The Best New Places for a Tech Holiday Party

Many in tech have seen plenty of reasons to celebrate lately—with AI valuations soaring and paydays getting bigger and bigger. And pretty soon it’ll be time to consider the all-important event for tying a ribbon around the year: the holiday party, with the most-prized venues filling up in the next few weeks.

The audacious blowouts of the previous decade haven’t quite come back into style yet after dying off during the Covid-19 pandemic. And with plenty of people still working remotely at least part of the time, many companies have been trying to plan events that encourage people to bond a little more deeply with their co-workers than they might at a rambunctious rager—or at a humdrum affair where everyone tries to slip out quickly after they “have a few drinks and eat a little food,” said Gretchen Culver, owner of San Francisco–based Rocket Science Events, which planned Lyft’s holiday party last year. Sometimes that means choosing a more intimate event space or opting for an activity that brings people together like ornament decorating or karaoke with a live band.