I need to turn a phrase into a fabulous, resplendent holiday party

October 20, 2014 7:33 PM

I just became the person to put together a 125 person holiday party (I have the caterer, location and liquor confirmed as of today) for our top-level donors. How do I execute on the phrase "looking forward towards the future" which is the somewhat vague theme that I was given from my boss to make the decorations, theme, etc, come together in one beautiful swoop? We're hiring a designer to do decorations but I am supposed to come up with what I want first to give this person direction. Our budget is reasonable but not extravagant.

Thoughts? I want to come up with some fabulous ideas to wow my boss. Some real gutsy and amazing plays on his theme of "looking towards the future" to turn it into actual decorations and an actual *party*. There will be a short program during the party but that is an aside.

How do I actually demonstrate I am doing something with this and not just leaving it all to the designer?

Do I bring fabric swatches in? A list of hilarious puns about futuristic robots? Winter wonderland vistas? I'm lost. Help!

posted by timpanogos to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

How about imagining--or asking coworkers to submit their ideas for--a few different imagined futures? Ask a few people (maybe even kids?) to think of a positive view of the future. Take each of those ideas and create several separate little areas at the event, set up and decorated to reflect the ideas. Like, maybe one will be about living in space. Or one about living in a beautiful garden of eden under a huge dome. Maybe some kind of retro-futuristic ideas, with robots and jetpacks. Or a global community where we can all understand and speak each other's language and live together in peace. That kind of thing.
posted by primate moon at 7:51 PM on October 20, 2014

I think it would be fun to do a midcentury take on the theme of the future - like Disney's Tomorrowland, stylish early 60s astronauts and cocktails with fun themed names.
posted by sweetkid at 7:54 PM on October 20, 2014 [8 favorites]

i would do it with fortunetellers, they could be women or guys in drag. one would have a crystal ball. another would use a tarot deck customized to your charity "this is you feeding a starving child." palmistry is frequently entertaining. maybe tea leaves over there, and someone studying smoke patterns, no haruspexism, that's a little severe for a charity event. let the future reveal itself!
posted by bruce at 7:57 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Pick one symbol (or, pick your top three one symbols). Sunglasses? Binoculars? Flying cars, a photograph or drawing or painting*, some item that is indicative of your specific industry's future (a big shiny beaker, a satellite, a really smart mouse, etc). Work with those concepts with your boss and with the designer to run with whatever thing that is.

*If you have a little bit of budget to throw at this, maybe choose a local artist to create a painting/photograph/sculpture/etc to create something to hinge this theme around.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:59 PM on October 20, 2014

You mentioned two phrases, and I hope it actually is "looking towards the future" and not "looking forward towards the future" because the 2nd makes no sense!

Custom fortune cookies make, like, the best party favours I have ever given out. I'm sure you can get them cheaper but this is the sort of thing you can do, with dipping in your corporate colours.

So I'd suggest that to the designer. Otherwise, I would make a mood board on Pinterest you can take to your boss and then hand over to the designer. Let him or her do her job!

Things I personally would put on the mood board: chairs, lighting, projections, etc.

Oh and signature cocktails! I dunno probably a bartender is about to turn up and tell me clients are a pain in the ass but all the really good venues I've worked with have amazeballs mixologists who are delighted to craft themed cocktails for me.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:25 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Fun futuristic things:
3d printers where people can make take home keychains or other party favors.
"Internet of Things" sensors, somehow
A text message discussion board projected onto one wall of the room - anyone can text in a comment or announcement or joke (their predictions for what will happen in the world in 2015?)
Get some quadcopter mini-drones and put one on every table and let people play with them.
Decorations all in silver and metal?
Everyone writes a postcard to themselves that you will mail to them 6 months from now.
A silent disco dance floor?
posted by amaire at 10:12 PM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

If it was me, I would do a Jetsons' theme. Since I always equate them with the "future"
posted by gt2 at 12:45 AM on October 21, 2014

I love the idea of a Jetsons, Tomorrowland take on this.

One thing you can do is provide crayons and paper at each table with instructions for each person to design "the car of the future." That way they can color while they listen to the dumb speeches that are always made at these things.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 5:56 AM on October 21, 2014