The Birthday Party of a Lifetime - Dec 2023
A Reflection - Celebrating my joint Destination Birthday Party with Vitor and Ciro
The joint birthday party weekend in Florianópolis, Brazil was like a movie. It was the most ludicrous birthday celebration I’ve ever had.
Reset - Purpose of this Blog Post
Documenting the memory of the weekend
An ode to my friendship with Ciro and Vitor
Lessons learned on multi-day event planning for 70+ people in a foreign country
The Actual Events
Day 1 - Saturday, December 9th: The boat party with approximately 70 people that included an open bar. There was an after party with a DJ and keg at the Jurere Mansion that we rented out for the weekend.
Day 2 - Sunday, December 10th: Churrasco (Brazilian BBQ), Live Pagode (which is like samba) band, pool party, and Open Bar. I didn’t think it was possible for Day 2 to be better than Day 1, but it was.
Rewind: Introduction of the Three Friends
Ciro is from Rio de Janeiro. He is a software engineer, grew up loving to surf, and loves to travel. He recently nomaded in the US, Asia, and Oceana.
Vitor is from the state of Goias and lives in Sao Paulo and works as a Product Manager in fintech. His favorite trips have been in SE Asia and other parts of South America.
I met Ciro and Vitor in January 2021 in Florianópolis during the Experience in Brazil, Part 1. While they are both Brazilian, we all have a lot in common and became good friends.
Our Camaraderie
Both are stereotypical Sagittarius just like me. We all work really hard in our software jobs and go hard when we’re out. While Ciro and I are the mischievous wildcards, Vitor is the rationale one and keeps us in check (lol).
I’ve traveled with Ciro to various places in Brazil and around the world: Paraty, Pipa, Rio de Janeiro, Itacare, Recife, California, New York. I’ve spent time with Vitor in Rio, Floripa, and São Paulo.
All three of us are adventurous. While we were planning this party, when one threw out an idea, another 10x-ed it. I genuinely enjoyed planning this event with Vitor and Ciro.
Weeks Leading up to the Event
5 days before Day 1, the three of us went to dinner (and Wanessa joined). We sat down for sushi at Arquipélago on Vitor’s actual birthday and asked each other the question, “What are you most concerned about?”
Both Vitor’s and Ciro’s answers were that nobody would show up and the event would be underwhelming. My answer was an unbalanced ratio.
How We Felt about the Celebration
The boat party highlighted Day 1. When the live pagode band started playing on Day 2 after we had the churrasco bbq, Vitor and I looked at each other and both said “holy shit. This is amazing”. I can’t remember the last time I had zero interest in checking my phone for hours.
Thank You to the Guests
Thank you to everybody who attended this event, and especially the ones who traveled from out of town. We had representatives from many countries, including but not limited to: Canada, USA, Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, France, Italy, UK.
Vitor’s hometown friends came for this event. Ciro had family members and coworkers come in. I had a few friends fly from the US for it.
Special thanks to the people who came to both my birthday party Part 1 (last year) and Part 2 (this year) - Genevieve, Lucas, Wilson L, Jay, Mafer, Aleksander, Jose.
I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with two other friends more than celebrating it solo. It was a great feeling when people messaged me “thank you” and “I met so many great people at the party and I’m now friends with a lot of them”.
Lessons Learned on Event Planning
If we were to turn this into an actual business…
In general, I enjoy hosting events because it brings people together. It was a lot of work to plan this event. I surprisingly learned a lot through this process and picked up a skill or two.
A fourth character in this episode was Ana. If we could do it again, we would have involved her earlier because she is a local. I met her a month before I met Ciro and Vitor.
Lessons learned #1 - You can’t do everything. Delegate the work.
The success of the celebration hinged a lot on bringing not just friends but random people, plus friends of friends. Most people will not have strong interests in “recruiting” or “selling” the party.
All it takes is another person who’s really good at that, and Ana was a game-changer. She also helped us connect with local pagode band and made lots of important recommendations, such as hosting a meet and greet to get people to meet each other prior to Day 1.
Lastly, Vitor organized nearly every event. Called different bands, messaged different houses, talked to different DJ’s and companies that provided open bars and BBQ as a service. It would have been extremely difficult for me to do it because of the language barrier.
I found myself doing a lot of the “hype” and “marketing”. Vitor would ask me to “announce” certain things to the general whatsapp group. It felt like we were a startup and everybody knew their roles.
Lessons Learned #2 - Digital Marketing
Speaking of Marketing, six days before Day 1 of the event, I decided to create an Instagram page of the event while we were at Campeche beach. I did it for fun and we couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous the idea was.
It ended up being a very strategic and important angle of planning, and we recruited nearly ten more people to join from Instagram ads in the six days leading up to the event. All of us logged in and talked to people in Portuguese (thanks for the help, friends!)
Lessons Learned #3 - Payments
The nature of this problem was a challenge before it even began because this was an international celebration. However, we could have executed the costs and revenue much more efficiently. We charged people at a reasonable price, but it wasn’t as organized as it could have been. We could have created a QR code or a payments page, but we didn’t make time for it, so we manually asked people to Venmo (USA) / Pix (Brazil) / PayPal (rest of world) us and tracked it on an excel spreadsheet.
Lastly, people are much less likely to “flake” if they have already paid. (This was something I learned early on in New York while hosting events)
A Reflection on it all
Another Ode to Brazil. The Bigger Picture and Impact.
I always remind myself that I grew up in a conservative and traditional household, and those values will never be neglected. Brazil Part 1 and Brazil Part 2 brought the fun and adventurous side out of me, and that side magically made room for itself next to the juxtaposing “traditional” side.
The tapes that are currently rolling for Brazil Part 3 is coming to an end soon, so I’m pushing myself to enjoy the journey as much as I can because this won’t last. I have nothing but gratitude and beautiful memories of this overall experience.
Working remotely has made this possible. The strength of my international and growing friendship with Ciro and Vitor goes beyond anything I would have imagined before COVID.
A direct flight from New York to São Paulo is 10 hours, so a trip like this isn’t easy. While maintaining close friendships presents challenges overseas, I look forward to the day when I can spend more time again with Ciro and Vitor.
Abraços amigos, obrigado por tudo. Até a próxima e mais bons momentos juntos 🔥