Office Party Ideas - Fun Meeting Ideas

The office: it’s a place to earn an honest living, a place to use your skills and best of all, a place to spend hours surfing for useless junk on eBay™ and get paid for it.

But within every place of business, there comes a time when it becomes necessary to give those who toil there a “thank you” that’s bigger than just dental coverage.

And that’s where the office party comes in. You've tried lots of ideas for a fun office meeting. Now it's time to revisit one of the classic office party ideas: the Employee Awards Ceremony.

This ceremony is all about having a good time, and at the same time showing some gratitude for those who are down in the cubicle trenches with you every Monday through Friday.

But most of all, it’s about fun.

Sure, you could gather everyone together in some conference room and hand out plaques reading “Best Salesman” or “MVW” (Most Valuable Worker), but where’s the fun in that? Funny awards are where it’s at. They give thanks while simultaneously making sure everyone has a good time. Your employees don’t want to sit through a dry presentation any more than you want to give one. We all suffer enough at our jobs without the supposedly fun times adding to the misery.

So how, you ask, do you put on a lively presentation that will be a guaranteed good time for everyone in the office? Start by downloading this "Funny Employee Awards" eBook, and you’re halfway there.

You'll find everything you need to know about organizing a ceremony, along with plenty of helpful tips. And most important, you’ll get 101 awards certificates that will be appropriate for everyone around the office, no matter the employee or the type of business.

An this isn't just for the Christmas party, Holiday party or whatever you call the year-end party. You can give out funny awards throughout the year at staff meetings, sales meetings, all hands meetings, or partial hands meetings. It's always a good idea to add laughter in the workplace.

So put your phone straight to voicemail, grab a highlighter, hit the snack machine for a bag of Funyuns and get started.

When it's over, everyone will be praising you for the best office party idea ever.

Fake Awards - Free Fake Award Certificates and Trophies

Fake Awards Bring Real Laughs

Ever dream of winning your own Oscar Award, Grammy, Emmy, or Tony Award? Do you already have speech written with a  list of people you want to thank? If so, you should consider hosting your own fake awards show.

The best place to turn your awards show dream into reality is right in front of you: the office. (I mean, you are reading this at work, right?) Every business is looking for ways to cut costs at the office party, and a fake awards show is a fun, low-cost meeting idea.

Host Your Own Fake Awards Show:

1. Set up a fake red carpet outside the office meeting space.
2. Hire a fake photographer to pose as a faux paparazzi as guests arrive.
3. Serve fake cocktails ("mocktails") to save money and reduce liability.
4. Have the office jokester serve as the fake emcee for the event.
5. Hand out fake awards certificates or fake trophies to the winners.

Think of it... you could fulfill your awards show dream with just an old prom dress, a themed office party and a little bit of creativity. So what are you waiting for? Tell the party planning committee that  you have a great office party idea!

And remember the old saying: fake it 'till you make it.

The Office Christmas Party Planning Committee

In this clip from The Office, the head of the Christmas party committee throws out the Stanford representative for having "bad" ideas. Can you relate?

Unless you work for an extremely small company, don't try to plan the Christmas party alone. Put together a selection committee of 2-3 people who know most everyone in the office. You need a group to suss out your coworkers likes, dislikes, personalities and preferences.. Something you might consider incredibly fun, they might consider a bore - or even worse, offensive.

A committee also protects you from shouldering all of the responsiblity should something go wrong. If something falls flat, you have the comfort of knowing you ran it past your committee.

But what do you do when disagreements arise within the group? How do you handle the different strong personalities?

Please share your ideas for handling committee conflicts in the comments section.

Money-Saving Office Party Ideas

Associated Press writer Joyce Rosenberg recently penned an excellent article, "Go ahead with holiday parties, even if money's short." The article extols the virtues of forging ahead with the company party - even in the face of a tough economy.

Rosenberg also lists many excellent money-saving ideas to help cut costs on the holiday party:

• Hold a potluck affair, which can appeal to staffers who love to cook and show off to their co-workers. The boss should still contribute something, perhaps beverages and a cake, and be as generous as possible.
• If the staff is small, the owner might have everyone over to his or her house for brunch, or a cocktail party.
• Have your parties onsite rather than in a restaurant or catering hall or club.
• Skip the alcohol, or serve only wine and beer.
• Hold parties during off-peak times. Thursdays in December are the most popular and therefore the most expensive dates, so some companies are putting their celebrations off until January.
• Barter your company's work for dinner at a local restaurant.

Read the full article here. What cost-cutting ideas would you add to this list? Post your comments below or answer this question on LinkedIn Answers