In unusual times you should do unusual things. Last year we saw the rise of virtual parties more than ever and it looks like they will be staying a little while longer! Technology has allowed us to truly stay connected, and just because times have changed, does not mean your celebrations have to. You can just celebrate differently.The United States celebrates its Independence Day on July 4, a day of patriotic celebration and family events throughout the country. In the words of Founding Father John Adams, “the great anniversary festival ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”. Then he added, “in times of pandemic, do not despair… there is Canapii to save the day”.Ok, we made the last bit up. However, even if you cannot see your loved ones in person, here is how YOU can still celebrate this special day with them virtually using Canapii!Cook along with your family but without the stress!A big part of this holiday is to cook/host a BBQ with your friends and family and create a delicious feast. However, it’s safe to say that sometimes there can literally be too many cooks in the kitchen! But don’t despair, as Canapii will allow you to broadcast live and it is a fantastic way to stay connected and feel your loved one’s presence in the room. You can also upload a ‘video on demand’ cooking demonstration for those guests that aren’t so culinarily inclined!

Worried about missing out on the fireworks? Fear not, this is a great opportunity to try out Canapii’s live streaming functionality so the entire family can tune in and watch the spectacular exhibition on the National Mall. You can invite all your friends, your family, your neighbors and even that ex-colleague who moved to the other side of the country to be part of the celebration. Up to a few thousand people can join and watch an event or ‘session’ hosted on the Canapii platform, and each session has a chat window for people to interact, comment, share photos of what they are eating and connect directly. You can also share your reactions to what is happening on screen, just like you would if you were together but with emojis instead!

Keep your guests entertained with fun polls and quizzes!Ask questions to spice things up, giving you and your guests plenty to talk about! • Who is hosting the best parade?• Multiple-choice questions about various topics such as music and tv.• Ask your guests to dress in fancy dress and vote for the best dressed!• Include some fun July 4 trivia questions and test your guest’s knowledge.

Set time for one-on-one catch-ups before or after dinner.With Canapii’s networking tool, your attendees can easily embark on one-on-one conversations. It’s all done via your browser so your guests will not even need to leave the platform to talk with one another, it’s really easy! This is such a great personal way to connect and truly catch up, just like you would do if you were all in the same room.

Sharing is caring!Ensure you activate the event gallery from your console, it takes just one click! The gallery will give guests the ability to upload their photos to the platform and share their experiences with everyone. You could even activate some of the gamification elements in Canapii to suit the competitive ones! Make it memorable for a few lucky ones – Host a giveaway, everyone loves a prize!Keeping people involved for longer than 20 minutes takes effort. A lot of it. We have found that an easy way to encourage people to attend and stay engaged at your party is to host a giveaway. For example, you can create your own custom giveaway wheel with pickerwheel.com and ship prizes to winners. Just copy and paste your guest list from Canapii’s registration page, into the wheel and then it will randomly select winners for you.

Ready to create your own independence party?It only takes a few minutes to plan and set up.Create your Canapii account… and the best thing of all is that, unless you have more than 75 people invited, your party is FOC! Yes, you read correctly, totally free!