Host An Online Party To Connect With Collaborators Across The State Or Across The Country

Are you thinking of having a party on the internet but a little timid about how to pull it off? Don't panic. There is a way to host an online party without feeling on the spot.

Although you can't really have a hard and fast way of conducting online meetings, I can offer a few tips that are extremely helpful for all online parties such as:

• Always have a plan or itinerary
  
• Ensure that everyone is comfortable
• Keep it moving and fun

Let's get into more specifics regarding what kind of a meeting you are hosting.

Fun Things To Include At Your Spectacular Virtual Party, Whatever The Occasion!

Get your party in the right mood by having a party theme! Have an award for the most theme appropriate display or just do it as a fun competition. Remember the more exciting the theme, the better response you may get! 

When you host an online party, it is very important to make sure everyone is comfortable. Virtual parties may feel a little awkward since a lot of us are not very used to seeing ourselves on camera and it can be a little strained and not feel as natural as an in-person party. If there is a chance that not everyone knows each other, make sure there is a round of introductions to start things off!

Plan to have the party broken up in either way of breakout rooms, games, or both! Of course, it can be a little hard to come up with what kinds of games you can play at an online party, but here are a few suggestions:

• Trivia (make it theme-appropriate!)
• Costume or decoration competition
• Charades

You can have the guests play as either individuals or teams. Teams makes it more fun because each player will have a group rooting for them, plus they can amass more points!

Now, to play some of the guessing games, you will probably want to employ the chat box rather than have people guess out loud. Just have a simple text "me" or "got it". Whoever chats first gets to say their guess. If they are wrong, move to the second chat and work your way down.

Another way of playing is to have each person get their own turn. For playing this way, give points for how many answers the player can get in a minute. 

Other games that I found on teambuilding.com that I think sound super fun for a virtual event are:

• Penny for your thoughts, and 
• Guess the baby

For penny for your thoughts, you have everyone bring a penny with a year from the last 15 (adjust for your group) years. Going in a circle, each player gets to choose another player's coin. The second player reads the year and the first player then tells about something that happened to them or was significant that year.

For guess the baby, everyone previously sends you a baby picture of them. You pull the picture up on the screen during the party and everyone has to guess whose baby picture it is. This one sounds like a lot of fun!

Here is a PDF copy of the trivia game that we played. It is a combination of popular movies, early history, literature and a few more related questions. We allowed 40 seconds per player to try to answer as many as possible correctly. The questions get harder the deeper into the game you go. There are enough questions for about 20 people to play. And of course, you'll need the answers...

Another fun game that we played was a memory game. We allowed the players to look at the image for 30 seconds then we flipped the page and let them write down what actor, character or movie they remembered seeing for 1 minute.

Host An Online Party Featuring Your Script To Get Everyone Ready To Move Into Pre-Production!

As you are in the entertainment world, you are probably going to end up hosting a lot of virtual parties. As a simple example, here is how to host a super fun script party!

Now, get ready to be carefree and have a good time. Your itinerary should include a read through and a few fun aspects such as games and competitions.

Depending on your script length, you can either have a game before and after the script read through, or you can have planned stop points to have a little bit of fun before reading on.

Our FABIOLA script party itinerary went like this: 

• 4:00 - Welcome and hellos
• 4:15 - Script Part 1
• 5:15 Award for best theme displayed
• 5:25 - Script Part 2
• 6:25 - Game
• 7:40 - Script Part 3
• 8:40 - Comments and close

Here's a quick highlight video with our favorite moments:

To compare, the FABIOLA script is about 143 pages, so if you have a shorter script you won't need quite as much time. Notice that each reading period is about an hour long. That is probably the max for reading to keep everyone fresh and not feeling like zombies.

And, of course, ensure that everyone is comfortable.

Insider tip: If you appear comfortable, it will be easier to make everyone feel at ease. Fake it 'til you make it!