It is September, which means the holiday party is already on someone’s list. Often that someone is an office manager or an EA who has never planned one before and has just been handed a budget and a rough date. We have DJed and MCed a lot of these across Toronto and the GTA, and the same problems come up every year, so this is the checklist we wish every organizer had in hand in September.
What we actually do on the night is on our holiday party DJ page. This post is the planning side.
The timeline, counting back from the party
By early October: lock the venue. December Fridays and Saturdays in Toronto go first, and the good rooms are gone by Thanksgiving. If you can be flexible, a Thursday in the second week of December is easier to get and often cheaper, and attendance is better than on the last Friday before Christmas, when half the office is already away.
By mid-October: book the DJ and any entertainment. Every DJ company in the city has the same 15 or so December dates to sell, so by late October the Saturdays are gone and the Fridays are close behind. If you are adding a photobooth, book it at the same time.
By end of October: menu and bar. Plated or buffet changes the timeline (more on that below), and the bar format changes how the night runs.
First week of November: invitations out. Include the plus-one policy, the dress code, the start time and a line or link for song requests.
Late November: RSVP deadline and final numbers. Venues and caterers want numbers 7 to 10 days out, and so do we, because the sound system is sized to the crowd.
Ten days out: run of show to every vendor. Speaker names, award names and who presents them, timings, the do-not-play list and the slideshow file.
One week out: final walk-through. Who is the day-of contact, where is the loading entrance, when can the DJ set up and where does the DJ table go.
Venue types in Toronto and the GTA, and what each means for sound
Hotel ballroom. Big, carpeted and quiet, which makes it easy for sound. The trade-off is logistics: loading docks, service elevators, a set window for setup, and sometimes a rule that speeches have to go through the house AV.
Banquet hall. Built for parties, with a dance floor, a stage, power where it should be and staff who have seen a DJ before. Many are in Vaughan, Mississauga or Whitby, so plan for guests who are driving, and for those who are not.
Restaurant private room. Warm, easy and the food is good. The catches: a house sound system you may not be allowed to bypass, a music curfew (often 11 p.m.), very little floor space and setup only after the lunch service clears. Good for a 60-person team that wants dinner and a couple of hours of dancing, hard for 150.
Golf club clubhouse. The course is closed in December but the clubhouse is open and usually underbooked, with big rooms, easy parking and flexible staff. Popular in Durham and York Region. Sound carries in these rooms, so the dinner set needs care.
Brewery or industrial event space. Concrete floors, high ceilings, glass and steel, which all adds up to echo. Speeches need a careful mic setup and speaker placement or nobody past the third table will hear the CEO. It is also cold near the door in December.
Office atrium or your own space. No venue cost, but a longer list of catches: security sign-in for vendors, an elevator load-in, a glass room that echoes, no real dance floor and neighbours in the building who did not sign up for a party. Check with building management about hours and amplified sound.
The run of show for a five-hour party
Here is a schedule that works for a 6 to 11 party with dinner, speeches and awards.
- 5:00 DJ arrives, sets up, tests the mics and the slideshow with the projector.
- 6:00 Doors. Cocktail hour with background music at a talking level. This is where the photobooth earns its keep, because people have a drink in hand and nothing to do yet.
- 6:50 MC asks everyone to find a seat. This takes ten minutes, so start ten minutes before you want them seated.
- 7:00 Welcome from the CEO or a senior leader. Two minutes, not ten. Then dinner is called.
- 7:05 to 8:15 Dinner. Music stays under conversation.
- 8:15 Speeches and awards, twenty minutes with a hard cap. The MC introduces each presenter, reads the award, cues a short walk-up song, and gets the winner to the front and back to their seat. Five awards at four minutes each is twenty minutes. Ten awards at four minutes each is a problem.
- 8:40 Raffle or door prizes. Five minutes. Read the ticket numbers twice.
- 8:45 The first dance song. The MC invites the leadership team to the floor first, because people wait to see if it is allowed.
- 8:45 to 10:55 Dancing, with the late-night snack timed for the natural dip around 10:15.
- 10:55 Last song, announced as the last song.
- 11:00 Music off. Lights up.
What matters is that someone is holding the schedule, and that someone should be the MC, not the organizer who is also supposed to be enjoying the party.
The playlist question
Requests. Collect them on the invitation. You will get about 40 songs, half of them workable, and your DJ builds around the workable half. On the night the DJ takes requests too, but with judgement, because the person asking for a nine-minute prog rock track at 9:30 is not thinking about the other 140 people.
The veto. Someone senior will have a list of songs they do not want to hear. Get it in writing before the party and give it to the DJ, who will honour it without announcing it.
What actually fills a corporate floor. Familiar songs from more than one decade, played in short runs so nobody waits long for their era. Group songs people can do badly together. Songs with a chorus everyone knows. What does not work is deep cuts, long intros and anything that needs a specific crowd. A corporate floor in Toronto ranges from 24 to 64 years old and spans half a dozen musical cultures, and the DJ’s job is to serve all of them in turn.
Holiday music. A few during cocktails and dinner, one or two on the floor if the room wants them. A full night of it empties the floor.
Clean edits. The default for corporate events. Nobody has ever complained that the holiday party was too clean.
Food timing versus dancing
The floor opens after dessert is served, not before. If the caterer is still clearing mains when the first dance song drops, half the room stays seated because their plate is in front of them, and the floor never recovers. The caterer and the DJ need to be working from the same timeline.
Buffet dinners take longer than plated; allow 75 minutes for 150 people. Plated dinners can run on a tighter clock but need the speeches to fit between courses, which means the MC and the kitchen need a signal.
The late-night snack (poutine, sliders, a taco bar) pulls everyone off the floor at once, so time it for the natural dip around 10:15 and have the DJ announce it. Bar last call is usually 15 minutes before the music ends; tell the DJ, so the last-call announcement and the last song line up.
Accessibility and noise
Seating. Nobody with a hearing aid should be seated next to a speaker. Tell the DJ where the quiet tables are and the speakers will point elsewhere.
Volume at dinner. Music should sit under conversation. If people are leaning in to talk, it is too loud, and the DJ should be the one watching for that.
A route to the floor. If a colleague uses a wheelchair or a walker, the dance floor should be reachable without stairs, and cable runs should be ramped or taped along walls.
Lighting. Strobe and fast-moving effects are a problem for some guests, so ask your DJ to leave them off or keep them to a minimum. Up-lighting and slow colour washes are the safer choice.
A quiet space. A corner or a second room where the music is faint. Somebody will need it.
Noise rules. Venues have curfews, buildings have neighbours and Toronto has a noise bylaw. Confirm the end time for amplified music in writing and plan the last song around it.
Take the whole plan with you
This checklist, the timeline and the run of show as a designed seven-page PDF you can print and pin up.
Download the planner (PDF)The checklist
- Venue booked by early October
- DJ and photobooth booked by mid-October
- Invitations out first week of November, with a song request line
- Final numbers to venue, caterer and DJ 7 to 10 days out
- Run of show sent to every vendor: speakers, awards, presenters, timings
- Do-not-play list from leadership, in writing
- Slideshow file to the DJ two days ahead, tested on site
- Wireless mic count confirmed for speeches and awards
- Caterer and DJ agree on when dessert is served and when the floor opens
- Seating plan and lighting preferences given to the DJ
- Amplified-music end time confirmed with the venue
- Day-of contact named, with a phone number, for every vendor
- Certificate of insurance sent to the venue if they ask
If you would rather hand the schedule to someone who has run it before, that is what our corporate DJ services are for. December dates go by mid-October, so if the party is this year, the time to call is now.
