End of year function ideas your team will actually remember!
The end of year function should be one of the best nights a company puts on all year.
No agenda, no sessions, no sales targets. Just the whole team in one room at the end of a long year, with the only job being that everyone has a great time and goes home feeling properly looked after!
It does have a bit of a reputation, though. Everyone has been to the one where the venue was booked because it was available, the drinks flowed, the food came out, the boss said a few words nobody could hear, and by nine o’clock half the room had drifted off to the pub next door.
The good news is the difference between those two nights is rarely the budget. It is usually just a bit of thought about what the night is actually for.
Work out what this night is meant to do
Most end of year functions are trying to do one of three things, and they are not the same job.
Thanking the team. The year has been what it has been, and this is the one night that exists purely to say so. The measure of success is people feeling looked after.
Bringing people together. Teams that work across sites, or hybrid teams who have not been in the same room since the last one of these, need a night built around mixing rather than sitting.
Marking the year properly. Milestones, a big win, a hard patch got through. This one needs a bit of ceremony in it, even if it is only ten minutes of it.
A night that knows which of those it is will beat a night with a bigger budget that does not!
The default plan, and why it goes flat
Venue, drinks, food, a few words, music. Nothing wrong with any of it, and plenty of good nights are built on exactly that.
The issue is that all of it is passive. People arrive, find the people they already know, stand in the same group all night and go home. The room never becomes one room. For a team spread across sites or working from home half the week, that is the whole opportunity missed.
What changes it is something that gives people a reason to move, mix and react together. That can be entertainment, but it does not have to be. It just has to be something that happens to the room rather than around it.
Ideas that actually work
Something during arrival drinks. The first hour is when the room decides what kind of night it is going to be. Cocktail magic and mindreading works here because it moves through the room, pulls small groups together and gets people talking to colleagues they would not otherwise have found. By the time everyone sits down, the volume in the room is already up!
A shared moment everyone experiences together. A feature show, a live act, something that stops the room and gives all of them the same thing to react to at the same time. This is the bit people are still quoting back at each other in February!
Someone hosting the night properly. Even a casual function runs better with one person steering it. Someone to get the room’s attention when the boss wants to speak, to keep the energy up between bits, and to make sure the night has a shape rather than just petering out.
A theme with actual commitment. Themes work when the company gets behind them and fall flat when three people dress up! If you are doing one, commit properly and make it easy for people to join in.
Recognition, kept short. If there are awards or shout outs, keep them tight and specific. One sentence about why this person is being recognised beats a paragraph of category description, and the room stays with you.
Food people can move around. Grazing and shared plates beat a long plated dinner for a night about mixing. Long sit down service locks people at a table for two hours with whoever they arrived with.
The thing most end of year functions get wrong
They put the entertainment at the end.
It makes sense on paper: eat first, then the fun bit. In practice the room is at its most receptive somewhere in the middle of the night, not at the point where a third of the guests are looking at their phone for the Uber.
Front load it. Something during the drinks, something in the middle, and let the back end of the night be the bar, the dance floor and people talking. The energy goes up and then gets handed over rather than being asked for at ten o’clock!
Keeping it good for everyone
Worth remembering that a work function is still work for some of the room. Not everyone drinks, not everyone likes big loud nights, and the person who dreads being picked on in front of colleagues is usually sitting quietly at the back hoping nobody notices them.
Good entertainment reads that. It involves the people who want to be involved, leaves alone the ones who do not, and never makes anyone the butt of the joke. The aim is everyone going home having had a good time, not a handful of extroverts having a great one.
Timing, because this is New Zealand
The good venues and acts go early. November and early December get booked out months ahead. If you are reading this in spring for a December function, you are already at the later end of the curve!
Consider February. More and more companies are moving the function to late January or February. Venues are available, everything costs less, the team is rested rather than fried, and nobody is trying to fit it around three other parties in the same week! It also gives the year a proper start rather than a tired end.
Watch the date clash. Mid December weeknights are chaos. Pick early December or move it out entirely.
Booking for this year?
Here’s how Brendan does Christmas parties, from cocktail magic through the room to hosting the whole night.
A shape that works
Drinks and something happening through the room. Everyone seated, a welcome, food. A short block of speeches or recognition. A feature spot that lifts the whole room. Then the bar, the music and the part of the night that runs itself.
The order matters more than the detail. Warm the room first, keep the formal bit short, put the big shared moment where the room is ready for it, and let people finish the night their own way.
Wherever you are
End of year functions happen everywhere, and the room matters more than the city. That said, every place has its quirks, from Auckland traffic pushing a 6pm start out to half past, to a Wellington function where half the guests walk straight from the office, to a Queenstown venue that needs everything brought in, to a Christchurch winery where the sun does not go down until well after the speeches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Planning your end of year function?
Brendan Dooley is an Auckland-based comedy magician, mentalist and MC who works end of year functions, conferences, awards nights and gala dinners across New Zealand and internationally, with 1,500+ shows in 15+ countries behind him, including headlining at the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood and on luxury cruise lines worldwide.
