These 5 apps can help you plan the perfect end-of-year party at work
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These 5 apps can help you plan the perfect end-of-year party at work

14 Dec 2017

The team at Slack has put together a collection of apps from its App Directory to help you plan your holiday festivities.

2017 is almost in the books, and the festive party season is kicking off.

However your team prefers to celebrate this year’s wins and hard work  –  over a casual lunchtime hangout, belting out karaoke renditions of your favourite ’90s hits or embarking on a day of adventure  – planning your team get-together doesn’t have to include a lot of extra busywork or guesswork on your part.

We put together a collection of apps from the Slack App Directory that can help you to easily coordinate everything from picking a party theme to creating a shared playlist.

And, since these apps can be used in Slack, where your team is already working, it’s easy to get their input along the way and involve everyone in the fun.

Here are a few apps that can help your team plan a festive gathering in no time.

Run a poll to pick a party theme

Ugly sweater contest or cookie bake-off? Run a simple poll in Slack with the Polly app to pick a party theme or activity.

If someone has a great idea that wasn’t on the list, they can add their own custom response for others to vote on.

Run another poll when the event rolls around to pick the most horrendous knitwear or the sweetest treats, and watch the results update in real time.

Get into the spirit of giving

For teams that enjoy exchanging gifts, skip pulling names out of a hat and use the Secret Santa app to randomly assign co-workers to one another via DM.

If your teammates prefer to give the gift of time, try Donut  –  an app that introduces people to each other and encourages them to meet over coffee, lunch or, better yet, actual doughnuts.

If donating to a cause is more your thing, you can borrow this clever idea from the REA team in Melbourne and design your own custom bot to collect donations for a worthy cause.

Curate a shared playlist

The right tunes can make a party, well, a party! With the Jukebot app, your co-workers can use a simple slash command such as ‘/add Jingle Bells’ to add their favourite tracks to a collaborative Spotify playlist.

Place a group order

For vegans and carnivores alike, group ordering is made easy with the Domino’s app, so there’s something for everyone.

Install the app, then start a group order in any Slack channel by mentioning ‘@dominos’.

From there, your teammates can add their preferred pizza (or even salad) to the order. Check out and track delivery status all from Slack.

Hail a ride home

When the festivities wrap up, you can get a cost estimate, estimated time of arrival or order a ride home with the Lyft app, so you get home safe and sound.

For more party-planning magic, check out this this special category in the Slack App Directory.

Warm wishes from the team at Slack.

This post originally appeared on the Slack Blog.

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