DIY trivia night

In 2018, we announced a brand-new service offering: TrivWorks DIY, a downloadable do-it-yourself trivia party. This concept has been in the planning for the better part of a year, and I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about it! (Read the full press release here).

I know it must sound strange, this new offering. As a professional supplier for corporate trivia events and game shows, why on Earth would I want to create a do-it-yourself version? Doesn’t that create self-imposed competition for the customized, professionally-emceed events I’ve been producing for companies large and small all across the country for the past nine years? Doesn’t it cheapen my brand?

In short, no – actually, it’s just the opposite.

There are in fact several reasons why I wanted to develop this new product, and add it to our “menu” of available services. I would argue that rather than diluting what I’ve spent almost a decade building, giving customers the power to produce their own DIY trivia games for home or office parties actually enhances my brand. You can read about this in dept in this recent blog post.

So what are the benefits of a DIY trivia party, versus one of my regular ones? You don’t get an emcee or customization, after all; if fact, as the name suggests, you have to do everything…yourself! Well, allow me to explain why this new offering is so great – and who will receive the most benefit from using it.

It’s Affordable

I’ll be the first to admit it, my events aren’t cheap.

TrivWorks is and has always been a premium brand; this isn’t a bar trivia company, we don’t produce pub quiz nights at your local watering hole. Rather, we specialize exclusively in team trivia events for corporate and private groups. The events are fully-customized for each specific audience and goal, I only work with seasoned professional emcees, and you simply will not find another company with as much corporate experience and expertise producing these unique events as I do, on account of having done this and ONLY this for nearly a decade. Our client list includes some of the biggest and best-known Fortune 500 brands in the world, and there’s a reason for that: we really are the best at what we do.

All of this comes with a direct and indirect cost. In addition to having to compensate my emcees, producers, DJs and production staff, I also have to pay my writers to develop the custom-crafted content, my graphic designer to produce tailor-made PowerPoint decks, and cover expenses such as printing, pens, prizes, and possibly travel expenses such as car rentals, airfare and/or hotels.

A less quantifiable yet equally expensive commitment is my own personal time. I’m running a business, and as such I have a lot on my plate at any given moment: marketing, sales, administration, and personally emceeing gigs as well. To then throw in the job of executive producer for gigs that are being planned – conducting client customization calls, proofreading and editing content, providing ongoing client counsel, and ensuring a clean flow of communication to all of my staff – it quickly becomes apparent how very limited indeed my time is. This in turn makes my time valuable, and I must ensure to not only use it wisely, but to be compensated what I am worth as well.

Add this all up together, and – well, like I said, it’s not cheap.

Until now, I really haven’t had much else I could offer prospective clients who simply can’t afford my services. While I do have a product called TrivWorks Express – a turnkey trivia party with minimal customization – this is only currently available in Southern California or the New York City region, and I still have to provide an emcee, grader, materials, sound projection equipment and prizes. It’s become something of a running joke here in my office that when a client says their budget is “really tight,” I almost immediately want to refer them to a pub quiz company, who while no doubt cheaper than me (I’m talking WAY cheaper), most certainly won’t have anything close to the professional & personalized experience I offer. That old adage “you get what you pay for?” Well, it’s true.

Today, I’ve got something else entirely I can offer those with ridiculously limited funds.

My new DIY game show is not only fun and compelling (more on that below), but it’s INSANELY affordable corporate event entertainment. It even undercuts by a lot the cheapest of the cheap bar trivia companies out there, who I never in a million years would otherwise be able to compete with based solely on price. Since I’m providing expertly-written material and sharing my proven formats, tips and tricks while you, the client, are doing all of the “heavy lifting” with respect to hosting ad production, I no longer have the overhead or time commitment necessitating a higher fee.

The result? You get everything you need to run a timely, professional event, at literally a fraction of the price I would charge to come in and do this whole thing from soup to nuts. If you’re struggling to find an affordable do-it-yourself team building activity or party for the home/office, you’re not going to find much better of a deal than this!

It’s Easy

I’ve been in the event planning and production world in one shape or another for almost twenty years. I can tell you flat out, it’s not easy. Yes, there are complicated events and less complicated events, but if you’re having a group of people convene for a sustained period of time, be it a day or an hour, there is a TON of work which must be done, a million details which need to be attended to.

With customized corporate entertainment events, the amount of work required gets multiplied exponentially. As the executive producer, it’s my job to take on as much of this as work possible, to make things as easy as I can for my emcees and event staff, as well as for you, the client. I make every possible effort to keep the amount of time and work clients must commit to an absolute minimum, including a highly streamlined event customization process. But even under the best of circumstances, there’s still prep work which needs to be completed by the event organizer.

With the DIY team building trivia option, there’s no customization necessary, no administration, no anything. And for you, the client, that means:

• No service contracts to review.
• No customization call.
• No gathering of detailed facts to send over.
• No contact with me at all, actually.

With the push of a button, clients simply download the game, print everything out, and are ready to rock and roll. It really is that simple!

It’s Versatile

I take extreme pride in the fact that my team trivia events for company parties and private groups are highly adaptable to virtually any audience, industry or occasion. The customized content means that everyone in the room feels the even is fun and relevant, the emcees are trained professionals who can accommodate to any situation, and after so many years of doing this, I have the experience and expertise to produce a successful event for just about anybody (although there are a few notable exceptions).

When coming up with a do-it-yourself game show for home or office, I wanted to ensure that the experience was just as versatile as my customized, emceed events, if not more so. It’s specifically designed to work as both a home game show, as well as an office trivia party. Whether you are seeking to entertain private event guests, foster workplace camaraderie through a group bonding experience, or even entertain loyal or prospective clients, this solution works for you.

Anyone Can Do It

It’s not easy getting up in front of a group of strangers and emceeing a corporate game show. Whether for an audience of 10 or 1,000, the person leading the event must know what he or she is doing in order to keep the audience engaged, the game moving, and the energy level high. That’s one of the main reasons I will only work with professional emcees to host a trivia contest of mine. I cannot depend on untrained actors, aspiring comedians, or other “guns for hire” I find on Craig’s List – that’s not going to work when my clients are expecting a professional experience, and paying top dollar for it.

That said, hosting a trivia night isn’t rocket science. Back when I first started doing this in 2006 as a bar trivia host in New York City, I’d never done ANY kind of professional performance before; no standup comedy, no acting, no cabaret singing…nothing. Then I suddenly found myself behind the bar one night at an Upper East Side pub, with a stack of trivia questions in one hand a microphone in the other, and just went to town.

Does personality matter? Of course. So does sense of humor, stage presence, voice quality, and the ability to respond in real-time to what’s happening in the room. But so long as you’ve got the material and proper instructions in-hand, really anyone can emcee a trivia night. That’s why the trivia game show DIY package I’ve developed includes a great hosting guide. Just like playing a new board game, you read the directions, and know exactly what’s going on. Well, the same thing goes for this.

When putting the hosting guide together, I really tried to put myself in the shoes of somebody who’s never done this before. Let me tell you, after almost a dozen years and over 1,000 public and private events, there is SO much I don’t even think about anymore. I’m just on autopilot; I take it for granted that someone who’s never done this simply wouldn’t know about certain things big and small, which are necessary to run a company trivia party or private event in their home.

But after many months of development, I’m proud to say the guide is complete – and easy enough so that ANYONE can lead one of these events!

Some Final Thoughts

When I first conceived the possibility of offering up some kind of self-hosted, do-it-yourself game show team building event, it was really in response to what I saw as a demand I couldn’t service. For years, I’ve had people inquiring about using me for their events, but because their budgets were so tight, I couldn’t help them. Well, now I’m thrilled to finally be able to have something to offer.

Is this the same exact experience as my full-service offerings? Of course not – how could it be? However, even though customers of this new product won’t get the emcees or the customization, the materials or the ongoing counsel, you WILL still get contemporary, professionally written questions, as well as proven event formats developed after literally years of field testing in front of live audiences.

As I’ve mentioned several times already, I’ve been in this line of work for a while. I truly enjoy making people laugh and helping them bond with a great shared experience, and am so thrilled to have a brand new way to empower you to do that. Particularly, I am delighted that those who couldn’t previously experience the team trivia events I produce now have a way of doing so, even if it’s a modified version of the “real thing.”

I also want you to know that even though I’ve spent almost a year putting this new product together, it’s still a work in progress. There’s going to be some tweaks and modifications along the way, and I can tell you right now we’ve got some big changes already planned to make it even better than it is. I’ve got some ideas I’m kicking around, and a few other changes already in progress – heck, we’ve already updated the material three times in the two weeks it’s been available, that’s how fast pop culture changes! the analogy I use is, it’s like building a boat: you won’t know where the leaks are until you actually put it in the water.

I am incredibly proud of what we’re offering with TrivWorks DIY trivia, and excited about where I see this going. I hope you will try it out, and let me know how it goes!

For another article on how to host your own trivia night, click here.