by Adam Jackson

Credit: Brian Solis

This year, the consensus was that there wouldn’t be any holiday parties or we would simply see a lot less. I’ve followed the Silicon Valley tech scene for a number of years and I remember the big parties – the parties with ice sculptures and rock bands. I remember when every event was open bar and catered. Ah, those were the good days.

The idea that holiday parties will be non-existent this month is incorrect. In fact, there are still plenty of parties going on. I’m adding 3-5 new parties every day to SocialCalendario. What I’m noticing is that these parties are drastically smaller than previous years. It’s easy to throw a holiday party for your employees, their families and for your users.

The first step is to cut the extras – no live bands, no performers of any kind. Every Silicon Valley geek loves a clown making balloons, but that’s an expense that isn’t feasible right now. You still have to offer something for free though. Music is a must and it’s best to make the alcohol free. It doesn’t have to be free all night and you don’t have to do an open bar. Drink tickets are a great way to budget the alcohol for a party and limiting guests to beer and wine will help save money.

Be very careful because however. Most venues have bar guarantees. Some venues will let you rent for free but then ask for $7500 in alcohol be sold that evening. It’s not impossible, but 50 employees can’t drink that much. Oh, but there’s another option too. Holding an event at a restaurant is great! Many restaurants have a full bar, will let you rent out a space and will allow you to setup some music either pre-recorded or a DJ as long as it isn’t too loud. The restaurant usually won’t have a minimum bar guarantee and won’t throw on fees like a venue would.

Let’s say your startup just started making money or you just scored a large round of funding. In economic times like these, where even Google is toning down its holiday party, it’s important to not stand out too much. Stand out with an excellent product or with adoption numbers but standing out by throwing a huge amount of cash into a sculpture of your company’s logo is not the right way to go about it even if the sculpture was donated.

Everyone is expecting small parties this year and that’s what we’ll have. I’ll simply be attending more of them instead of waiting for the big one. If you must attend a party this month, SFNewTech is up there.

Holiday Party 2.0 is another must attend. There’s another upcoming party from yours truly that I’ll make sure to tell you about in a few days. Any questions, hit me up on Twitter or Email and I’ll be happy to direct you in the right direction for planning a party or finding the right one to attend.

By Larry Chiang and Marissa Louie

Holiday Party 2.0

Hosted by Bub.blicio.us, AD-Village.com, Zinette Magazine, and S1 Management

12/2 11:19pm: SPONSOR LIST IS NOW FULL
12/4 11:18am: SEE NOTES BELOW RE: AFTERPARTY

Fa-la-la-la-la, where’s the holiday moolah?? Show me the money.

In the old days, it was “Let’s set aside $50 grand of our $12mm b-round and effen host a holiday party.”

While we WILL miss the carving station, Cirque du Soleil ballet dancers and gift baskets, we are in a borderline depression. Chin up ol’ sport!, because we are architecting a party — a holiday party where we make money, build awareness of our start-up and wow our partners and sponsors with 10x ROI on their $100-200 sponsorship.

Remember, anything worth doing is worth doing for money. Why should holiday partying be any different= We fully expect surprises to be laced between now and FRIDAY (yes, four short days away).

The party is Dec 5th, 7-9pm at Roe Restaurant (651 Howard St.) in San Francisco.

Special Guests:

• Jackie Peters of Heavybag Media
• Sarah Lacy, Author of “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good”

Co-Hosts:

• Larry Chiang
• Marissa Louie
• Brian Solis
• Krystel Ariel
• Adam Jackson
• Tyler Willis
• Barney Pell
• Waleed Abdulla
• Yo Yoshida
• Max Schulze
• Paul Schleicher
• Michael Moradzadeh
• Halle Tecco
• Ryan Merket

Spotlight Sponsor: Sun Startup Essentials

Sponsors:

• AD-Village .com
• Asse9 link
• Founders Fund .com (solicited)
• Zinette .com
• Yoono .com
• Involver .com
• JS-Kit .com
• S1 Management .com
• Blog Networks on Facebook
• Rimon Law Group
• WordPress .com
• Workstir .com
• Ninne .de
• Whole Foods Market

Media Sponsors:

• Bub.blicio.us
  
• Future-Works PR
• Heavybag Media

RSVP via text message under 140 characters to:

@malouie | (510) 375-1941 | marissa@ad-village.com

@larrychiang | (650) 283-8008 | chiang9@duck9.com

or check the Facebook group.

In the spirit of Holiday 2.0, it’s “Let’s make some money hosting a holiday party by inviting co-hosts like Brian Solis, Jackie Peters, Barney Pell, Sun Startup Essentials, Founders Fund, Involver.com, Yoono.com, and Rimon Law Group.

Because we are ZOMG monetizing , we will invite you to come celebrate Holiday 2.0.

** Chiang SURVEY QUESTIONS: **
Should we tip, bribe, comp and tip bloggers to come?
Should we charge a $5 cover?
Should we charge a $15-75 cover to VCs?

Should we have an AFTERPARTY?
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=25107055702&id=811315726&index=3

by Michelle Lentz

I’m not a marketer, really, although I get the concepts. I do know that the space is changing, and changing rapidly. Traditional marketing isn’t going to cut it anymore, and to grab the new generation of audience, marketers need to look to the Web.

One way to do that is with videos that may hopefully go viral. One of the problems with marketing via video is that there is no conversion; once the video ends, the user goes elsewhere. Involver, launching a new pilot program today, hopes to change all that.

Involver offers an easy-to-use and understand web platform for marketers. With a few clicks, marketers can upload a video, add interactive tools, and publish the video out to several places. If you don’t have a video, Involver will work with you to find the right producer to create it. Once your video is created and uploaded, you can add surveys, quizzes, and interactivity into the video, engaging (involving – get it? ) the user.

Finally, you can easily publish the video out to other locations, upping the conversion. For instance, I easily – almost too easily – published a video out to my blog, as well as mailed a video to myself. Involver provides a nice landing page where users can view the videos. Of course, you can also publish it out to YouTube.

Involver is starting its pilot with non-profit Kiva.org and with viral video folks Serena Software. The Serena Software application is interesting. Not only are they pushing the video, but they’re pushing it into a complete Facebook integration, adding in the social media aspect that gets and retains users. Using Facebook and other social media as an extensible platform is key to Involver’s plans.

Involver is accepting applications to join its pilot program and plans to add new companies as they expand to support additional large video campaigns. Involver plans to open access to their video campaign platform later this year.

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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.