Posts tagged Christmas

November 28, 2009 at the Edmonton Westin Hotel

As an Edmonton DJ I have pretty much seen it all and all I can say is that Intuit did it all at this function.  From the minute you came up the stairs at the Westin Hotel there was something for everyone.  So where to begin.  As a guest you came in to the reception area where there was a piano player and bass player playing a variety of Christmas songs that just filled the air.

Down the hall was a room where you could have your picture taken via a professional photographer.  These pictures would then be made available to everyone in the weeks following the Christmas Party.

Everyone was mingling and visiting and enjoying themselves and there was a couple of magicians walking around performing close up magic.  This is a great add on to any function as it creates a great conversation starter that breaks the ice and leads to a better evening.  When the staff and their spouses come together for a function the spouses can feel a bit out of place and anything that can make everyone feel at ease creates an even better event.

The doors to the ballroom opened about 6:30 PM which was a little late to allow enough time for everyone to get into the room and find their seats prior to dinner.  The room was very well decorated with a back drop of Las Vegas as a background image that tied into the theme of having a funny money casino after dinner.  There was nothing new here for decorations that I have not seen before but what the organizers had done was well and all tied into the overall theme.

Dinner was very well done, served buffet style and everyone made it through the line in a very short period of time.  When you are feeding 300 people it is important that they all get through the line as soon as possible to all for a better evening.  The Westin did a great job of keeping the food on the buffet line so that there were no delays.

Dinner was followed by a couple of short speeches and a few door prizes that both very well received.  We then went into the informal end of the evening where there was both a dance and a funny money casino.

When there are two different things for guests to do that can be good and it can be bad.  If is always a balancing act trying to make as many of your guests happy.  The thing is that not everyone dances and the fun money casino was a great add on that appealed to allot of people.

The fun money casino ran from about 9PM to 11PM and the dance ran right along side it for those that did not want to gamble.

The casino was very well received and by most of the guests and those that did not want to play were on the dance floor.  There was not anyone sitting in the entire room so it was clear that everyone was partaking in all the activities provided via the organizers.  After the casino ended the person with the most money was awarded a prize and rest of the door prizes were given away and the dance finally got going.  With such a bigger distraction the dance generally suffers until the casino ends and that is exactly how it was on this night.

We did lose a few people after the casino which was expected for a crowd of this size but this size but those that stuck around danced their butts off and had a great time.  I was a little surprised that we had a good crowd still left at 2:00AM when I had to stop playing music as the crowd that was left were chanting “one more song” over and over again.

The challenge for next year will be to top this event.

Please see the video below for highlights of the event for Intuit Canada.