What your colleagues take home from the office Christmas party

The dance floor suits some guests and not others. Gabe Henwood, founder of AI photo booth company Primatix, talks to PA Life about planning entertainment for the rest of the room.

Ask anyone in January what they remember from the office Christmas party. You’ll get a few moments, a photo or two, and a story about who stayed latest. That is most of what a party leaves behind, and it’s the part the organiser has least control over. PA Life reported in September that many companies are putting this year’s budget into one December event. If that’s your office, the party is carrying more weight than usual, and you’re the one carrying the party.

Primatix runs AI photo and video booths at corporate events across the UK. A December booking is a different job from a trade show: a mixed crowd, a free bar, a late finish, and guests who would rather do their expenses than dance.

Here’s what we’d tell a PA planning one.

Plan for the people who won’t dance

Some guests head for the music as soon as it starts. Plenty don’t, and they spend three hours by the bar, talking to the same four people they sit next to all year.
Good entertainment for an office crowd gives that group something to do that doesn’t involve performing. It’s short, optional, works in small groups and gives people something to talk about afterwards. That’s why casino tables and caricaturists stay popular. So do photo booths.

Group shots matter more than they sound. People who wouldn’t step up for a solo portrait will happily go in with their team, which gives the quieter half of the room an easy way in. Here’s how group shots work.

What a photo booth looks like now

The old version was props, a curtain and a strip of prints. An AI photo booth turns a normal photo into a styled image in about 30 seconds, sent to guests’ phones by QR code. There’s an AI video booth for short clips too. Our Christmas favourite turns each guest, or each team, into the stars of their own festive film poster, title and tagline included. You can try the Christmas theme on your phone right now.

What makes it useful at a company party is the theming. A booth can be trained on your own brand, so the poster carries your company’s colours or your party’s theme instead of a generic snowscape.

Hosmark Hotels have had us at their summer party twice, at the Pan Pacific London. In 2024, 210 guests made 768 images in two hours (the write-up is here). This July we built them a branded postcard theme for their 25th anniversary. Roger at Hosmark, after the first one: “We were really delighted with last night, you made an awesome contribution, thank you!”

Making it work on the night

Put the booth where people already are: by the bar, or on the way from dinner to the dance floor. A booth in a side room has to be found, and the guests you most want to reach won’t go looking.

If the venue has a screen, put the live gallery on it. At Hosmark, guests were photographing their colleagues’ portraits off the big screen. Keep it running as long as the party does. Last December, a global drinks brand’s Christmas party ran from 7pm until 1am, with one of our crew on site throughout.

Settle two things early. A photo of someone’s face is personal data, so agree consent and how long images are kept; it’s one more line on the risk assessment. And if you want a theme built around your company, book soon, because December dates go first.

Treat the photos as part of the plan

The venue, the menu and the music matter on the night. The photos are what’s left on Monday, and on most party budgets nobody has planned them. Plan something for the people who won’t dance, and make it something they can take home.

To see what guests would get, try the Christmas theme on your phone. It takes about 30 seconds, and there are more styles in the Primatix gallery.

Gabe Henwood is the founder of Primatix, which runs AI photo and video booths at events across the UK. Its US sister brand, Snapmatic, delivers the same experiences in the US and more than 20 other countries.

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