activities
If you are looking for remote team building activities we have found that online games for virtual teams are a huge hit. We love games like Words with Friends. Here are some examples of other remote team building games we love. A friendly competition is a great way to get to know your coworkers. Other virtual team building activities can include games like Trivia. You can use the breakout room function in Zoom to create small groups amongst your team so they can work together to find an answer. You can give away fabulous prizes to the winning team! This is a fantastic virtual team building exercise for everyone involved!
Provide Entertainment
Having a host for your virtual office party is absolutely necessary. If you don’t have someone curating the experience and leading your guests through the timeline your event will be unorganized and may not run smoothly! Pick a charismatic coworker to play Emcee. If you’re stuck you can always hire a professional host which we can help you with! We also love to suggest that you have other kinds of entertainment at your party like a magician, singer, guitar player or more! This keeps things interesting and people miss live entertainment!
build a timeline of events
In order for your virtual event to run smoothly you absolutely need a timeline of events from the start time of the party till the end. How long is the host going to welcome guests? How long is Bingo going to take place? How many rounds are you going to play? When is the CEO going to make a toast? This way your host can follow along and make sure everything is running on time and nothing is forgotten! Here are some great event planning templates to check out to keep you organized!
create your Invitations
Now that you have your activity, entertainment and a timeline for the event it’s time to design your invitations. Have fun! Be bold! Just because your office party is virtual it doesn’t mean it has to feel like a dry meeting over zoom. We love these virtual invitations here.
Send and manage your Invitations
If you don’t want to go through the trouble of sending out invitations we love to use ticketing platforms like Eventbrite. This streamlines the process for you! If you really love the idea of an invitation and you have more than 30 guests, we recommend using a website like this to track them.
Delivery party Kits and favors
A great way to show employee appreciation is to send them a packaged party kit with goodies! Kits can include cocktails, desserts and even food. There are several services you can use to send out packages. If you are looking for something streamlined and ready to go we like these cocktail kits. Make sure you order them early so they arrive well before the party! If you would like something customized that matches the theme and colors of your event we can provide this for you! If this seems like too much trouble you can always send your team a gift card from Grub Hub and they can order their own meal in time for the party.
ask for help
Some shameless self promotion here! If you are feeling overwhelmed by this process and feel like you might not have the skills to execute something like this we can help! Check out our Virtual Party Demo HERE for some ideas! You can contact us HERE to receive a consultation and a quote. We can help you plan and manage the entire event from the invitations to the execution on the day!
4 virtual office party Examples
Now that you have your checklist, you may need some ideas to help you throw your virtual office party. Check out some of the virtual parties we’ve planned below for inspiration! We know how tricky it can be to make a virtual event exciting so here are ACTUAL virtual events that we have planned and executed virtually for businesses and offices across the country!
1. Virtual Murder Mystery Party
We planned a virtual murder mystery party for a tech company team which was a great virtual team building experience and a lot of fun. We hired professional actors, wrote a script, created a theme for our client which was a 1980s Highschool Prom Murder Mystery and created prompts which we sent to employees so they could play characters during the party as well!
2. Virtual Trivia Party
We planned a Holiday themed Trivia Party for a Production studio in LA. We had fabulous co-hosts Mr. Jingle and Mrs. Bells who played piano and sang improvised holiday songs in between rounds of trivia. Each round of Trivia was based on a movie like Home Alone or Elf. Each round of trivia we gave away a good prize and a bad prize. For example the good prize for Elf was a cocktail kit with pop tarts and candy a la Buddy the Elf’s favorite breakfast. We prepared themed cocktail kits and sent them off to the winning team!
3. Virtual Bingo Party
This party is perfect for a networking or marketing event for your corporate team and partnerships! We have worked with companies like Guaranteed Rate who rely heavily on networking to move their businesses forward. With the pandemic they are no longer able to host in person events so they have pivoted to virtual events. This party is great if you would like family friendly competition and if you would like to give away amazing prizes. We planned and host a Halloween themed Bingo and even gave away a best costume prize!
Check out our Virtual Event Demo video below! You’ll see some of the amazing events we have planned like our murder mystery party to Hollywood Trivia!
You can find more in depth virtual party planning tips at how to throw a virtual party