Hey y’all- I’ve many 1:1 (friends whom I hang out on a one-to-one or one-to-two basis). My birthday’s coming up and was planning to host a get-together, bringing together friends.
One wrinkle though: many of these people don’t know each other. I’m thinking that the event could potentially be rather stilted, with people making small talk across the evenings. I’d love to hear your experiences hosting parties for strangers (and you being the common denominator). How did you manage to bond strangers/friends?
I’m thinking of several options:
1) Handing out small cards to each person, each containing: a) some interesting facts about him/her(eg. Person A is a distiller at work; Person B works for the financial markets), an interesting question that they could pose to someone else (“What’s something you’re looking forward to this year);
2) Including a comedy roast of me by a friend or two to lighten up the event
What would be your recommendations to make the evening more enjoyable for my friends, many of whom have never met, with the only thing in common being me?