My parents just left after coming up for my brother’s annual Augustfest party that is a take off on Oktoberfest. It’s a great party. They serve oak pit barbecued sausage with German Mustard. I ate three, but should have held it to two. Anyway, the party is great. Lot’s of people, sausages, beer and games. It’s a big party and they even have committees to organize everything.
This is where the idea comes in. Any big event like a major party, a wedding or class reunion has lot’s of things to organize. For the budget minded party thrower, they often do their own coordinating. They make a guest list. Maybe in a spreadsheet. They send Evites out. They plan the food, music, decorations and activities.
Once the party is over, there is party review. Was there enough food. Yup, about 50 extra sausages. Was there enough beer. Yup. We only drank half of the three kegs. What should we do with the extra beer? Keep drinking…Were the games fun, did we have enough of them. Were the parents able to enjoy the party? Yes, they had a sitter come. Good call! In the end, there was a lot they did right. And a lot of waste. It could have been planned with less excess, the party would have been just as fun and they could have saved a ton of money.
How about one system that pulls the party coordination all together?
Features include
- Evite style invites
- Food quantity estimates based on the number of people that are coming. This would solve the over/under ordering problem.
- Committee organizers for the people in charge of decorations, setup, cleanup, music, food
- A budget tool to estimate costs
- A childcare tool to plan the number of sitters for the kids
- Recommendation tool that suggests items you may have overlooked like vegetarian food items, diet sodas, games etc.
- Weather tool that lets you know the chance of rain or how hot it will be to consider heat or cooling and shelter requirements for the venue.
- Potluck tool if others are going to contribute food
- Theme tool to give ideas and supplies for specialty parties like cocktail parties or 80s parties…You get the idea.
- Directions to get to the party. Including alternative transportation options for drinkers.
- A photo and videos section to post pictures of the event
If this could all be wrapped into a nice set of wizards and checklists, I think it would be a great tool for the do-it-yourself party thrower.
Paul,
It’s a good tool for people who entertain a lot, especially dinner parties, to have a resource to track the guests and what they served so they can avoid repeats.
That’s a good idea. My wife and I are always trying to remember what we served certain guests.