Party2.0

 I find party experiences fascinating. A party can be a social explosion or a fizzling dud. One thing that I have discovered is that the party’s success or failure hinges on what fuse is used to start a social chain reaction.

We attended an 80^th birthday party last night, hosted by the oldest daughter of the seven children. Most of the attendees comprised immediate family. We, and some others made up a small group of family the friends. We walked in about 3-minutes after the suggested start time and there was a swarm of family around “mother”. There were the obligatory balloons, table decorations and a video loop of their mother on the wall. Laughter, smiles and catching-up conversation permeated the room.

We left early, because we never had our fuse lit. (No alcohol was served, so using “lit” is not intended as a pun). Sarah and I like to think of ourselves as fun people, but the party chain circled around the room and missed a few of us. We could have broken our way in, but it was easier to head home. This party missed the opportunity to experience the unique chain reaction that leads to a social explosion.

A social chain reaction suggests that individual people are somehow connected and that something moves through the group transferring energy into everyone. Social explosions happen organically if there is the right amount of energy applied and if all the humans are connected by common activity. Fizzling duds occur when no connections are made in the chain or when the starting energy doesn’t have enough power to push through the group.

A party-fuse needs to light the minute attendees enter the room, allowing individuals to feel the burn of anticipation for more social contact. As the party progresses, several social fuses should be ignited so as to leverage every personality into a more powerful blast. The more individuals that are connected, the more energy is developed , resulting in a bigger explosion.

It is the responsibility of the Host’s to organize all of the fuse lighting events of a party.

I would be interested to discover what fuses you have found to ignite some great social blasts at you parties?