Remember when you could still visit your favorite bar, have a really great conversation with friends over a cup of ice cold martini? Remember how you bonded with total strangers over late night Karaoke at your favorite go-to spot after a very long day at work? These amazing memories offered us a chance to loosen up, interact, have fun, catch up and of course discover new hidden talents. However, our current reality is a twist from the norm we’ve always known.

A reality ushered in by the outbreak of the dreaded corona virus, saw a need for people to avoid any form of social gathering with friends and colleagues in order to reduce its spread. Like something straight out of a Stephen king’s book, the streets have become deserted with everyone locked up in their homes, self-isolating, save for essential service workers of course.

At times like this, we all crave human interactions more than ever. We hope to relive those happy moments when we could drop all worries and enjoy ourselves to the fullest. You know, positive energy only. Why stop at hoping alone? why don’t you just recreate them. Yes, yes bars are shut, restaurants are closed, even the parks are under lock and key right? but do not despair, how about hosting your very first virtual happy hour.

Virtual Happy Hour? – What Exactly is this Shiny New Term.

Like its name suggests, a virtual happy hour is the new trendy term used to describe people leveraging on the power of the internet to recreate fun moments with friends and colleagues from across town or even all over the world, by hosting get-togethers, dinners, parties, game nights and yes sing alongs on various online platforms like zoom, hangout or google meet. In a nutshell, it is virtually packaged fun.

With virtual happy hours, you never lose touch with the people you care about. The heavy laughter and beautiful smiles of people you hold dear on your screen during virtual happy hour events goes a long way in ensuring you remain motivated and high spirited even in this trying times. So why don’t you join in on this fun trend. Here is all you need to know when planning a successful virtual happy hour event.

Choose Your Favorite Online Platform.
“Can you see my screen Now? ”- random person in 2020

There are a variety of digital platforms out there to get everyone “virtually together”. The first step to hosting your virtual happy hour is choosing which of them best suits your taste. We recommend choosing a platform which supports a full-screen, grid-like view where everyone can be seen at once in equal sized boxes, this way you don’t miss those goofy faces your friends make mid-conversation. Zoom supports a meeting of over a 100 people so you are covered if you are planning on hosting a really mega virtual event. However, you all get kicked out after 45 minutes on its free version. Houseparty is more suiting for smaller events as it only allows a maximum of 8 people per meeting, but you could take advantage of its in-app trivia games during game nights. You could also checkout google hangout, snap camera or even good old skype.

Choose a Theme

A themed virtual happy hour event, gives attendees something to look forward to and prepare for in the days leading up to the main event. Imagine going through your old stuff, looking for a wig for a pirate themed event. aarrgggh! sounds like a perfect distraction from life as it is. Your choice of drinks and food can also be themed too. For example, you could have all attendees come up with a James bond inspired cocktail like a classic virgin martini while putting on a tux and speaking 007 spy language. Surreal right? Here are some other ideas you could try out; Super Hero themed, Decade party, Old school night, hip-hop dress up or game of thrones themed.

Consider the Number of People to be Invited

It is important you consider the number of people to be invited to your virtual happy hour. A little too many and it isn’t long before some people stop connecting with the ongoing discussions, thus feeling left out and bored. keeping everyone engaged and continuously involved in the discussions is an integral part of hosting a successful virtual happy hour so it is vital you stick to a number of guests you can comfortably manage. We suggest keeping it fairly intimate, a bunch of close pals would do.
After deciding on the number of people you’d invite, it is important you reach out to them with the details of the event. The when, how and where to join should be included in these invites.

Plan Your Virtual Happy Hour Activities

There are no hard fast rules when planning activities to go into your virtual happy hour event. You could decide to go with the flow and do what comes to your mind on the fly or you could have a defined list of activities mapped out for the event. Whatever you choose, don’t forget the end goal is fun, fun and a little more fun. As a suggestion, you can turn your happy hour event into an all-round game night. They are a vast variety of online gaming services to choose from. The bants and screams of victory would be nothing short of iconic. If your crowd is a little more into “Netflix and chill” you could spice your happy hour event with a screening section where you all watch a movie synchronously at a virtual cinema.

Settle On Drinks

How about a drink along to keep spirits high during your virtual happy hour? Just like classic hangouts with friends, cocktails are a must have. They are like the last piece of the fun puzzle. So you definitely don’t want to leave them out of your virtual happy hour event. You could even include a cocktail making contest during your virtual happy hour event where your friends can show off their cocktail making skills, you know, for bragging rights. You can check out here for a list of delicious cocktail recipes we think you should try out. If you haven’t got the fancy ingredients for a cocktail you can improvise by making a quarantini with whatever liquor you can find. For more information on quarantinis visit here. Children and the non-alcoholics are not left out, you can prepare Mocktails such as Pina Colada, apple Mojito and many more. Find out more on mocktails here. For that extra magic to your drinks, you could purchase a drink mixer purchased from our store. We have different flavors for different cocktail and mock tail types. They bring that extra fizziness to drinks and explodes into a colorful, healthy delight you wouldn’t want to miss out on. You could purchase our custom gift packs and have them delivered to other attendees of your happy hour event so you can all enjoy this glamorous product. A highlight of your event could be all attendees dropping their drink bombs into their respective drinks simultaneously . That would definitely be a worthy sight to behold.