The holidays are upon us once again and for many of us, that means company holiday party time. But for some of us, a holiday party is as foreign and unattainable as a chat by the water cooler. That’s because we are at home entrepreneurs. We may have a team of people we work with but probably never met or took time to get to know each other better outside of work.

But it doesn’t have to be that way this year. Not for your company. With widespread high speed Internet access around the world, you can get together and indulge a little in holiday festivities. While a regular company party can be plagued with embarrassing moments and too much alcohol, a virtual party isn’t and it’s a great time to just come together to build the relationship with people who help your business grow. There are many software and services you can use to hold a virtual company holiday party. Some are free while others are available at very affordable, small company friendly rates.

One of the most popular conferencing systems that doesn’t cost anything is Skype. You can do voice, text chat with up to 5 other people. It also works on a variety of computer systems which means you aren’t limited when someone in the team is using a different system. The only down side is, you can only hold a video chat with one other person. Other popular and free systems include Yahoo! Messenger, UserPlane.

If you’re not adverse to spending a few dollars for your virtual company party, you could opt for web conferencing services. These offer more features such as the ability to surf the web together, and share your desktop in a secure environment just think. Sharing pictures and videos without uploading or sending files. Simply play your videos and open the pictures like normal and everyone sees it too.

Web conferencing systems also allow you to talk to larger groups on video, voice and text. Another nice thing, many services allow you to record your online event. Depending on the service, you can purchase these services on a per minute, per hour or per day basis.

If you’re thinking of throwing a virtual company party this holiday, start researching now. Because every service is so different, you need to test out a few systems to find out which works best for what you have envisioned your party to be. While you’re at it, why not hold one for your customers? Celebrate them and let them you appreciate their business. They’ll be sure to remember you when they need your products later in the year.

About the author:

Lynette Chandler is a technology loving marketer. She plans to make the most use of her web conference room this holiday season. You can find out what she’s using by visiting Meeting On Now!

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