Quiz Nights - Frequently Asked Questions

We would like to have a meeting to discuss the quiz, and to show you the venue – is this possible?
Yes, of course. We find that, for the vast majority of quiz events, all arrangements can be made over the phone and by email, but if a meeting is necessary, one of our quiz event co-ordinators can come to meet you at an appropriate time and place during normal office hours (or before or after if more convenient).

What comes as standard with your quiz nights?
We provide the following as standard for all our quiz nights:

QuizMaster, an appropriate number of assistant(s), sound system, music, quiz questions, handouts, pens, paper.

Does it have to be a quiz night?
No, not at all. We run quizzes morning, noon and night. The earliest start time so far is 9.30am; the latest started at 11pm.

What extras do you offer on top of the standard?
We offer a range of extras including: buzzers, Enhanced Multimedia (big (or small!) screen action), food quiz, interactive keypads, large sound systems.

Do you run quizzes all over the UK?
Yes. In fact we can travel anywhere in the world to run your quiz event. Approximately 75% of our events are London quiz nights, but have run events all over England, Wales and Scotland, and as far away as Amsterdam, Bonn, Lisbon and Rome.

What do we need to organise?
Since we concentrate exclusively the actual quiz, there are various things that you will need to organise, although if needed, we can advise on any of them. They are: the venue, prizes, participants (sounds obvious but don’t forget to tell people about the quiz!), food and drink.

Should we split the participants up into teams in advance?
It’s up to you – typically we find that the vast majority of our clients like to organise teams in advance of the night, but we can easily sort it out on the night if needed.

How many people should we have on each team?
We have run quizzes with team sizes of 3, and quizzes with team sizes of 16. Although it doesn’t make a huge difference, we believe that for maximum involvement of everyone, the optimal number on a team is between 5 and 8.

How many people do we need for a quiz?
Any number is fine. Naturally a quiz night for 10 people will have a different format from an event for 300 participants. For a small quiz, we might give every participant a buzzer, and keep it low key. For a big quiz, we might make it more of a spectacle with music and big screen animation.

What is the best number of teams to have in total?
Any number of teams can work very well. For very small groups we would tend to suggest different formats to keep up the atmosphere of fun competition. It can be difficult for every team to feel involved if there are more than 30 teams, but we have run big corporate quiz events for 50+ teams, and we have ways of ensuring that no team feels left out.

How long does the quiz last?
It is really up to you – the shortest quiz we have ever run was twenty minutes long; the longest was 4 hours. If you don’t have a particular amount of time in mind, we would recommend 2-2.5 hours. However long or short the quiz, you can be sure that everyone will have an enormous amount of fun.

On several occasions we have completed the main part of the quiz at the scheduled time, but have extended the quiz due to popular demand. So if you want a quiz encore, then just ask on the night!

We were planning to have a break in the middle – can we do that?
Of course. We are extremely flexible, and can ensure that the quiz reaches a suitable stopping point when the break is required. We find that, often, food is served later or earlier than expected, but that does not cause any problems.

How old are your QuizMasters?
All of our QuizMasters are in their mid-to-late twenties.

Where do you get your quiz questions?
All of our quiz questions are original. We write them all.

How do you manage to pitch the questions perfectly at the participants?
A few days before your quiz, when you are likely to have a clear idea of who is attending, one of our event co-ordinators will contact you to find out more about the participants. We always want to know the age range and average age, male/female split, the jobs done by the participants, and whether there are any people of different nationalities attending.

Our vast experience of writing quiz questions for different groups, combined with our real-world knowledge of different companies and demographic groups allows us to prepare suitable material for your quiz. In addition, on the night, we are seamlessly able to adapt the questions to ensure absolute perfection.

Can you provide questions only?
Sometimes. Please ask us, and we’ll see what we can do.

How long does it take you to set up?
It takes us a maximum of 15 minutes to set up the full sound system, laptop computers, and hand out all the material to the teams.

It takes us a maximum of 15 minutes to set up our big screen and multimedia equipment.

And we need a maximum of 10 minutes to set up our buzzer equipment.

In other words, maximum set-up time for a full multimedia quiz night is 40 minutes.

How early do you arrive for the quiz event?
We arrive at the venue approximately 1 hour before the scheduled start time, ensuring that there is plenty of time to set up and overcome any unexpected problems at the venue. We will always exchange on-the-night contact numbers with you.

Sometimes it is necessary for us to set up several hours before the quiz. For example, the quiz may be in the same room that you are having dinner, so we would arrive early enough to set up before dinner so as not to disturb the meal.

How long does it take you to pack away?
15-30 minutes.

Do we get to keep a copy of the score-sheet?
We can email the score-sheet to you the day after the quiz.

Do we get a copy of the questions?
No – we do not send any questions out before or after a quiz event.

We would like to have a celebrity host for our quiz. Can you organise that for us?
We do have contacts with some celebrities who we have worked with in the past, but in general, if you want a celebrity host your best bet is to go straight to their agent.

Be warned – celebrities rarely make good quiz night hosts. Often, they do not have any relevant experience, and lack an understanding of how to entertain through the quiz. They need to be the centre of attention (as you would expect, given their appearance fee!). If you really want a celebrity event, we would recommend not having them host a quiz, but instead giving an after-dinner speech or pre-quiz introduction.

Is it cheaper if a celebrity or one of our staff presents the quiz?
No – in actual fact it is quite significantly more expensive for several reasons.

• It is much more work for us if we are not hosting the quiz, as we have to prepare far more detailed instructions and annotations for the external quiz master. Our QuizMasters need comparatively little in the way of question annotation.

• When we present the quiz, we can guarantee the quality of the quiz event. Our QuizMasters have presented hundreds of quiz nights, and are very experienced. With another quiz master we cannot make any quality guarantees, and if the external quiz master does not do a good job (which is sadly usually the case, whether it is a celebrity or a staff member), then our name is associated with a poor-quality event. The extra charges compensate us for that risk.

• We still need the same number of staff to assist the quiz master, and to run the music, multimedia, and scoring operations at your quiz night.

Do we have to sign a contract?
We have a simple booking confirmation form that ensures both you and we know exactly what has been agreed about price, venue, arrival times etc.

What are your billing arrangements?
We have found that it is generally more convenient for both us and you if we send an invoice the day after the quiz, but many of our clients like to pay on the night.

You will be advised at the time of booking whether or not a deposit is required.

Sometimes a cancellation fee may be chargeable - see your booking confirmation for details.

Do you offer discounts?
We offer discounts for charity quiz nights and other fundraising events. For smaller groups we will often be able to include many extras at no extra cost. We also offer discounts for block bookings, and substantial discounts for pubs where we run a quiz every single week.

What’s your favourite quiz question?
It’s a secret – and anyway our favourite quiz question changes from week to week as we are constantly creating new questions that leap to the top of the pile!

What is the world’s largest island on a lake on an island on a lake?Treasure Island (it is in Lake Mindemoya, which is on Manitoulin Island, which is on Lake Huron)