January 28, 2025

Last-minute team event planning: how I hacked the 2023 holiday edition

How to plan a last-minute social event for a team of 30, in New York, without the stress.

Context

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Criteo is a 2,000-employee Ad Tech company. The company's values are "Open, Together, Impactful". As such, every people leader is expected to foster a sense of community within their team.

Nathalie is the Head of Data Science & Analytics Americas. She is based in New York. In November 2023, she was looking to gather her team of 30 for an end-of-year event.

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Planning an event is hard

Like most managers, Nathalie was busy with a multitude of tasks, including end-of-year performance reviews. Mid-November, she started looking for team events ideas.

"I wanted my team to experience something that would create connections. An activity that is laid back and helps team members who don't typically interact get to know each other."

But time was running short.

"I couldn't waste time looking at online ratings, reaching out to multiple vendors and waiting for quotes."

Nathalie had to deal with a couple of practical constraints: a set budget per person, and a busy schedule. Part of her team is remote, and was already flying in to attend the New York office Christmas party - so only a couple of dates were possible. The event couldn't take more than two hours in order to fit in everyone's agenda. That meant hosting the event at the office.

Finding inspiration was hard:

"Our last event was bowling, but I wanted something more laid back this time around. I also was mindful of having something that didn't revolve around drinking, to include everyone."

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In-person events are important

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But why go through the pain of organizing a team event in the first place?

"I see a clear impact of in-person events on team morale. I can feel motivation go up and interactions among team members become easier after a good event. This is especially true since Covid, as more team members are remote are hybrid."

Planning a sushi making class

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That's when Nathalie came across Spaciously's event catalogue. As she browsed the experiences available in New York, she thought of cooking classes as a good fit for her team.

"I made a request for two classes: sushi making and dumpling making. The Spaciously team was highly reactive - the event was confirmed within 24 hours."

With the stress of having a high quality vendor scheduled off her plate, Nathalie then used Spaciously to make the event feel more custom:

"Spaciously has this list of add-ons for every event. We could add sake and dessert from a local Japanese baker to top off the experience. Other options included adding a photographer, or custom made event visuals."

Because Nathalie didn't have time to spend on the logistics, she connected her office's Workplace Experience manager with Spaciously. That meant less little things to worry about: room booking, vendor's Certificate of Insurance, setup and clean-up of the experience.

On the day of the event, all was left to do was to enjoy the moment with her team.

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How it went

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"It was exactly what we were hoping for - everyone was involved and excited to learn a new skill. At the same time, I saw team members that are usually more reserved chit chat during the experience. Some made fun of each other's sushi skills - it was all very good fun"

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What could be improved?

"The team loved the chef, and the food was delicious. Next time, we'd like to not only to learn the technique, but also hearing a bit of an history as an introduction."

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Based on this feedback, Spaciously customers can now specify the desired event vibe they would like - from the more studious to the more laid back.

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