Friends in break time,

As promised, I have another awkward company Christmas party game to share.  I still find it hard to believe that companies actually try and get their employees to play these games.   

Remember when reading the game try and imagine your own company playing this game.  It helps if you can envision yourself playing, your co-workers, and of course don't forget the boss! Try not to laugh too loud after reading the game, we don't need your coffee break privileges taken away from you. 

If you are at all confused and wondering how this has anything to do with web design, just refer back to my last post titled "Company Christmas Party Season Arrives!"

Enjoy a few laughs on your break. 

- CBB

Game #2: Dragon Tail Tag

Divide a large group of people into small teams of four or five.  Once the teams have been divided, have the team members link elbows or hold on to each others waists (CBB Insight. Awkward. Full Stop).  Designate one end as the tail and the other end as the head.  The person who is the tail must hang a flag or tail (bandana) behind them or place it in their back pocket.  The person who is the head has the responsibility of leading the team, they are the only ones who can use their hands.  Teams must stay linked to participate. The object of the game is to steal other the tails while avoiding the other teams who are trying to steal your tail. The last team to have a tail wins.

CBB Insight.  This is almost ridiculous.  I personally think I would leave the Christmas party if someone tried to get me to participate in this one.

Merry Christmas Friends!

Tis' the season of company Christmas parties.  Over the next three weeks the majority of us will have the opportunity to attend a Christmas party of some kind.  This will be the first year that Trio hosts a Christmas party.  In an attempt to make our party mega "fun", I thought it would be wise for us to research what it takes to host a mega "fun" company Christmas party.

Well after some thorough searching, all of us discovered that "fun" Christmas party ideas are really lacking, but there is a whole whack of tips out there if you want to host an "awkward" Christmas party.  I thought it would be entertaining to share some of these brilliant ideas with you.

Now, I apologize in advance if you have already planned to employ some of these games at your Christmas party.  You never know, the games could be a hit if you have the right group of people.  I have tried to imagine what that group would have to look like in order to pull these games off without it being awkward, and for the life-of-me I am struggling to imagine it!

So over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you, what I think are potentially "awkward" company Christmas party games.

I will also be posting these blogs on the Trio Facebook Page http://facebook.com/triowebdesign .  Feel free to make comments on any one of my postings.  I would especially like to know if you have been involved in one of these potentially awkward company Christmas party games.  How did it turn out? We have a number of Christmas discussions happening on the Facebook Page, so join in and share your stories with us.

Enjoying a hot Latte on this coffee break,

- CBB

Awkward Company Christmas Party Games

When reading the game try and imagine your own company playing this game.  It helps if you can envision yourself playing, your co-workers, and of course don't forget the Boss!  Try not to laugh too loud after reading the game. We don't need your coffee break privileges taken away from you.  One last thing to remember, companies actually play these games!

Game #1: Noah's Ark

Take the group of employees and divide the group evenly into two different teams.  Have each team go to opposite sides of the room. Now the referee (the odd person out) hands each person a card with a picture of an animal on it. Both teams have the same set of animal cards, therefore they all have a mate.  The trick here is that their mate is on the other team and no one knows who their mate actually is. 

After being given a moment of thought, EVERYONE in the room has to act like the assigned animal and walk across the room in search of their mate.  If the animal crawls, flaps, waddles, etc. you must do the same. 

The major rule here is that NO HUMAN language is allowed! You must stay in character until you find your mate.  Once people think they have discovered their mate, they go to the referee.  The game proceeds until everyone has been mated. 

A CBB Insight.  "Just imagine this game for a moment.  You + Animal + Co-worker.  Very Interesting. Very Awkward. Very Funny"

Friends in coffee time,

I stumbled upon some interesting facts and figures the other day while browsing through the Internet and reading over a few of my favorite RSS feeds.

The Nielson Company came out with some stats regarding the average Internet usage for the past month of October.  Although the study is done in the U.S., I find the information pertinent to businesses here in Canada that are either having a hard time justifying why they need to establish an Internet Presence or, are contemplating if joining the Facebook circus is even worth it.

First take a look at these average stats for the past month of October. 

- PC time spent per person 67hrs:49min:39sec
- domains (websites) visited per person 87
- sessions/visits per person 53
- web pages viewed per person 2,645
- duration of a web page view 00hrs:00min:58sec

Did you know that the average person viewed 2,645 web pages a month? Interesting.

Now let's see where people spent most of their time when they were on the Internet in October.

Take a look at the first three.  Did you notice that they are all primarily search engine sites?  Google alone had 147.86 million people accessing their site and on average each person spent approximately 1hrs:53min:07sec "Googling". 

What I find extremely interesting is the fourth place rank of Facebook. 107.48 million people where on Facebook in the month of October, but what I find most interesting is that the average time per person was 6hrs:09min:48sec.

Time well spent? I'm not going to try and answer that question, but I will make this comment, "Facebook takes things to a whole-na-tha-level and soaks up a whole-lot-da-time!"

In Saskatoon and the surrounding area there are approximately,

- 116,880 people, 18+ on Facebook
- 31,200 people, 40+ on Facebook
- 5,700 people, 60+ on Facebook

Did you know that nearly half of the population in Saskatoon is on Facebook? Interesting.

So here are a few thought provoking questions to ask yourself if you are a business owner in Saskatoon:

- Is your website currently landing on the first page of the Google searches for your type of business in your geographical region?

- If people don't know you, but are looking for someone like you in the local area, can they go to a search engine and find you without knowing your exact name?

- Are you building a social networking strategy that will help you reach potential customers using Facebook?

I hope I provided you with a few interesting facts and figures to talk about during your coffee break today.

- Coffee Break Blogger