Many innovations in year-end parties: Combining events, enhancing experiences

Businesses are creative in organizing year-end parties to both optimize costs and maintain a cohesive atmosphere for employees. Many places even combine team building and year-end parties into one.

Small and medium-sized enterprises prioritize organizing year-end parties at the office, with dishes that ensure a full stomach (Photo source: PITO)

Year-end party combination trend

In the difficult economic context, organizing a year-end party becomes a challenge for many businesses.

However, instead of cutting back completely, many companies are looking for ways to organize events that are both economical and ensure a cohesive atmosphere for employees.

Speaking with Tuoi Tre Online, Mr. Nguyen Ho Manh Khang, representative of the PITO food service booking platform, sees three main trends in organizing year-end parties.

Instead of organizing at luxury restaurants, some businesses have switched to organizing year-end parties at factories, industrial parks or conference halls. This method not only saves 30-40% of costs but also ensures a solemn atmosphere, by using LED screens, full sound and lighting.

Meanwhile, small and medium-sized enterprises prefer to organize parties at the office with a simple approach, focusing on eating and drinking instead of partying at restaurants.

Some companies are more creative by incorporating group activities such as bingo, acoustic performances or organizing ao dai festivals at the company.

Additionally, many businesses require no alcoholic beverages, instead offering mocktails or other healthy drinks.

In addition, the prominent trend this year is to combine team building and year-end parties into one event. Some units even skip the year-end party and transfer it to additional bonuses for employees.

“Our partners, who are units that receive year-end party bookings from organizations and businesses, said that this year about 50% of their annual parties were cut. The most common is combining them with team building,” Mr. Manh Khang shared.

According to Mr. Pham Huu Duc, director of HESA Event, businesses continue to organize year-end parties but reduce items or optimize costs.

“If last year a business spent about 1 billion VND to organize a party for 500 - 600 employees, this year they can adjust it down to 800 million VND,” said Mr. Duc.

Demand plummets

Both Mr. Duc and Mr. Khang have seen a sharp drop in demand for Christmas decoration or party services this year. The popular trend is to skip the Christmas party and just give employees small gifts.

According to some event business owners, this year's revenue only reached about 65% compared to last year. Internal events such as sports festivals, October 20, or Christmas were cut or internally organized.

“So far, no one has asked or booked our services for Christmas. It seems that many parties have to spend money to organize events for customers and partners, and less for internal events,” Mr. Duc shared.

Prefer display technology

The trend of reducing year-end party spending depends on the size of the business and the field of operation. If the business operates in an industry with few orders, cutting spending is inevitable. For large businesses, the budget has been allocated from the beginning of the year, so the implementation plan is still maintained.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hue, director of human resource strategy, external communications and sustainable development of AEON Vietnam, said that every year the company always organizes team building activities and company parties as a way to show gratitude to the team.

According to Ms. Hue, if this is just considered an expense, it will be easy to cut back in difficult times. On the contrary, when viewed as an investment in employees, this event will be prioritized and can even be a driving force to improve business performance.

This unit usually organizes internal events in March, after the Lunar New Year holiday, at large resorts. The program combines relaxation, team building activities during the day and a gala dinner in the evening.

On average, the event attracts from 800 to 1,500 employees to participate in each session, with about 4-5 sessions, equivalent to all 5,000 employees at AEON Vietnam.

Technology companies hold year-end parties with colorful art performances (Source: Global X Global Experience)

Meanwhile, with the positive production and business situation at the end of the year, Mr. Tran Van Quy, General Director of Trung Quy Textile Company Limited, said that this year will have new points.

About 100 employees will be taken to a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City to attend the year-end party instead of being held at the factory like every year, to encourage team spirit.

Companies do not spend too much on year-end parties, they also want to bring new experiences to employees.

Mr. Pham Huu Duc, director of HESA Event, said that companies are increasingly interested in performance technology such as projecting images onto the surface of objects or architecture (laser mapping), or even high-speed camera systems (Glambot) that are popular at Hollywood events. However, these items come with a high cost.

A representative of Global X Global Experience Joint Stock Company, which owns a system of nearly 30 restaurants and cafes such as Lalaland Food & Music Garden, Yoyo Factory... assessed that companies with young and dynamic staff are tending to turn year-end parties into semi-professional or even professional art performances.

Many companies do not organize a basic party with just the leader speaking, eating and then going home, but also actively organize it into a music party.

“Even large businesses with good business results in the past year are very cautious about spending money on year-end parties. They are not willing to pay for the hall rental fee, food and beverage fee, and all kinds of additional fees if they bring in additional outside equipment to install,” said a representative of Global X Global Experience.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhieu-sang-tao-trong-tiec-cuoi-nam-gop-su-kien-tang-trai-nghiem-20241126180318732.htm