An end-of-year team dinner the whole team enjoys
The end-of-year dinner is the one evening the whole team spends together on purpose. It is also the hardest table of the year to book. The group is bigger than any lunch, the company sets a budget while everyone brings their own tastes, and somewhere between the vegan, the nut allergy and the colleague who only wants steak, the planning lands on one person’s desk. Meanwhile every good place in town is filling up with other teams doing the same thing.
Start before December fills up
December evenings book out early, so open the gathering as soon as the last weeks of the year are on the calendar. Pick dinner, a few days that could work, the hour and an area the team can reach after work. Then share one link wherever the team already talks. Each person marks the dates they can’t make, so the dinner lands on a night most of the team is free.
One budget, everyone’s taste
If the company is paying, set the group’s budget when you start the gathering, and places over it are left out. If everyone pays their own way, leave it to each person to say what they’d like to spend. Either way, nobody has to talk about money in front of the team. What people would love, like the food and the vibe, is what the team sees; their no’s and their budget stay private.
A big table with mixed diets
Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, a nut allergy: dietary needs are saved on each person’s account, and places that show they cater to them come first. MiBA says so when it couldn’t confirm one, so you know what to ask when you book. A place someone ruled out is never suggested, and the newest hire gets the same say as the head of the department.
Vote, book, raise a glass
MiBA ranks the restaurants that suit the whole team, you put up to five on a shortlist, and everyone votes. You get a link or a phone number to book a table for the whole group, and once you mark it as booked, everyone coming gets a calendar invite by email. What is left is the evening itself: a long table, a toast to the year, and colleagues talking about something other than work.
Starting a gathering is free. Everyone signs in to answer and vote, and MiBA remembers their name and dietary needs for next time.
Start a gathering