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.
Contents
- Requirements
- Set-up
- Ticket Collector
- Silent Auction Assistants
- Live Auction Assistants
- Raffle Collection
- Go-To Person
- Pack-up / Clean-up
- Running the Quiz
- Correcting the Quiz
- Quick Tips
The comprehensive QuizNightHQ Creator contains much of this information in a handy checklist plus everything you need for planning and running your trivia event.
Requirements at the Quiz Night
Most of the important factors to consider during the event involve having people to help. Having organised all the prizes, donations, questions and much more in advance (as laid out in the guide Logistics Before the Quiz Night) means the event will run smoothly – event preparation is vital. But sharing the load and giving other people roles during the Quiz also means it doesn’t all fall to you. Some of the roles you’ll need to consider throughout the event:
- Help with set-up
- Help with pack-up
- Doorperson
- Silent Auction assistants*
- Live Auction assistants*
- Raffle assistants*
*Required only if you are running these Fundraising activities.
Set-up
Depending on the venue you have for your Quiz Night, set-up may be required by you – the organiser, or it could be pre-arranged with the venue themselves.
It’s best to organise a number of people to help with the set-up. Don’t underestimate the time it takes. It’s always worth giving yourself some more time and then having a break prior. A number of elements to set-up need to be thought about:
- Tables and chairs
- Paper table clothes can be very handy – create an easy clean-up and teams can use it to record tentative answers to the trivia throughout the quiz.
- Table numbers/names
- Silent Auction Items
- Plus tables to hold them
- Silent Auction Bid Sheets
- Arrangement of prizes on display
- This includes – winning table, raffle, door/chair prize and any other prizes to games you are running during your event
- Audio and Video set-up
- This may be something that’s pre-arranged with the QuizMaster
- May even be something the venue can do – plug and play is best!
- Speakers, Microphones – including access to power
- Table or room decorations
- Drinks – at the bar plus tea and Coffee
- Likely to be a venue-arranged item but requires clarification
Someone to welcome/ticket collector
As your guests arrive, what do you need them to do? Have you allocated tables to teams? Do you need to check tickets? Are people buying access to the event on the night? These are just some of things to consider.
Pre-paid
If your attendees have already paid then that will save all the money handling. However, you will need to to double check that everyone entering the event has a ticket – remember if it’s a fundraiser every bit of money counts.
Pay at the door
Having someone at the door selling tickets is a fairly straight-forward role. They will need to be able to do basic financial transactions. Does your organisation have access to a credit card payment system?
Keep in mind that they will need to have change on the night. If you’re charging $10 for entry, then lots of $10 notes will help when people pay with a $20. Similarly if you’re charging $15, then $5 notes will be required.
Silent Auction assistants
When conducting a Silent Auction at your Quiz Night, keep in mind the final moments can be mayhem! Occasionally you will have people aggressively bidding on items and prevents others from winning. This is a rarity but worth keeping in mind. There are a number of things you can do to mitigate these possible concerns:
- In the last 5 minutes of the Silent Auction have a number of assistants standing around ready to adjudicate as necessary.
These assistants will collect the pens and sheets at the conclusion of the Silent Auction. - Have the QuizMaster or MC give a warning at the 5-minute mark. This will promote last minute bids and a fair warning for those who desperately want an item.
- A 1-minute warning can help build momentum
- A final 10 second countdown will give the assistants plenty of time to hang around close to a highly-contested item. In the case of people trying to bid after the countdown the assistant can give a fair adjudication.
- The assistants may then help identify the winners and final bid amount – a simple penned circle or highlighted mark over it will indicate it clearly for the person collecting funds.
Live Auction assistants
Having an auctioneer is terrific – they give the event some legitimacy and build excitement and momentum for the element of the night. They will require assistance for a number of things:
- Spotters – these people are spread around the room and assist the auctioneer to spot when someone is bidding.
- Bid Assistant – this person is in charge of keeping tracking of the bids and recording what $ amount the auction is up to. The Auctioneer may request the amount of the current bid to double-check we’re the highly-competitive bidding is at.
- Presentation Assistants – some items may need to be held up and displayed during the auction to encourage bidding and show people what they are actually bidding for.
Raffle Collection
There’s a number of ways you can go about a raffle. Some of them will need more helpers than others.
Trust System
Ticket books on each table – people write their name on the tickets and place their money and purchased tickets in an envelope. A team member brings the envelope to the QuizMaster or Raffle Organiser by a certain time during the event.
Any leftover tickets are brought to the front separately – these can be sold on to others needing more or left out of the competition.
The tickets are then put into a hat and drawn out during the allocated time.
Raffle Assistants
Alternatively, a number of volunteers may roam the room at the beginning of the event and in the breaks of trivia speaking to attendees and selling them raffle tickets. The volunteers are in charge of recording people’s names on the tickets if required – generally if the person who purchased the ticket is still there on the night a name isn’t required.
This system can build momentum, as one person on a table buys a bunch of tickets it will encourage others to buy some too. It also gives the organisers a good idea as to how many tickets have been sold. Also, what kind of monetary figure they can expect to bring in from the sale of the ticket.
At the end of the selling process, the tickets are then put into a hat and drawn out during the allocated raffle drawing time.
Go-To Person
An organiser who is not already occupied with many others tasks may be identified to assistants, volunteers and QuizMaster in the event of a last-minute question. This may seem like a massive job with lots of people wanting you at beck-and-call. However, covering all the elements laid out in the detailed Ultimate Fundraising Guide and Logistics Before the Event Guide will mean this is a small job. Being organised will be your best friend.
Having multiple go-to people may suit better too. If your organisation has a committee organising the event then any of those people should suffice.
Pack-up / Clean-up
Requiring some assistance, with the pack-up from attendees is common – especially for charity or sporting club Trivia Quizzes. Make sure ANY important information you need to give out before the end of the event is done before the final scores are given. As soon as people know who won, that’s it – you’ve lost the crowd’s focus. Some suggestions for final information announcements prior to the end of the event:
- “Can you please take your garbage with you”/”Bins can be found … so please assist us by placing any garbage in those provided before leaving”
- “If some people could assist us in stacking chairs and putting tables away…”
- Any advertisement for your organisation’s next event/fundraiser.
- “Thank you to all our sponsors”
- “Thank you to all our volunteer support for the event”
- Silent Auction winners – and where they will collect and pay for their items
Running the Quiz
- Correcting
- Scoring
- Assistance
If you are the one running the Quiz yourself, read on for a number of additional logistical considerations for the event. More details can also be found in Quiz Night HQ’s guide to Presenting your Quiz Night.
Give yourself 10mins* per 10-12 tables to correct and fill in the scores. *This depends on how familiar you are with the answers – you will get faster as you go along too.
Correcting the Answers
For QuizNightHQ Trivia Rounds use the attached answer sheet to refer to the answers easily. To make correcting a simpler process format the answer sheet to look similar to the question sheet – align the questions and provide the same number of lines etc. This will be much, much easier and speedier to check and mark each response.
Events with 12+ tables will most definitely require multiple correctors. However, having an assistant to mark the answer sheets for events with less tables will help the Quiz to keep moving – so it’s also recommended.
Quick Tips:
- Do not return sheets with corrected answers to the tables. This will often prevent disputes and heighten everyone’s focus and attention when the answers are read out.
- Mark a whole round at a time before entering the scores into the Scoring presentation. That way you can batch the process.
- If you do have assistance, split the answers in half and correct each in your own time – halving the time to correct. Once one has completed their pile they can start filling out the scores.
- In addition to reading out the answers to the questions, provide a visual display that is easy for everyone to see. Such a display will often save you having to repeat yourself or even having to clarify.
- Any payments required on the night need to be finalised, e.g. QuizMaster, Venue Hire. You don’t want anything hanging over your head.
- It can even be good to let the attendees know how much money has been made at the end of the event, perhaps during the final announcements.
Has something unexpected pop up on the day of your event? Let us know in the comments below – even share the way you dealt with it so it can be a help to others.
