Different events seem to be successful in different ways... What makes an event successful? It depends on the type of event. But if we can answer ‘yes’ to most of these questions, then we have a ‘thumbs up’...
Did people have a positive experience? Did they feel welcome? Comfortable? Would they come back to the House? Will they tell their friends about it? Did we feel positive energy? Did they learn something new? Meet new people? Catch up with old friends? Enjoy themselves?
In general, making people feel welcome, comfortable and enjoy positive experiences are the most important things for us. One event that got it just right was ‘Dinner, Pictionary and Salsa dancing’. We ate delicious food, played games like Connect 4, Backgammon, card games and Pictionary and salsa-danced the rest of the night away.
Some key features that made the event successful were that we didn’t advertise the event to all 750 members on the MHBA Facebook group. Because of the nature of the event, we had to have a manageable number of people, so we invited 30 people, of whom 20 came for dinner and games and then a further 60 or so came later for the dancing. 20 people was about the critical mass needed for people to get to know each other over dinner and to enjoy playing the games together. The 60 others who came later had heard that there was an event on at the MH, so they came along to check it out, and made the dancing / party time even better!
The great thing about the games, especially Pictionary, was that everyone got involved in a relaxed, fun atmosphere. Pictionary was a great ice-breaker and allowed people to get to know each other’s names and to socialise with different people. Each person had to turn to draw something in front of everyone else for one minute. Once they had done that, talking to people wasn’t so hard! Different guests stepped up to organise different parts of the games which also enabled them to feel more part of the evening and more ‘at home’.
Another key factor was the great food, which the housemates made together J. Lots of approval from guests! And lastly, the music. Because we know that they go crazy for latino / reggaeton / salsa music, we made a playlist of these songs beforehand, rigged up the sound system and pressed ‘play’. Bingo. Happy campers.
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