Vision Board Parties can be a ton of fun. Getting people to talk about their goals over food and wine is honestly one of my favorite events throughout the holiday season. (Right after Thanksgiving because nothing tops Grandma's sweet potato pie. 😍)
Before we hop into the guide, I gotta be honest. I don't think there's any wrong way to host a Vision Board Party. Seriously, just get some friends together and a ton of wine and a couple magazines and voila you have a party. Everyone will have a great time because the nature of the event calls for positive energy, vulnerability, and aspirations. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't leave a Vision Board Party super motivated to CRUSH their goals.
Related: How My First Vision Board Party Turned My Life Around
I have discovered, however, that there are ways to have an amazingly awesome Vision Board Party that encourages more sharing and collaboration.
Here's a quick checklist to get together everything you need:
agenda
If you want your vision board party to flow perfectly, you'll need four key items scheduled.
Mix and Mingle: At the beginning of the party, give people a lot of time to grab food and drinks and get settled in uninterrupted.
Ice Breaker Activities: Once most of the guests have arrived, have a few activities that will allow them to get to know the other people in the room. See here for some ideas.
Vision Board Overview: Not everyone who shows up will know what a Vision Board is. Before you dive into the building Vision Boards, give a brief talk about how to create one.
Working Session: Some structured time for them to start to look through magazines and find things that really speak to what they want to accomplish.
I don't associate times with all of the items on my agenda because I prefer for the event to flow naturally. But I always create an agenda to make sure I hit all of the items.
food and drinks
There is no party if you do not have food and drinks. (Trust me, I once hosted a potluck where everyone brought wine and we had absolutely no food. It was a disaster. By the end of the night, we were super drunk, really hungry and not coherent enough to order pizza. #EpicFail 🤦♀️)
For Vision Board Parties, all types of food are fair game, but I would actively shy away from messy finger foods like barbecue chicken or buffalo chicken drumsticks they definitely keep you away from flipping through magazines putting things on your Vision Boards.
For drinks, I recommend going with wine. Try to get a mix of dry wines and sweet wines, red wines, and white so that all of your attendees have something they can enjoy. (Side note: There might be non-alcoholics in attendance so have water and juices available.)
Materials
You'll need to have a few items on hand for people to build the vision board with.
Poster boards
Magazines
Scissors
Glue (I prefer glue sticks because they're not as messy as white glue.)
Each year I build my vision on a corkboard. It has lasted for 4 years of vision boards. Every year, I remove the images and quotes that inspired my past goals and put up my new sources of inspiration. Be prepared with thumbtacks in case others show up with a corkboard so that they can attach things to their Vision Board while they're at the party.
Pro tip: Also grab colored card stock and markers. There will be times where people do not find exactly what they wanted magazines. When I was job hunting, I wanted to make $75,000. That was my goal. I could not find $75k in any magazine but it was okay because I took a green marker and I wrote the number $75,000 and I stuck that on my Vision Board.
icebreakers and activities
No one likes going to a party and coming up with some awkward way to start a conversation. It's awkward for everyone, extroverts and introverts alike.
As the event host, you can help your guests out by coming up with a few activities to get people talking. Icebreakers are small activities that engage people in conversations with each other. This can be helpful when you have a room full of people who don't know each other.
A few fun activities that you can schedule in the agenda would be:
Ask people to introduce themselves and share what they enjoy doing in their free time.
Talk about the goals that each person wants to achieve in the upcoming year.
Have people talk about their bucket list items.
Having these types of activities scheduled in the agenda increases the likelihood that people will start to have deeper conversations about their goals and aspirations throughout the evening..
The music
Obviously, the music that you have on in the background sets the tone for the entire event. To perfectly match your music with the type of music in the attendees will enjoy, make sure you have a good understanding of who's coming to your event. Perhaps you can make a playlist ahead of time.
Throughout the party, keep the music very low more like background noise than a distraction. Play music that is friendly and upbeat like smooth R&B (and not dancing music). If all else fails I would go with Lauryn Hill Pandora station.
Friends
A Vision Board party is not a party if you do not have your friends around you. You can invite friends from your work, your community, your church, different types of activities that you're involved in, parents from your child's school and those lifelong friends that have been with you forever. The people are truly what make the Vision Board Party.
Think about it, why would anyone host Vision Board Party to create a vision board? You can really make a board with magazine clippings that represent what goals you want to achieve all by yourself in your bedroom. You have a party for the people. The people who inspire you, will support you and mentor you.
The purpose of the party is to start the conversations around your goals and get insight from each other's experiences and expertise. Then, you have the unique opportunity to incorporate those tools, tips and advice into your goals so that you have a great starting point when you start to pursue them.
Related: 10 Girlfriends You Must Invite To Your Vision Board Party
Lots of magazines
Magazines are the core of the Vision Board. They make up the Vision Board images and quotes that will inspire you throughout the year division. Your guests will need a lot of magazines to choose from.
Select a variety of magazines that cover different topics that will speak to the different aspects of people's lives. Make sure you get magazines that talk about personal finance, health and fitness, adventure and fun, family, education, career and relationships.
Vision Board Parties can be highly inspirational and informative for every guest. Make sure that you have everything you need to be truly inspired and leave motivated to achieve your goals.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!
