With the continued development of technology and connectivity, it seems as though the world has been getting smaller. With smartphones, personal computers, tablets, and a plethora of connectivity softwares, the ability for anyone to communicate with someone somewhere else in the world almost instantaneously. Especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this type of communication became not only vastly more popular and common, but necessary. People began to spend important moments with one another, united through softwares like FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, and a number of others.
What is a Long-Distance Party?
A long-distance party is a virtual or online gathering of friends, colleagues, or family members that party or spend some time separately but together, using an online or video conference platform.
These online gatherings offer a new means for people to communicate with one another, no matter how far they may be apart. You just need to decide which platform to use and have a good time. Throwing a long-distance party can be just as warm, enjoyable, and wild as hosting one in real life.
Tips on How to Throw a Long-Distance Party
A long-distance party can be thrown. However, organizing a long-distance party successfully requires a lot of time and effort. Here is a guide on how to throw an online party.
Make a Guest List
Consider your guest list carefully because it can make or break a virtual event. A video conference that has too many participants may become a little chaotic and crowded. Pick your number of guests depending on how you want to spend the party. 8 to 10 members of your family or friends will do just fine if you intend to have a conversation. If you’re having a birthday party, 20 is your number. Increase the number of guests and pick the appropriate platform if you have too many friends and don’t want to leave anyone out.
Plan a Time
A lower turnout may be caused by bad timing. As a result, it’s best if you try to choose a time that works for all of your guests. It’s critical to plan your party’s start time because it may include children, adults, or even guests from other countries. It is possible to reach a compromise between the two times suggested by both young people and adults, even though they typically have different ideas about when the party should begin.
Two to three hours works well when it comes to party duration. You should have plenty of room to relax, celebrate, and spend time with your loved ones. Additionally, it’s best to avoid mealtimes unless you’re going to eat together on-screen.
Pick a Suitable Platform for the Party
You must take into account some crucial factors when selecting a video platform, such as the number of guests and the non-tech savvy individuals you plan to invite. Try to choose a straightforward platform that best suits your attendees, your needs, and can accommodate all of your guests within your budget because some of them will require additional help.
Send you guests an invitation
To make it more official, send a party invitation to your guests along with the link to the conference room call (via Zoom or Google Hangouts, for example). It doesn’t have to be fancy, a simple email with any pertinent information is enough. You can put the start and end time of the party and provide some tips on how to use the platform to make sure everyone can be on time.
Plan an Activity
Prepare a list of activities you can share together, taking into account your budget, the time available, the type of online party, and the number of guests. You can invite a magician or musician to a child’s birthday party. On various video hosting services, they provide services by the hour.
If your audience is older, consider activities like watching a movie together. You can watch a movie online with friends using the Netflix Party Google Chrome extension. You could also choose to sing on YouTube during a karaoke night.
Because of this, people learned how to engage more deeply through video-call platforms, playing games, sharing experiences, and even having parties over long distances. As the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to subside, long-distance relationships have remained, and the long-distance party or gathering has retained its importance to many of our relationships. Here are five unique long-distance party ideas for you and your far away friends to engage with over FaceTime, or whatever video chat platform you enjoy most!
1. Cocktail Party
A cocktail party is a frequent favorite form of get together, and arguably one of the easiest to do remotely with friends over FaceTime. Get your group of friends together, and schedule a time to meet. Have one or two people select a drink that they are going to teach the rest of the group how to make, and have them send out a list of ingredients and supplies they need to make their cocktail.
Get everyone together, and follow along as one of you teaches the cocktail. This lets all of you enjoy the same drink at the same time as you talk, socialize and joke about the experience. Having a second cocktail instruction from someone else is another fun way to pick up the experience!
Lastly, a remote cocktail party is very safe! Everyone is at home, and you don’t have to worry about people driving home intoxicated.
2. Game Night
There are a number of great games to play on FaceTime, especially when it comes to party games. While it may be a little bit difficult to play more complicated games, there are also ways to accomplish these.
First and foremost, let’s talk about party games. These are some of the easiest games to pull off over FaceTime. One of the best games to bring to a FaceTime game night is Pictionary. Have everyone get an easel, or even a notebook and follow standard Pictionary rules. This is a great starting game for any remote gathering.
Other great party games are Scattergories, card games like Cards Against Humanity (so long as everyone has their own deck), or even Uno!
If you are interested in playing more complex games in your game night, there are a couple of ways to achieve it. You can have one person be a “game master” and have the game on their screen and everyone instructs them to move or adjust pieces. Or, you have everyone set up their own board, and everyone adjusts the pieces together. You may need to find ways to modify the setup to make this work, but there is always a way!
3. Cook a Meal Together!
Similar to the cocktail night party, another great way to get everyone together is to cook a meal together! Decide on a recipe that you are going to cook together, get everyone on FaceTime and engage in following the recipe with one another.
Get a list out to everyone involved so that you can all buy the same ingredients. Put together a definitive plan, and then execute the idea! Having everyone together and cooking together is a great, easy way to bond and spend quality time! And the best part, you all get to eat the meal and share it together afterwards.
4. Movie Night
While you have to make sure you have the proper setup for this, watching a movie together is an easy thing to do through a number of platforms. Even streaming platforms like Disney+ and Netflix have services that let you all watch a movie together on their platform.
Have a chat setup, and watch the movie. Talk about it afterwards, or share your shock and enjoyment throughout it!
5. Combine to Make Your Own!
Any of these ideas can be easily combined to build your own multi-faceted FaceTime party idea! Have a cocktail and movie night, cook a meal and play a game, or come up with something completely unique to your friend group.
The most important part of any group is that they are spending that time together. Finding what your long-distance fellowship wants to engage in, and is most fitting for their desires will always lead to some form of success.
So don’t be afraid, and dive into your FaceTime party!