Who doesn't love a good party?! Holiday parties help boost company morale and make your customer and employees feel valued and appreciated. Here at BizX we know how to throw a party. We have been doing large yearly holiday parties for nearly a decade. This year was a glorious concoction of ice sculptures, custom cocktails, photo booths, giveaways, valet parking, dj, jazz band, 4 different bars, a Lamborghini and a Unimog.

Wanna know how we did it? Well... here is our guide to building a memorable holiday event that can be a talking point for years to come.

Lay the Foundation by Establishing a Budget

A budget is the most critical and least party-esque thing to sort out. Unfortunately, it also has to be done first. At least we get the boring stuff out of the way right?! We asked ourselves: How much can we spend? Where should the money be allocated? How are we going to track spending?

Wow Guests with an Amazing Venue

Setting the tone of a holiday part is crucial. A venue that is too bland will mean you will need to compensate in other areas. If it is over-the-top be sure to tone down other aspects so it can shine. Booking a venue is tricky as you often have a date and time range in mind so you need to book it in early or be flexible. When looking at venues we had to make sure to ask ourselves: what is the maximum capacity in this space? Is catering included? Is this a good location? We decided on the Foundry by Herban Feast as we liked that it is spacious, has a rustic feel and includes catering.

Build a Subtle Yet Consistent Theme

The event brand will drive your invites, signage, and overall feel of the event. Be sure that your event brand enhances your company brand instead of detracting from it. Produce signs, banners, nametags, etc... we even made custom bathroom signs! For us, the event brand needed to be consistent with the BizX brand and also work within the specific feel of the Foundry venue.

Get the Word Out

After the event brand was put into action it was time to get the save the dates out. We did this two months beforehand to give our members plenty of time to plan on attending. Try using Eventbrite for RSVPs and/or email them to let them ask questions and read basic information about the event. This along with a healthy dose of phone calls and personal connections will build a healthy crowd.

Build out the Content Plan

Begin to compile an ideas list. Piece together the various activities you might want to include. If you threw a party last year review your notes of what was successful and what was not. Take your time on this phase and be sure to include a lot of different people and points of view before settling on exact details. A few ideas we settled on were a silent auction for charity, vendor booths for shopping, wine and cheese tasting, multiple types of music in different areas and multiple bars.

Schedule Your Suppliers

You can't have a party without guests and the same can be said for suppliers. It is unrealistic that you can plan and execute on every detail so your supplier network is crucial. Reach out to various vendors and request competitive bids. After the selection process, discuss the event with each supplier. Walk through the space with them, brainstorm about lighting, collaborate on music and sound with your dj and create a talking track for the MC. Make sure the venue liason are consulted from beginning to end to ensure there are no hiccups. This is hard work for sure and it will payoff with an atmosphere that encouraged eating, drinking, mingling and networking.

Hold a Pre-event Walk Through

This is a crucial step to knockout the logistics of the event. Confirm where the various sections of the event would happen. Make sure the timetables have been discussed and nailed down. Set up a floor plan. We created a flow that made sense for the evening and then got to work on the special details such as the placement of an ice bar with our logo and where we would project our social media activity board and blue lighting.

Don't Forget an X-Factor

Always include small details that will make your event stand out. This will be different for everybody but for us it was a few things namely spherical ice cubes with an 'X' inside of them, valet parking and a giveaway of a trip to Mexico.

Preserve for Memory Lane

It is important to document the whole affair. Between photographers, social media and people running around with their mobile phones there will be more memories than you can share. Check out some modern tools to help curate and document the night. We chose Storify, an Activity Walls & Magisto to help us cover our event but there are a lot of tools to choose from.

Planning a memorable holiday party can be stressful, time consuming and expensive, but completely worth it. It’s a matter of knowing your budget and parameters and then using your imagination to create a night no one will ever forget. These 9 steps are our method for creating a night our BizX community would never forget. After raising $22,973 for charity, had 766 guests have their cars valet parked, drank custom designed cocktails from an ice bar and sculpture with our logo we realized we had an incredible holiday party on our hands. Feeling jealous you weren't there? Have a look: