Hi R.,
I have hosted a fondue party at my home and it was so much fun! We had both a meat and a cheese fondue pot going. Afterward, we cleaned out the cheese pot and made chocolate fondue; the best part. I have found reasonable fondue pots and accessories on Ebay. It would be neat to have those "old timey" sectional fondue plates, so people have little compartments to put their different dipping items. There are several fondue books I found at Barnes & Noble to steal recipes from (eg "Fondue" by Fiona Smith). Or just search on Epicurious.com for fondue recipes. I would recommend a Gruyer/Emmental cheese recipe; dip cubed baguette pieces, boiled new potatoes, and/or cooked garlic sausage in that. Separately, the beef cubes are fondued in hot oil. You can have various dips for the beef like hot mustard, bbq, etc. There are various fondue dips at Williams Sonoma or Central Market probably. For the chocolate fondue (you can buy it pre-packaged or make your own using semi-sweet morsels and whipping cream in a double boiler), prepare cut strawberries, bananas, oranges, marshmallows, etc! I would probably limit the party to 8 people, ideally 6. Otherwise, there are a lot of arms. Have fun!!