Airspace Holiday Party

 

This was the first outing that I would plan in this position. Our location is in the Bay Area, most of my team, and board members are close to San Francisco. 

I started this position in October and was asked to plan a holiday outing for December for our team, board members and investors. There was one small issue I was asked to start planning this event in November. We are in the Bay area where all the good venues are well booked into Jan for Holiday events. I found a great venue with scarce selections. I was excited.

 The Foreign Cinema a restaurant in the Mission. It used to be a foreign film theatre. It had since closed and converted into this beautiful space and restaurant, where they still feature classic and foreign films. 

The Foreign Cinema has many private dining and event spaces. we were set in the private room: with an expected party of 60. 

modernism west gallery 

Capacity: 60 seated, 100 standing
Approx. Size: 1000 sq. ft.
Foreign Cinema, in partnership with acclaimed international art dealer Martin Muller of Modernism Inc. in San Francisco present Modernism West, the exclusive, one-of –a-kind private dining gallery, including evolving, curated international artwork, a modern sound audio/visual system, built-in bar, 18 foot high ceilings, skylights, and a wall of windows.

The event was not a full dinner. It was a happy hour with  passed hors d'oeuvres.

I ordered some very beautiful arrangements from my favorite local florist, Farm Girl Flowers.  We ordered a cake that was a drone, and scheduled a photographer. 

The arrangements I ordered were mini Christmas trees for the bar area, garland, and floral center pieces

  

  

Cinco de Mayo office Party

I was really excited for this party! Our office, Quantifind had a mix of cultures I always wanted to accurately represent so I would talk to individuals and ask for suggestions for food, activities, customs, etc, I would always include everything that they suggested. I loved to be able to bring my coworkers together to learn, love or celebrate culture. I wanted an all inclusive feel to the culture. I loved everyone to participate.

First I always start with the flier. I would send this out in employee email communication. I would also update our internal newsletter so I would include this in the appropriate section.I really pulled all the stops on this one! I had some help from a couple of girls here for ideasSo first my contests were best dressed, a Salsa making contest and the game Loteria.

 

I decorated the office it was so pretty. I had people participate in making paper flowers. I had my coworkers coming to the front to learn to make these beautiful flowers and gather their supplies. I loved having an activity for my coworkers to participate in. Again this was a low cost event because I paid for tissue paper and a couple decorations. My co worker donated to me her daughters Quinceañera decorations. I used those and our flowers to decorate.

  

 

I always had a budget to work with for the month for the events. When I came to the office they were doing a weekly "Happy Hour" which I saw people just using it as an excuse to leave early so we would sort of be paying for nothing. So I decided to take those weeks budget each month and combine them into one big event for the office to come together and actually create memorable moments together. In doing these events I would come in early and decorate their desks with candies or tokens from theme. Everyone came to their desk with Mexican candy treats, Loteria Card and Frijoles!

  

 

I got mini piñatas, thats where I stashed the gift cards, so each winner got a mini piñata with a gift card in it. 

People dressed up...

The winner!

We played Loteria. For the game I made it a digital version. I had my front end guy create a randomized program to display the cards and we played from our desks, with the cards on the screen and on slack. It was so fun, Everyone was making the funniest comments on slack it was so hilarious. I wish I had screenshot them. Our office was so fun.

I made my own Loteria deck. 

Here are some of the deck images. I used some of the classic original images for the integrity of the culture. I chose images that I loved and I changed the other images by I mixing in fun and modern takes of the meaning of the word ie El Musico <3 Prince. 

I ordered Enchiladas for lunch..

  

And we had snow Cones!!!

   

I made Horcata and We had Beer of Course!

 

And we made Salsa

  And Judged Salsa! *We did a lot of co-events with Globality. I would always ask them to participate as judges because they were impartial to our team and our entries would have fair and impartial judging.

   

And the next next morning we ate Pan Dulce