6 Tips for Hosting The Best Office Party This Summer

When you work close to the travel industry, hospitality is important. Since our earliest days we’ve welcomed guests, clients and friends into our workspace when they are visiting San Francisco. We offer them our conference rooms (even when they look more like a storage closet), give them our wifi passwords and open up our snack pantry to them.

Our favorite way to show a little hospitality, though, is our Back Porch Bourbon Party. It’s our version of the office party that we’ve become known for. Every couple of months when the weather is nice, we round up our people and enjoy an evening on our back porch.

But alas, our company has continued to grow and we are ready (and excited!) to move into a new, larger space. It’s time to say goodbye to South Park, and hello to Mission Street. With the move we will also be bidding farewell to our favorite hangout spot, the back porch. Before we go though, we are throwing one last fête.

After many Back Porch Bourbon Parties, here are our six tips for hosting the best office party this summer.

Make it easy to invite people.

We’ve done more formal invitations, but time and again we go back to the good old Facebook event. It allows multiple team members to invite guests and makes it easy to communicate with everyone attending. Also, posting to the event is an easy way to distribute photos afterwards.

Stock up on beverages, glasses and snacks.

No one wants to be at a party that runs out of supplies. We always do a big Costco run beforehand to make sure there are plenty of (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) beverage options available for everyone attending. It’s also a great chance to grab a few snacks. We always have a backup reserve of Solo cups, but also keep a big stock of nice glasses for our friends.

Be known for a drink.

The name of our event says it all. Our team loves bourbon and people come to our event ready to see which kinds we will be serving. It’s a great conversation starter for first-time guests.

Make it a celebration.

While our back porch events are relaxed, there’s a celebratory air to them. The end of a work day. A fun night hanging with old friends and meeting new ones. We set the tone by ending work about an hour before the event. That way the day’s stressors are tuned out, and everyone helps set up the party to build up excitement. When the guests start arriving a big bag of nice cigars appears to add to the celebratory atmosphere.

Foster introductions.

We love to invite new contacts to our back porch events because it’s the perfect chance to build a new relationship. Likewise, it’s fun to foster introductions between our clients, friends and guests who don’t already know each other. As a result, everyone ends up having a great time and it feels like a group of friends.

Feed your guests.

When the event naturally carries on into the evening, make sure your guests don’t go hungry. Our favorite party trick is to order a huge delivery of pizza from our favorite shop around the corner and surprise our guests with announcement that pizza is hot and waiting for the in the kitchen. The moment is usually followed with comments of, “I knew I liked you guys!”