June 21 is Music Festival. Celebrated since 1982 in France, under the leadership of Jack Lang, former Minister of Culture and Communication, this popular festivity promotes music by inviting amateurs and professionals to show the extent of their talent. Throughout the national territory, the French invade festivals, free concerts and bars to honor this cultural event which has become international in less than thirty years. Society, a place of work, but also a space for exchange and emulation, is no exception to the rule. A company party is a good way to strengthen ties between colleagues and get closer to partners and customers. Here are some examples for organizing an evening under the sign of musicality.
Today, the French enthusiasm for live music is not weakening. According to recent economic reports from the National Music Center (CNM), nearly 40% of French people now attend a concert at least once a year, and more than 70% say they participate in one way or another in the June 21 festivities, confirming the status of the French’s favorite cultural event.
Music is a universal language. This art stimulates the brain and invites sharing and exchange. According to several studies in occupational neuroscience, it allows for an improvement in overall performance, an increase in productivity and a drastic reduction in stress and cognitive fatigue in the office.
Organize a karaoke evening or “blind test”
Who has never sung alone in the shower or in the car… But with an audience in front of you, singing becomes more difficult. Karaoke allows you to reveal everyone’s talent by combining stress management, dynamism and creativity. It highlights the unusual and unsuspected aspects of employees. The shyest people may not be the quietest in front of a microphone. Behaviors evolve and masks fall when the lyrics of a song are revealed.
This type of team building activity makes it possible to identify, promoter and even to create leaders and managers, in a positive context. As for the musical “blind test”, it promotes team spirit, reactivity and the need for challenges. Each group must recognize the title of the song that is launched as well as its performer, in order to score points.
Call on a music group or DJ
Calling on a music group or a DJ to create a special event in the company is an excellent idea. Live musical entertainment will give a lively and friendly atmosphere to the evening, even if it is just background noise. Colleagues, associates and clients will chat peacefully over a cocktail and in an often familiar company setting. The atmosphere will thus remain less bruyant and invasive than a concert street.
Whether it’s rock, jazz, pop or electro, the environment is conducive to meeting, discussing and bonding. Created by three friends passionate about live music (Antoine, Henri and Jean-Baptiste), the French start-up LiveTonight has largely established itself on this market. Its networking platform allows you to book professional musicians for private and professional events in just a few clicks. Thanks to a system of precise filters (musical genre, budget, location), it now covers all of France (Paris, Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, etc.) and references several thousand artists rigorously selected to host corporate evenings.
Ask members of the company to host the party
Managers, partners and employees can come together to offer everyone a good musical time. Corporate choirs, in particular, have experienced real growth in France in recent years, driven by the issues of Quality of Life at Work (QVT). Today there are several hundred active choirs in the region. They make it possible to bring together all the members of a society, to relax relationships and to break down the compartmentalization as well as the loneliness linked to teleworking.
By singing together, individuals feel a feeling of well-being favorable to concentration. Whether beginners or experienced, colleagues see their relationships modified and their bonds strengthened. Mutual aid is created and promotes the development of the company.
The choice of an unusual theme also strengthens the cohesion of a group and allows for a pleasant time conducive to jokes, in a relaxed atmosphere. An evening about the Roaring Twenties (jazz period and swing) or on the 80s-90s (pop and rock) will please as many people as possible.
Reversing the trend of office parties
A colleague’s birthday, the retirement of a manager, the success of a project or the end-of-year celebrations are all opportunities to prepare a corporate event. However, after a historic drop in physical events in premises following health crises and the rise of hybrid work, companies are seeking to recreate real connections. The latest global surveys from SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) show that while festive budgets have sometimes been cautious in the past, the trend is reversing: managers are reinvesting massively in moments of conviviality to re-engage their teams.
What if you took advantage of the Fête de la Musique to take the plunge and celebrate your talents internally?
