How to host the perfect social: tips from the thinking bob team
24th July 2015Want to get to know your fellow thinking Bobbers that little bit better? Fancy choosing and creating your own socials whilst meeting like-minded people who love doing the things you do too?
Here’s our top tips on how to host the perfect social!
Organising your own social is an exciting way to meet new people, expand your social circle and build your own inner confidence, all in one go
Our official thinking bob hosts have already organised and hosted over 200 events including: quizzes, treasure hunts, cinema screenings, museum visits, exhibition trips, and many more… And what’s best? They’ve made plenty of new friends in the process.
Sound good? Read our tips on how to host the perfect social and then create and add your own social to the social calendar here.
Our hosts and some of their social experiences
Start small…
If organising your own event sounds daunting, then start small. Whether it’s a trip to a museum, the cinema or just an exhibition you’ve been dying to see, get involved and share it with your fellow Bobbers.
It’s all in the details – planning your social
Do your research before you add your event – people will need to know a time, place, meeting spot, plan for the day/evening, dress code (if applicable) and any travel arrangements. If your guests need to get their own tickets, where can they get them from and how much are they?
Find out as much as you can about your destination – this will make writing your event a lot easier and encourage more people to sign up.
Don’t forget that some guests may not be able to meet you at your start time – have a schedule ready so people know where to find you. This can be emailed or sent in a text to your guests a couple of days before your event, so you don’t have to organise this straight away.
Getting people interested – adding your social
Once you’ve decided on a plan, it’s time tell everyone about it by adding your social to the thinking bob website.
Once your social is live you can then invite members from your social circle. Simply go to the social page and select ‘Select friends to invite’ – you can then either invite all or select the members you wish to join you.
Having trouble writing your event description?
Think about why you’re excited to go – think specifics! Put some thought into this part and people will pick up on your enthusiasm and join you.
Have a look at previous events to see what other people have included – it might help to write your notes in bullet points first. What makes your event different? Give people something to look forward to.
Use our online tools
Once your social is live you can use our online comments section to start the discussion. Grow the interest of your social and interact with the members that join. This will diffuse any initial nerves and make members feel comfortable in joining you on the day.
You can also see in the Events Administration section who has joined your social and keep tabs on those that cancel (don’t worry it won’t be many!).
Making it happen – at your social
Don’t forget that most of your guests will have come on their own – take time to get to know them and introduce yourself as the host. Introduce people to each other – having a few maps or guides handy will help get people talking.
Remember: our members’ socials are only available to lite or inclusive members of thinking bob, meaning the team or an official thinking bob host will have met all of your guests personally already.
Above all, have fun, relax and let us know how it went! Your photos and stories will get more people involved and help us plan our future events.
Use our offline tools
Using your mobile device you will be able to see all the members that have booked onto your social. From here you can message and/or ring them if they’re late and/or lost. Simply select the message/phone icon.
You can also check members in. We ask that at every social you attend you check in the members that attend (and no show those who don’t) so that the thinking bob team can send a ‘Here’s who you met email’ the day after. Using the ‘Here’s who you met email’, members are able to view and add the members they met at your event and therefore continue the growth of their social circle, as well as yours, and further grow the thinking bob community.
Want to go private?
Go on then! Simply select ‘Yes’ when asked if you’d like your event to be private and we’ll make it so.
Once an event is private only members in your social circle will be able to view it and you can invite the members you want.
Love hosting your own socials?
Why not join the thinking bob hosting team? Our Hosts are dedicated, passionate ambassadors who greet and welcome new members, organise and run socials and support the thinking bob team in order to develop an active, engaging and fun-filled community… And we love each one of of them truly.
Interested in joining the team and hosting more socials? Say Hi! to our Community Manager Katy and she will fill you in on all the details