Microsoft Teams Christmas Party - How you will rock it!

HoHoHo – due to the current COVID-19 situation, many Christmas parties will take place virtually via Microsoft Teams this year. At first glance, this seems insanely boring! I already have countless Microsoft Teams meetings every day and now the next speech and presentation. Brrrr – cold chill down the back.

We have already had great success in recent weeks with our Smarter Advent Calendar in Microsoft Teams. Now Microsoft has also given us the opportunity to integrate apps into Teams Meetings and so we have also thought about building something for virtual Christmas parties!

Secret Santa (in german “Wichteln“) is a popular Christmas game for groups / teams. Briefly explained: Each group member is randomly assigned a person to whom he / she gives a gift This happens through a raffle and you don’t know to whom you will give a gift. We have been doing this in our circle of friends for a few years and it is always a lot of fun at the joint gift handover just before Christmas. And the beauty of it – we’re making this available to your team/ department / company in Microsoft Teams just before Christmas!

The idea:

1. The team / department / company determines the setting.
   The type: for example. secret santa, dirty santa, nice santa – say something nice, creative-santa (crafting, painting, ..).
   Or budget requirements: There are budget targets (10€, 20€ – how much should be spent). The company pays the costs for the gifts, i.e. the one secret santa thinks about what he/she wants to make his counterpart happy with and informs the company. The company then takes over the order and shipping.
2. When you invite everyone to the Christmas party in Microsoft Teams, you can randomly assign the secret santa’s to all participants via our app. Each participant receives an notification – to whom he is the secret santa.
3. At the Christmas party, you can then use our Microsoft Teams Meeting app to resolve the secret santa LIVE. And depending on which format has been chosen, the handover takes place in the meeting. Example given: the company decided to take over and distribute the gifts, then our app will show up (see screenshot above) in the meeting that Florian has drawn his colleague Josef. Josef can unpack his gift in the meeting, meanwhile Florian tells his intension for the gift. Spotlight on the two – priceless! More emotion is not possible!

Unfortunately, we are very late with our idea. But we at Smarter Business Solutions live and love agile – and that’s why we’re already in full swing at the implementation. If you find the idea exciting and

• want to know when the Microsoft Teams app is ready – > we plan 4.12
• as an early adopter wants to participate (contribute ideas, contribute, test, …)

do not shy away from contacting us. We want to make your (and our) virtual Christmas party in Microsoft Teams a unique experience! We all deserve that!!!!

Update 5.12.: Unfortunately, we had to admit that the idea is good but too short-term. Technically, we were able to implement all functionalities with an MVP and we also had some interested companies. But all the companies were not able to implement the secret santa in such a short-term way – but are definitely planning it for next year. That’s why we’re going to finish the Microsoft Teams Secret Santa app with more preparation next year. Do you think the idea is great? Leave us your email address and we’ll keep you up to date.