The biggest cost of relocation is loss of social connections and friendship we have made in a particular place. Humans, being social animals, will always crave for people around them to share, validate and connect with. Same feeling I had when I relocated to Vancouver from Bangalore in 2023, where I faced same challenges when I moved from Noida to Bangalore in 2011. The largest set of likeminded people you get is your work place with whom you spend almost 1/3 of your time. So I thought to bring in not just employees but their families together.
An apt moment was lurking around in the form of Christmas and new year. Office was shutting down, kids holidays was starting so availability was not an issue. But no one has done it and folks were skeptical about holding any such get together. I started the discussion in a small group where suggestions came to arrange the party as someone's house where we can have food ordered and rest pf things taken care. But I was sure that the size of such gathering will be difficult to handle at anyone's individual house unless they have a fam house. W though to poll for a date and see how many of us are interested. Initial entries were just the ones with whom you hang around, have tea/coffee. But soon it spread word of mouth and we got 30 odd families interested to join which was around 80 head counts. This was a pleasant surprise that so many of us were waiting for such an opportunity.
Next step was the venue and planning. I was dead sure from day 1 to go for catering but another suggestion came to go for a banquet hall with food. That was convenient as we don’t need to worry about booking a place separately, not to worry about decorations, food delivery, service etc. But we also wanted to keep the cost reasonable. Any banquet hall will charge more that 35-40 CAD per person and they will count anyone above 6 as head count. We initially planned to keep budget under 25 CAD per person and no change for kids under 12.
With this target, I started interacting with Community halls across Greater Vancouver Area and cities. The best way to contact them is through e-mail. Search for Party Halls in each district and their you will find contact mail id. I sent mail to Surry, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Moody and Burnaby recreation centers. Please note one city may have more than one recreation center/party hall and for each you have to send separate mail. The response takes 3-4 days but they do respond with availability on your requested dates and party hall capacity and charges. I finally got a hall near to office so its center point to everyone. It was in Port Moody, Kyle Center with a capacity of 125. The hall provides tables and chair (you need to tell the count upfront while booking). Everything can be done on mail unless you want o take a look at the hall. The charges were ~50 CAD per hour + 45 CAD for using sound equipment's (Speakers/microphone which you need to bring) and then you have to take liability insurance which cost another 35 CAD. So for a hall of 125 for 5 hours, I paid around 352 CAD including insurance and taxes.
Next was catering. Thanks goodness we live near Surrey where there are plenty of caterers at reasonable rates. Only challenge is that none of them do home delivery, so you need to ask someone to carry food (which will be a lot for 80 people) or ask them to deliver by Uber (which will cost additional). I chose a restaurant which gave me 22 CAD per person 4 starters + 4 main course(2 veg + 2 non veg). One thing you can play with is the number of plates you order could be 80-90% of your total adult headcount. There was a big learning in this math for me. I didn’t count kids age below 12 but let me tell you, a kids age 6 and above eats almost same as an adult.
Once the hall was booked and food was ordered, we need to plan for keeping guest engaged and connect them. Many of us will be meeting for first time. Families will be conscious. And then we found few volunteers who wanted to sing carol songs for Christmas and other who volunteered to arrange games for kids and families. This was important as we were not just going there for eating.
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