Company Events And Booze - A Good Mix?
Planning a company event can be stressful as there is a lot involved. One of the more subtle questions that must be addressed is whether you should have booze at the event or not.
Alcohol does many things – and being an intoxicant, a drug and even dangerous in large amounts means that a consideration of whether or not to serve alcohol at your event should not be taken lightly. When thinking about alcohol – yes or no at your event – you should consider whether or not serving alcohol will end up being more trouble than it is worth. There are several reasons why one chooses to serve alcohol – here’s a few.
One of the biggest reasons why alcohol is served at company events is because it tends to lighten the mood of the party. Alcohol will loosen tongues, make nervous people more likely to speak, and even entice some people to attend just on the promise of free booze. While these might not seem like very good reasons to choose to serve alcohol, they actually do persuade some planners to include alcoholic beverages at their events. Happy attendees can mean more people that end up buying products or services, or remembering a company when they return home from the event.
There are very good reasons to answer “no” to the question of alcohol, yes or no at your event as well. One of the biggest reasons not to choose to serve alcohol is because of the very same lightened mood. People might not be as apt to take your event seriously, or to even remember all of the presentations and other promotional items from your event if they were impaired by drink. Alcohol can also get expensive – open bars with high end brands can run into many thousands of dollars – especially if you have a long guest list.
There are also legal implications to serving alcohol. In general, it isn’t a good idea to serve alcohol to attendees without making sure they are of legal drinking age – 21. Yet many companies would not feel comfortable “carding”, or checking the identification of, people who were coming into their event. So underage drinkers could potentially consume alcohol at your event. If something happens later, such as an accident or ticket for driving while under the influence, your company could be held responsible as the supplier of the alcohol.
If you think it over carefully, you will be able to come to a decision on whether or not to serve alcohol at your event. It just requires weighing the good and the bad in your particular situation.
Find corporate event planners that can help make your business event a smashing success.
Tags: alcohol, dinner, drunk, event, manners, meeting, obnoxious, protocal