“Hello, my name is Stacy and a fun fact about me is that I prefer working in an office to working at home.”

Now that the icebreaker is out of the way, here we go:

I’ve been a magazine editor, an art museum marketing director, the catch-all creative department for a national restaurant group. I’m also a perennial auction gala volunteer, and a general gal about town. Somehow, every job eventually expanded to include event planning. Mandatory Fun is me finally admitting there may have been a reason for that.

While it’s been my job to plan dynamic events, I’m also hosting them. Ask me about planning a summer camp for adults, a butter-themed art party, or annual fishing derby. . .

I always say I’d go to the opening of an envelope, and I live up to that by attending more than 100 events per year. This has has made me realize that being a guest and host is pretty useful training for being a good planner.

It has taught me why things like “drop by anytime between 12 and 4” can backfire, why spreading everything out to encourage circulation can actually do the opposite, or why having enough bartenders matters more than what the bar serves. And here’s one for the finance dept: I’ve also learned that the difference between a fantastic event and a painful one usually isn’t the budget, it’s knowing what to do with it.

I’m doing this for the over-taxed executive assistant, office manager, HR team, or whoever was unfortunate enough to mention once that they know a good caterer. Your company may not need a fulltime programming person, but if you gather regularly then you already have a part-time one——it’s just currently someone whose time and expertise you hired for something else.

I can’t make Tim in accounting want to come to the holiday party, but I can make him glad he did.

-Stacy Kendall, founder