How to host a virtual Women’s History Month Party at work
As we celebrate Women’s History Month virtually, there will be lots of activities throughout the entire month. From organizing virtual trivia games and conferences to amplifying female voices online and taking a virtual tour of museums, there’s no shortage of activities in honoring female trailblazers. However, it doesn’t always have to be about learning and advocacy. We can equally throw ourselves a virtual party, have fun, and celebrate the women we have at work. Below, we take you through what it takes to organize a virtual Women’s History Month party at work and activity ideas to make it exciting.
Decide who is taking part in the party
Whether you’re a large conglomerate or a small startup, your virtual Women’s History Month party should be for everyone at work. It’s not a party for only women, but for everyone to have fun while sharing ideas on how to create a great working environment for women.
Put together a detailed plan
Once you’re done deciding who is going to attend the party, it’s time to put together a detailed plan of activities. Your plan should include selecting the video conferencing tool of choice, making available logistics needed, coming up with an agenda, notifying and updating participants about progress and what they need to take part in, and recruiting moderators if possible.
Decide what will make up your virtual party activities
Depending on the activities you choose, your virtual Women’s History Month party could be boring or exciting. The best way to meet everyone’s needs and make them happy is to solicit ideas from your team. From trivia games to scavenger hunts, here are some activities to add to your virtual party at work:
a) Host an online watch party
A watch party is a great way to add fun to your virtual party. Teams can use Netflix Party to watch their favorite shows together. It can be overwhelming just trying to find a show that everyone loves on Netflix, so teams can use polls to get inputs from participants about what they want to watch. Since this is a month to celebrate Women’s History, select shows produced, written, or directed by women or those that highlight female contributions to society.
b) Host gaming competitions
Your virtual party should also include board games, online trivia with different themes, quizzes, arcades, and online simulations, just to mention a few. To make it exciting, there should be prizes for winners. Large remote teams can leverage breakout rooms and divide players into small groups to ensure that the games don’t take up a chunk of the party’s time, considering how addictive some online games can be.
c) Buy your team a meal
While your team may be spread across the world, you can still buy them a meal using DoorDash, UberEATS, or their local food delivery app. You can also host a virtual lunch or coffee hour so that everyone would enjoy what they ordered virtually while having chats about random stuff. It’s important to order or buy food from a female-run restaurant or bar to support female-owned businesses.
Monitor your time
Since the virtual Women’s History Month party will have different activities, it’s important to monitor the time spent on each one and the time for the entire party. This is to avoid dragging the event to a point where participants become bored - Zoom fatigue can happen even during virtual parties.
Gather feedback
Use a feedback survey or email to solicit comments and advice from participants about how to make your virtual party better. It’s even better if they can give feedback anonymously so they can be candid with their views.
