Top tips for organisers

Click on the titles below to read the relevant top tips.

• General tips for at the event
• Essential planning checklist
• Managing team entries
• Promoting your quiz
• Simple ideas for fundraising
• Top tips on prizes
• Paying money in 

General tips for at the event

• The best way to mark the quiz (and show that there is no cheating!) is to ask teams to mark each others answers. After each set of two rounds (there are two rounds on each answer sheet) get teams to swap sheets and then read out the answers for marking. Obviously if you have an odd number of teams you’ll have to ask one team to mark two sheets – but this won’t be a problem.
• Keep things moving! Teams will start to get distracted if the quiz moves too slowly, so be strict and keep things moving. If you’re going too fast, don’t worry, someone will soon shout out to tell you.
• Once every team has got a set of answer sheets you can begin.

This is just general advice drawn from our experience of running a quiz. But feel free to make the quiz your own and do things differently if you’d like to. The important thing is to have fun. 

Essential planning checklist

Download the essential planning checklist - it'll help you make sure you don't forget anything!

Managing team entries

If you're holding a quiz that's open to the general public, you'll need to decide how you'd like teams to enter your quiz:

Turn up on the evening and pay entry fee

This is the easiest option - teams just pay their entry fee when they turn up on the evening. You should make sure that teams are aware that there won't be any table reservations and that they'll probably need to get to the venue early if they want to get a table!

Ask team to pay entry fees prior to the event (and reserve tables for teams)

You may decide to allow teams to reserve tables. If you choose this option, you should only reserve a table for a team if they have already paid their entry fee. Otherwise, they may not turn up on the evening, despite having a table reserved!

Promoting your quiz

Although it won't be difficult to get people to come along to your quiz, you want to make sure you fill your venue! If you do all of the tasks on this list, your event is sure to be a hit!

• Have a look in your email address book and invite your friends, colleagues and family to take part. (Although, you will probably want some of them to help on the night, rather than just take part!) Send them a link to your unique quiz page.
• Using the buttons on your quiz management page (which you'll see once you've signed in), share your quiz on Facebook, Twitter, Delicious and Digg.
• Download the posters and put them in the windows of local shops.
• Set up an event for your quiz on Facebook and invite all of your friends.
• Talk about your quiz!
• Follow BigPubQuiz on Twitter and retweet interesting tweets.
• Become a fan of the World's Biggest Pub Quiz on Facebook and ask your friends to become fans, too.
• Put a link in your email signature to your quiz page
• Respond promptly when you receive an enquiry message about your quiz
• Learn about the Family Holiday Association so you can talk about the charity
• Closer to the time, we'll send you a pack with posters, balloons and other things to help you promote your quiz
• Contact your local media (sample press release coming soon!)

Simple ideas for raising money

We’d like everyone organising a quiz to try to raise at least £100. But anything you can raise will be fantastic, and will be put to good use.

But please don’t feel that you need to stop at £100! You could well find that raising money is easier than you think. Just think – if you got 40 people to attend your quiz (that’s only six or seven teams) and raise just £5 from everyone, then you’ve already raised £200! The sky’s the limit.

The simplest method is to charge people for taking part in the quiz. £5 might be a good amount – but you know best what people can afford (and you might consult your venue about this, too, as they will have an idea of how much their regulars would be likely to pay).

You could try a number of other schemes to supplement the entry charges, and get your fundraising total up.

• Ask everyone to “buy the Family Holiday Association” a drink. That is, every time someone gets a round in, they put aside the cost of an extra drink (for the Family Holiday Association) which might be £3 each time. At the end of the evening, collect up these kitties and add it to your total.
• Hold a raffle. Everyone loves a raffle. If you can get some nice prizes – perhaps ask at local businesses for donations – it’s fun to hold one. Sell tickets, and the prize draw will add to the fun of the evening. You can get a book of “cloak-room” tickets at your local newsagent or pound shop and these will be ideal for the purpose.
• Put a donation bucket on the bar. The barman can probably lend you an ice bucket for the purpose. Make yourself a sign to stick on the front of it, something like “Put your loose change in here to support the Family Holiday Association”. You might be surprised by how much you collect.
• Play party games. Following the quiz, you might like to get everyone playing a parlour game. There are lots which are quick and easy and need no equipment. Have a look on the internet for ideas. One of our favourites is “heads or tails”. See below for how to play this game. You can ask everyone who wants to join in the game to pay a pound (or more!)

Playing Heads or tails

Get everyone who wants to play to stand up and pay £1 to enter. Ask them to place their hands either on their heads, or their tails (i.e. their backsides). Toss a coin and announce the result. All those who got it wrong (that is, they have their hands on their heads and “tails” was called, or vice versa) sit down – they are out of the game. Repeat the process with the remaining people until there is only one person left – the winner. The winner's prize is half of the funds collected from those taking part in the game.

Top tips on prizes

Most people will take part in the World's Biggest Pub Quiz for fun, and won't really expect to win anything. But having a prize or two will add to the excitement, and if you have a raffle you could raise a lot more to help give kids in need a break.

Ideas for prizes

Prizes can be handed out for all kinds of things. You can reward the best dressed team, or the best team name. You can provide “spot” prizes (that is, prizes for the best score in an individual round). Remember, though, that if you are providing a prize for the overall winner, it is better if it is something that the whole team can enjoy.

• Buy a few jokey items in a local pound shop (the Family Holiday Association regrets that it is unable to reimburse any expenses you incur).
• A wooden spoon makes a great “booby” prize. Present your poorest scoring team with a big wooden spoon, perhaps decorated by a pretty ribbon.
• Ask your venue whether they can donate a few things: a round of drinks for the winning team, perhaps, or a bottle of wine, or vouchers for a meal.
• Ask local businesses to contribute something. It is great for community goodwill. A restaurant might offer a voucher for a meal. A local hairdresser might offer some services free. Local shops might offer merchandise. Remember to announce the prizes and their donors on the evening – it is good to acknowledge the support.
• There will be some national prizes to be won – keep an eye on the Pub Quiz website for further news, or make sure you are signed up for our updates.

Paying money in

We have tried to make this as simple as possible, and hope that there’s a method to suit you. Your organiser’s pack (which we’ll send you)* will have further details, paying in slips and so on. But here is how it will work:

• Recommended option: Pay in online using a credit or debit card on Virgin Money Giving.
• Pay the cash in at your local bank branch into the Family Holiday Association account. Your local branch should accept the cash, but if not you may need to visit your local Barclays branch. (We'll give you the account details in the pack we'll send you closer to the time.)
• Pay by cheque made payable to FAMILY HOLIDAY ASSOCIATION. Once you’ve collected all the money from your friends, pay it into a suitable bank account and then write us a cheque for the full amount. Send it to WBPQ, Family Holiday Association, FREEPOST 29ND6115, London W1E 7AA. Include your reply slip (which will be in your organiser pack) with the cheque so that we know who it’s coming from.
• Pay by credit or debit card. As above, but complete the credit card payment details on the reply slip.
  

* If you haven’t received your organiser’s pack by 1 May 2011 please email us.