Hosting A Great Quiz Night
All you need to host a great quiz night is a sound system, right? Well yes and no. Technically that’s all you need to run a quiz night, but there’s more to running a great quiz night than just a sound system.
Hopefully this article will give you some ideas of how to run a quiz night that keeps the teams coming back week after week!
Audio
Speaking of sound systems, you’ll want to test it out before the quiz begins. Depending on whether the venue has their own sound system, or you need to provide one, you’ll need to make sure it’s appropriate to the size of the venue.
Check volume levels to ensure it’s loud enough to be heard everywhere in the venue and be heard above any chattering or background noise, but not so loud that it causes any discomfort! To do this properly you may need help from someone to walk around the venue as you test out your best quiz master voice.
Rounds
Finding the right amount of time to leave between each question is an important balance to strike. Leave too long and people may get bored or the quiz may run on too long. Too short and teams may struggle to keep up. Until you find the right pace for you it may be helpful to have a timer on your desk to count the seconds between each question. Even if you don’t find the right timings straight away the timer will at least ensure you are consistent.
Be sure to read every question at least twice. People may miss the question first time around or struggle to hear. Asking every question twice should reduce the number of times you're asked to repeat questions at the end of a round.
Given the right pacing we’ve found that five rounds works pretty well for a quiz night. That’s four rounds of questions as well as a picture round that teams can work on throughout the evening.
That means you'll find enough rounds for a whole quiz night on our page of free rounds!
Prizes
Rather than just giving out a single large prize to the winner of the quiz, why not give out a smaller prize to the winner of each round? This means that every team has a better chance of not going home empty handed. It also means that any teams who struggle with one of the rounds don’t lose all hope of winning a prize
Picking the prizes you give out can be a great opportunity to support local businesses. Local breweries, bakeries and restaurants may be willing to donate a small prize or gift voucher each week to help promote their business to potential local clientele. If you’re hosting the quiz in a pub then they may be willing to provide a meal voucher, round of drinks or a bottle of wine as a prize.
If you have a spare tie breaker question at the end of a round, why not use it anyway? Whoever gets closest to the right answer could win a free drink at the bar!
What about the entry money?
What you do with the entry money from the teams depends on what agreement you have with the owners of the venue. If they’re charging you for use of the venue, you’ll need to set aside some of the entry money for that. However, if you’re hosting the quiz in a pub and your quiz helps bring in customers on what may otherwise be a quiet night, they may let you host the quiz there for free. If that’s the case you could give the entry money away as a grand prize at the end of the night!
While it may be tempting to give the money to the team that comes top in the quiz doing so advantages larger teams and could discourage smaller teams. Finding some way to award the money “at random” gives every team equal chance to walk away from the evening with a pocket full of cash. Try using card games, raffles or maybe a round of bingo at the end to even the playing field.
Have fun!
We hope this article has given you some ideas to help improve your quiz night. Most of all, don’t forget to have fun!
If you have any suggestions on how you’ve improved your quiz night let us know!