Big multi-person party online with a meal?
November 13, 2020 6:16 AM Subscribe
Any tips for having a party online for 25 to 30 people that involves eating a meal? Is it possible? I welcome any advice!
Every year for many years I have held a holiday party for a project I run. Around 20 to 30 people come to my place and we have drinks and celebrate and reflect on the year and then we eat a big fear of Indian food. Everyone who works on the project is a volunteer, and we use the small amount of money that the project generates to pay for this meal.
We’re doing it online this year. I’m experienced at running parties online. I’ll probably do this one in gather.town (which is awesome, btw, if you don’t know about it).
I want to have the Indian food be part of it. People always love the meal, and I think those smells and tastes are a big part of what creates the feeling of holiday tradition/ritual for people.
But I’ve never run, or attended, anything that involves people eating together. Somehow it seems like drinks online together feels easy and natural. But eating together feels hard and weird.
Have you seen or done anything that was successful? That wasn’t? What worked? What didn’t? Any tips/suggestions/obervations very welcome!!
Every year for many years I have held a holiday party for a project I run. Around 20 to 30 people come to my place and we have drinks and celebrate and reflect on the year and then we eat a big fear of Indian food. Everyone who works on the project is a volunteer, and we use the small amount of money that the project generates to pay for this meal.
We’re doing it online this year. I’m experienced at running parties online. I’ll probably do this one in gather.town (which is awesome, btw, if you don’t know about it).
I want to have the Indian food be part of it. People always love the meal, and I think those smells and tastes are a big part of what creates the feeling of holiday tradition/ritual for people.
But I’ve never run, or attended, anything that involves people eating together. Somehow it seems like drinks online together feels easy and natural. But eating together feels hard and weird.
Have you seen or done anything that was successful? That wasn’t? What worked? What didn’t? Any tips/suggestions/obervations very welcome!!
We did something similar for a Japan-America Society meeting. The organization chose three restaurants and they offered meal packages for a discount. Everyone chose the location that was most convenient for them and had a meal to their preferences that was similar to everyone else's. I would think the same system would work with a voucher. Chewing was not an issue and it was really fun to have a special meal.
We're also doing our company Christmas party online. Everyone is getting a food hamper with cheese for a cheese tasting and other goodies (substitute with your preferences). They will pick up their basket themselves or buddy up with a co-worker to have theirs delivered. This would work if you can't find a restaurant.
I also concur that gather.town is a wonderful choice for an online party.
posted by Alison at 6:23 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
We're also doing our company Christmas party online. Everyone is getting a food hamper with cheese for a cheese tasting and other goodies (substitute with your preferences). They will pick up their basket themselves or buddy up with a co-worker to have theirs delivered. This would work if you can't find a restaurant.
I also concur that gather.town is a wonderful choice for an online party.
posted by Alison at 6:23 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
Have an Agenda!
It feels silly and foolish as you're setting it up, but having set times, and a set plan really makes it easier for folks to be able to plan their meal/know what to join for.
If using zoom, use breakout rooms for dinner and have a tech savy person on standby to move people around rooms. This tech savy person should be compensated for their trouble.
The chewing isn't terrible if people; we've had bigger issues with people clanking their silverware too close to the mike...
posted by larthegreat at 6:26 AM on November 13, 2020 [2 favorites]
It feels silly and foolish as you're setting it up, but having set times, and a set plan really makes it easier for folks to be able to plan their meal/know what to join for.
If using zoom, use breakout rooms for dinner and have a tech savy person on standby to move people around rooms. This tech savy person should be compensated for their trouble.
The chewing isn't terrible if people; we've had bigger issues with people clanking their silverware too close to the mike...
posted by larthegreat at 6:26 AM on November 13, 2020 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: larthegreat , I will definitely have an agenda!! (We have an agenda even for our regular annual in-person gathering...)
posted by ManInSuit at 7:14 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by ManInSuit at 7:14 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
I have a regular dinner data with a group of people. Earlier this week we did our first zoom version of it.
We decided that we were "Going to a pizza restaurant". So we all got pizzas.
It was quite a small group, so maybe not analagous. But it worked out pretty well.
I think I would suggest that you have a set time when food is served.
We didn't do takeaway because we weren't able to control that time. But I think you would have a bit more leeway with more people.
I'd also suggest you get people figuring out their setup ahead of time.
Having someplace to put the food was an issue.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:38 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
We decided that we were "Going to a pizza restaurant". So we all got pizzas.
It was quite a small group, so maybe not analagous. But it worked out pretty well.
I think I would suggest that you have a set time when food is served.
We didn't do takeaway because we weren't able to control that time. But I think you would have a bit more leeway with more people.
I'd also suggest you get people figuring out their setup ahead of time.
Having someplace to put the food was an issue.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:38 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]
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- I plan to send everyone a voucher to allow them to order whatever indian meal they want.
- I am inclined to have a “suggested” eating time: Like: “From 6:00 to 7:00 we’ll have {byob) drinks and mingle. 7:00 with be the scheduled time to eat (though you can also eat earlier or later if you like).” My thinking is that there might be some pleasure in eating together, but I don’t want it to be mandatory.
- I worry a little that all the chewing will be gross in each others’ ears
- gather.town lets you set up areas that people can move to, so I thought I might put in some “tables” that people can eat at, so people can chose whether or not to be around eaters, and also eat in smallish groups of maybe 4 to 6, rather than all together....
posted by ManInSuit at 6:17 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]