Logistics – Before the Quiz Night

COVID-19 UPDATE

In the absence of traditional trivia nights our lives do not have to be completely trivia-less. Check out QuizNightHQ’s guide to Isolation Trivia + Games. It contains plenty of ideas to get your friends, family and workplaces engaged in an online quiz night or online video fun.

Checklist | Before the Quiz Night

Here, before you, lies a handy summary of the logistics leading up to a Quiz Night. Ideal for planning a Quiz Night. More detailed information on each of these areas can be found in the links at each sub-heading. For details to consider on the the day of your event, and during the Quiz, check out the guide to Logistics on the Night.

Also, check out the user-friendly, comprehensive checklist at Quiz Night HQ’s Creator. It has everything you need to do and think about leading up to and on the night of your Trivia Quiz. This guide goes into a little more detail for each area compared to the Creator‘s complete checklist.

  1. Pick a Date
  2. Venue Hire
  3. Sponsors
  4. Marketing your Quiz Night
  5. Ticket Sales
  6. Prizes
  7. QuizMaster
  8. Questions (Create your own or purchase ready-made)
  9. Preparation
  10. Fundraising Games
  11. Non-Fundraising Games
  12. Running Sheet
  13. People to Help on the Night

Pick a Date

Choose a suitable date. Saturday nights are ideal as Friday nights can mean people are tired after work and are not as keen for a night out. Make sure your event doesn’t clash with local major sporting matches or events that may have people unavailable due to their attendance or interest at something else. See

Venue Hire

Does your venue of choice fit your requirements:

  • Is it available on the date you require?
  • Is it big enough?
  • Does it have an alcohol permit?
  • What times can you hire

See Quiz Night HQ’s guide to Finding a Venue for more information, tips and tricks.

Sponsors 

Getting businesses or individuals to sponsor your Quiz Night will increase the amount of money raised and gives you much more freedom to do other things like, hire a larger venue or purchase some higher quality prizes. See Quiz Night HQ’s guide to Sponsorship for more information, tips and tricks.

Marketing

How are you getting people to attend? How will people find out about your event?

See How to Promote Your Quiz Night for great tips and tricks.

Ticket Sales

Start selling tickets early. Even offering a discount to those that purchase early can keep you informed of numbers attending and allow for an easier planning process. See Marketing Your Quiz Night for some more pointers on handy websites for ticket sales.

More details about ticket sales can also be found in Quiz Night HQ’s guides; Ultimate Fundraising Event Guide and Logistics on the Day of the Trivia Quiz.

Prizes

A committee or group of people in charge of this, is your best course of action. As it can be an overwhelming job for one person. Contact anyone and everyone you know who may have something they could donate. See Quiz Night HQ’s guide to prizes, specifically regarding sourcing donations.

Information on ways of using prizes can be found in Quiz Night HQ’s guides; Ultimate Fundraising Event Guide and Quiz Night Games.

QuizMaster

You will need someone capable of holding a crowd. They need to be available on the date and within your budget. Someone from within your organisation can be good but it’s beneficial having a neutral party running the night. Alternatively, someone within your club/organisation that would suit the role may be more willing to step up and be the Quiz Master if they know that the questions are organised through Quiz Night HQ’s Marketplace. See Quiz Night HQ’s guide to the perfect QuizMaster.

Trivia Questions

Quiz Night HQ’s comprehensive Marketplace is the go to place for all your questions. Some QuizMasters come with their own questions – but they will charge for that too. Knowing you have access to high quality questions in Quiz Night HQ’s Marketplace, you can focus on finding someone that you only have to pay by the hour on the night to present the quiz. The packages here at Quiz Night HQ are user friendly and come with all the question and answer sheets.

However, here at Quiz Night HQ there are free templates that make it easy to create your own Trivia Rounds. Perhaps you’re interested in then selling it on to others here at Quiz Night HQ’s Marketplace. Contact Us for more details about becoming a QuizNightHQ vendor.

The Guide to Trivia Round Ideas has plenty of brainstorming to get you started on creating your own amazing Trivia Quiz.

Preparation

Test all of your presentations on the system you’ll be using. Though it is a good sign when the system is testing well, there can be issues when interacting with a venue’s equipment, e.g. a venue’s projector. To the greatest extent possible, prepare for these problems by bringing along extra equipment. If your projector fails, for example, having a spare can prevent the night from being a disaster.

Fundraising Games 

Give yourself a goal for how much you want to raise on the night. How will you reach that goal? Silent Auction, Raffle, Games? See Quiz Night HQ’s guide to Fundraising Games for more ideas and ways to make your Quiz Night a great financial success.

Quiz Night Games

Keeping in mind that you want your Quiz Night to be an enjoyable event, running games on the night keeps things light and fun. Not everyone attending your night will be able or willing to put more money in to participating in the fundraising games so having some other games keeps everyone happy and involved throughout the event.

Running Sheet 

Quiz Night Running Sheet TEMPLATE

This is very handy to make sure you have everything covered within your Quiz Night. It’s also handy to refer to on the night so you can keep track of events and time. It will include all your rounds of trivia, breaks, Fundraising Games, Games, answers and starting & finishing times.

Create a running sheet with approximate times of each of the components of the night. This provides each of the organising stakeholders (host, silent auction organiser, live auctioneer etc.) an idea of when things need to occur and whether breaks need to be shortened on the night if time starts getting away from you. Check out  for a template of a running sheet from Quiz Nights that I regularly run.

People to help on the Night

Don’t go it alone. It’s a lot of work on the night – ask for help and delegate roles to people within your club/organisation. See Logistics on the Night for the things you need to think about on the day of the event and during the Quiz Night itself.

See Quiz Night HQ’s guide to Logistics on the Night for more tips and tricks concerning elements to consider on the day of and during the Trivia Quiz.

Thought of something we missed? Need clarification on something mentioned here? Please comment below.