Providing live music is a time-tested strategy for getting people into your establishment. Of course, this option depends on the setup of your venue and whether it has the space to host a band, or solo live performer. If you do have the space, having a live show can attract a very good crowd. Having live music promotes socialization, helps attract new customers, creates a lively atmosphere, supports the local music scene, and gives the customers a reason to stay longer and spend more money at your establishment. You can have a steady rotation of different musicians play shows, or you can have the same musicians at your bar playing every week, which helps to create a good following of steady customers. Hiring musicians can be rather costly, so you'll want to do it on a night where the most people are expected to come, such as Friday and Saturday nights.

You can also do things like have an open mic night, which costs nothing, and gives local amateurs a chance to display their talents on your stage. If you have a piano or keyboard, it is fun to ask someone to lead a singalong; to get everyone involved. If there are music groups in your town (eg. guitar or ukulele groups), offer a room to one of them for a monthly jam – a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Well, I hope this article helps you decide how to get those customers flooding back into your establishment. I’d recommend trying as many as you can to see which ones are the most popular, and which ones work for your particular location, crowd and demographic.

Thank you for reading and if you have any other ideas or comments you’d like to make, feel free to add them below.

Here are some MORE unique round ideas for your quiz night.

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

Not just a round about aviation, but specifically the hall of fame. Did you know there was actually a National Aviation Hall of Fame? It's in Dayton Ohio - also know as the birthplace of aviation, so that definitely makes sense!

Imagine if Twitter was around 50 years ago? How about 2000 years ago? Do you think we would have made it this far if it was? I love the thought of Cleopatra tweeting as she was sailing down the Nile.

Who doesn't love emojis? Well...I'm sure there are some people, but they can be fun!

Did you know that the original Flintstones had an alien friend? His name was "The Great Gazoo"!

Not necessarily bad movies, but bad reviews of good movies. Imagine not liking "Titanic" or "Groundhog Day"??

On your quest for trivia, try to keep in mind that well written, thoroughly fact checked questions with all levels of difficulty represented, is key to ensuring everyone participating will be engaged and have fun. Too many hard questions, and players will get discouraged and not want to play. Too many easy questions, and the players will be bored. Striking a perfect balance is KEY.

We wrote a blog post about how to write great trivia night categories which should help, or you can purchase one of our perfectly balanced quizzes.

All our quizzes have been written by our team of quiz writers (Including a 2-time Jeopardy champion) and through 4 levels of fact checking, so you can be sure you are getting entertaining, and accurate questions and categories.

We suggest having some themed quiz nights to make it more fun. Try out a 1980s trivia night, or a 1990s trivia night. You can even ask the players to dress up from that era. Provide extra points for creativity.

Some other theme ideas:

• 1970s
• Movie Trivia
• TV Trivia
• Sports Trivia

We've recently adapted our Automated Scoring System (Excel) into a League Scoring System that automatically updates the teams and positions each week.

You can grab a free copy of the scoring system here

How it works:

Most of the Excel "magic" works from the first tab "Week 1". - Make sure the Team Names are entered here, and the other tabs will fill in automatically.

For the most part, it works the same as the automated scoring system, but with added tabs for the different weeks, and a "results" tab.

At the end of each week, you will see the following:

Prizes are not necessary, but it adds an element to the game. People are competitive by nature, and a prize makes it more fun, and adds to the amount of trash talking involved after the tournament is over.

Here are some ideas for prizes:

1. Cash. Everyone chips in $5 per week and the winning team gets all the loot, or even better, donate half of it to your local food bank.

2. A trophy.

3. Winner gets dinner paid for by the losers once people can go out again.

4. Provide weekly prizes as well as overall prizes so people who join after it has already started still have a chance to win something.

5. Gift cards to your local pub/restaurant, which can be used once everything goes back to normal. This will help those businesses who have been hurt by the recent shutdown.

Starting a weekly trivia league is a great way to keep people engaged, take their minds off the current situation and bring people together (remotely) at a time when people are craving meaningful human interaction. Happy quizzing everyone!

Please drop your comments in the section below, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me directly.

Due to the recent Coronavirus outbreak and the social distancing standards that have been adopted as a result, many people have been looking for innovative ways to stay entertained, informed, educated and socialized while being confined to their homes. 

Some people have been using Zoom to stay in touch with co-workers, friends and relatives during this time. One thing that appears to be trending is trivia. Trivia is a fun and entertaining way to keep people engaged. Whether it’s for families and friends who want to connect remotely and spend a couple of fun hours together, co-workers who want to do team building, or quizmasters who want to keep their audiences engaged, people are finding they can host and play live trivia events from remote locations. 

The purpose of this blog is to enable the reader to set up and deliver a great trivia event remotely using Zoom. You can use a ready-made Quizrunners product, or any other quiz, including one you may have written yourself. 

Zoom is an easy to set up, reliable platform where people can invite others to participate in audio and video conferencing to collaborate, chat and host webinars from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection.

To download Zoom, click here.

You will be presented with the following screen:

Choose the first column, and click "Sign up, it's Free". This option will work well for you in almost every case. The only limitations for this options are:

1. If you have more than 2 people on the call, meetings (events) need to be shorter than 40 minutes.

2. Maximum 100 participants.

Although in most cases, the free option will be fine, if you are looking for more players, or a longer event, then the Pro account would be required.

Simply use your email address to sign up, then you are ready to go! Zoom will send you an email asking you to confirm your email address. After doing this, finish setting up your account by using your first name, last name and password. 

That's it! You are now ready to Zoom!

When you receive a Quizrunners trivia kit, you get everything you need to run a successful trivia night. However, you don’t need to use a Quizrunners trivia package to run a quiz night, you can always create your own.  

If you’ve decided to come up with your own categories and questions, you are in luck.  We wrote about that in our How to Create a Great Trivia Night Quiz blog. You’ll find some helpful tips for creating your own quiz from scratch.

For advanced trivia night hosting techniques, please visit our blog "How to host a trivia night"

Laptop/computer

Having a laptop, PC or MAC, with high speed internet are necessary requirements for hosting a trivia night using Zoom.  If you have a second monitor you can attach it to your computer to give you more screen space while hosting.

Trivia 

You will of course need some trivia.  Try to ensure there is a balance of easy/medium/hard questions so that everyone can participate.  If you are writing your own quiz, try to have at least 50 questions at the ready. The amount of trivia you will need depends on how long you and your participants want the trivia event to last.  

Participants

Think of a list of people who would want to attend (remotely of course) your trivia event.  We recommend having a maximum of 8 people, or teams if they’re together while playing. Although it is possible to have more than 8 participants, it can become difficult to manage. 

Once you are ready to start your event, Login to your zoom account, and click on the "Host a Meeting" option, then "With Video On" located at the top right of your zoom account. 

If this is the first time hosting a Zoom meeting, you may get prompted to install some software. It will be different depending on your operating system (Mac or PC), or Browser Type (Chrome, Firefox etc) but it should look something like this:

After the meeting starts, you may get prompted with a message to "Join With Computer Audio". Click this. Although there are options to join with a phone call, we will not be covering this. 

Once you are ready to invite your participants, you can click on the "Invite" option at the bottom of the screen.  You will then be prompted to choose your email system (In this case, it was Gmail), then it will open up a new message window:

From this screen, you can either choose the participants from your email, or copy the link provided and send it to your players through another format (facebook, messenger, text etc). If they use that link, they will not need to put in a password or Meeting ID.

Whether you are using one of the Quizrunners Packages, or preparing your own questions/categories, there is a certain amount of preparation involved.

Preparing the Handouts/Uploads

The Quizrunners package comes with an entire quiz in Word, and Powerpoint formats. It assumes that you will be hosting an event in a live venue. While hosting, you will be sending groups of questions to the players and you will need to remove the answers from the question sheet.

The best way to do this is to create a single PDF for each category. Open up the Word document of the quiz, and copy 1 category, then paste it into a new blank document. Remove all the answers (They will be in bold), then save the document as a PDF, and name it appropriately (IE: Round 1 - One Word Movie Titles). Repeat for all round but the audio and picture round (There is already a picture round handout).

There are many different ways you can run the quiz, but we have found this to be the most effective way, which can easily be adapted to suit your own needs and situation.  

Teams:

Although each individual can play on their own, we recommend putting the players into teams. It's a lot more engaging and actually makes things easier to host. At the beginning of the game, either assign the players into teams, or ask them if they would like to form their own teams. Also, ask 1 person to be the team "captain" and make sure they have pen and paper to take notes (Not 100% necessary, but recommended)

Breakout Rooms:

There is a great feature in Zoom that enables you to put people into team, then send them to a breakout room, where they can discuss the answers amongst themselves, without worrying about anyone hearing/seeing them.

Unfortunately, this feature is disabled by default and will have to be enabled. There are detailed instructions on the Zoom Website available here:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476093-Getting-Started-with-Breakout-Rooms

Once enabled, you will see a new icon at the bottom of your zoom meeting:

Once you have determined the teams, Chat icon at the bottom, then choose "file", and upload the first round. Make sure you have "Everyone" Selected in the "To" Field.

Separating Teams into Breakout Rooms

Once all the teams have their files, you can start the quiz and assign the players into teams. Click the "Breakout" Icon, and use the selector to choose the number of rooms (teams), then choose "Manually".

When you are ready, click "Create Breakout Rooms". You will then be asked to assign the players to each team. You will only need to do this once, at the beginning of the game. Once everyone is assigned, you can then click "Open all Rooms". Each team will get a prompt to join their room.

Once joined, they will only see the players on their team, and they can discuss the questions in private.

We suggest setting a 10-minute timer for each round. During the 10 minutes, you can actually join each the breakout rooms temporarily, to see how things are going. We suggest you do this during the first round.

When there is 1 minute remaining, click the "Close Breakout Rooms" and the players will automatically get a 1-minute warning. The players will then return to the main meeting room and you can go through the answers.

Once all the teams are back in the main meeting room, read all the answers and have 1 player from each team keep score. We suggest allowing 2 points for each correct answer so there is some wiggle room if the answer is almost correct (You could award 1 point).

Quizrunners has an automated scoring system (Excel Based) included with each package, but you can also have your own free copy here:

Automated Scoring System

Automated Scoring System - How-to Guide

After all the answers have been read aloud, players like to know where they stand so this is a good time to share the scoring system. To do this, click on the "Share Screen" option at the bottom of your zoom screen, then choose the scoring system - In this case it's called "Microsoft Excel - Scoresheet"

Ask each team (One at a time) how many points they received. The Quizrunners scoring system will automatically update the position of each team once the scoring is updated. You can share this at the end of each round. You will notice the top 3 teams will be highlighted in different shades of green, and their current position will be at the bottom of the sheet.

Repeat all the steps for the next round. The breakout rooms will be saved, you you won't need to put everyone into the rooms again, it will happen automatically.

If you are using an audio round, there is something that you will need to do in Zoom. From the share window, click on the "Advanced" tab at the top, then click on "Music or Computer Sound Only" - If you play any music (Audio Round) on your computer, it will now play through the speakers of the players computers.  

For this round, it's OK to keep everyone in the main room, then give them 5 minutes at the end of the round in their breakout room to discuss.

Once all the categories are complete, you have the option to use a final question and tie breaker if needed.  If you are using a Quizrunners quiz, please refer to the step-by-step guide for details on how to do this.

Hosting a remote trivia night can be rewarding for you, and your participants. Have you had success hosting a trivia night remotely? We'd love to hear about it - Please share your experience in the comments!

Stay safe, healthy and connected.

The Quizrunners Team 

Here are some unique round ideas for your quiz night.

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

A unique round for your trivia night - 1-Letter Answers. This category is a great mix of easy, medium and difficult questions so your quiz will be fun and entertaining for all skills. If questions are all too hard, it becomes frustrating for most players. If they are too easy, the players will get bored. We strike a perfect balance that keeps players coming back for more.

Unique and fun category. Trivia Math- 10 questions that combine trivia with math for a very interesting quiz night category. It's great to mix things up and make these trivia nights both challenging and entertaining. We strike the balance of both and keeps players coming back for more.

Another fun and unique category. Blockbuster Movie Synonyms

The Deity Pop = The Godfather

Did you know that Alice Cooper's real name is Vincent Furnier? If you did, then this round is for you!

A Unique and Fun category, and although it's technically a geography category, it's ads a twist that make it more interesting.

Check out the great feedback we've had about our trivia

Here are some terrific television round ideas for your quiz night.

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

A classic TV round for your trivia night - Game Shows. This category is a great mix of easy, medium and difficult questions so your quiz will be fun and entertaining for all skills. If questions are all too hard, it becomes frustrating for most players. If they are too easy, the players will get bored. We strike a perfect balance that keeps players coming back for more.

Fun TV category. TV Moms - 10 questions about the matriarch of TV families. It's great to mix things up and make these trivia nights both challenging and entertaining. We strike the balance of both and keeps players coming back for more.

Another fun category. "M" TV - Not the network, but questions with an answer that begins with "M"

Specific TV category about Sitcoms. From Seinfeld, to Happy Days to Modern Family, we've got you covered!

Although technically this is not a TV category, the name is. You can have fun with this type of category with one called "The Office" or "Friends"

Check out the great feedback we've had about our trivia

Here are some super sports round ideas for your quiz night.

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

A classic sports round for your trivia night - Sports Star Anagrams. This category is a great mix of easy, medium and difficult questions so your quiz will be fun and entertaining for all skills. If questions are all too hard, it becomes frustrating for most players. If they are too easy, the players will get bored. We strike a perfect balance that keeps players coming back for more.

Fun Sports category. Legendary Athletes.

Who doesn't love golf? OK...probably a lot of people, but it's a fun round, especially for the sports trivia buffs in your crowd.

Check out the great feedback we've had about our trivia

Here are some fantastic movie round ideas for your quiz night.

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

A classic movie round for your trivia night - One-Word Movie Titles. This category is a great mix of easy, medium and difficult questions so your quiz will be fun and entertaining for all skills. If questions are all too hard, it becomes frustrating for most players. If they are too easy, the players will get bored. We strike a perfect balance that keeps players coming back for more.

Fun Movie category. Name the movie, and 3 actors, the players need to guess which won the academy award. It's great to mix things up and make these trivia nights both challenging and entertaining. We strike the balance of both and keeps players coming back for more.

Another fun category. Trivia Night category about sci-fi movie villains

Specific movie category about Stephen King Movies. Lots of possibilities here. You could feature movies with specific actors (IE: Tom Hanks Movies) or directors (Steven Spielberg Movies).

Movies that featured a president - Who played them in the movie?

Check out the great feedback we've had about our trivia

Here are some fabulous geography round ideas for your quiz night.

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

A classic geography round for your trivia night - International Geography. This category is a great mix of easy, medium and difficult questions so your quiz will be fun and entertaining for all skills. If questions are all too hard, it becomes frustrating for most players. If they are too easy, the players will get bored. We strike a perfect balance that keeps players coming back for more.

Fun Geography category. All answers begin with an "A" and it's worded in a fun way. It's great to mix things up and make these trivia nights both challenging and entertaining. We strike the balance of both and keeps players coming back for more.

Another fun category. Players need to write down the former names of different places around the world.

Specific geography category about islands. As you can see, there are a lot of different possibilities when it comes to geography categories.

The OG for Trivia Night Rounds - Basic geography!

Check out the great feedback we've had about our trivia

Here are some excellent history round ideas for your quiz night.

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

A classic history round for your trivia night - American History. This category is a great mix of easy, medium and difficult questions so your quiz will be fun and entertaining for all skills. If questions are all too hard, it becomes frustrating for most players. If they are too easy, the players will get bored. We strike a perfect balance that keeps players coming back for more.

Great history round idea for everyone - Classic events that happened in the 20th century from the Lindberg flight, the opening of the panama canal, to the launching of Sputnik.

One of our most popular quiz round ideas. We provide you with 3 clues, and you need to narrow down what century all these events happened in.

Example:

Another popular round for war/history buffs - WW2 History! Challenge your players with a great and balanced mix of questions.

This is a fun round about history of the 1930s. This is probably one of the more challenging rounds, but we've had a ton a great feedback about it!

Here are some excellent audio round ideas for your trivia night!

We include a professionally recorded audio round and handouts with each trivia night package on our site.

Here are some recent ones that we include with our packages:

A classic audio round for your trivia night - 1990s Cartoons - the best decade for cartoons! The list includes Johnny Bravo, Beavis and Butthead , Rugrats, Spongebob Squarepants, The Smurfs, Catdog, Powerpuff Girls, Pinky and the Brain, Hey Arnold, Garfield and Friends.

Great audio round idea - Rotten Tomatoes Top 100 Movie Quotes include Citizen Kane, Mad Max Fury Road, ET, The Godfather, Gravity, Inside Out, The Wrestler, Jaws, the Wizard of Oz, and Logan

Festive Christmas Music Round Including classics like Little Drummer Boy, Let it Snow, Blue Christmas, Baby it's cold Outside, The Christmas Song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Greatest Gift of All, All I want for Christmas, and Christmas Time is Here!

A Great idea for an audio round - Comedians. Play a short clip of each of the following: Louis CK, Dennis Leary, Stephen Wright, Eddie Izzard, Mike McDonald, Ricky Gervais, Mitch Hedburg, Dave Chappelle, Jimmy Carr and Lenny Bruce!

What's more fun for an audio round than famous speeches? Some to choose from are Martin Luther King Jr, The King's Speech, Lou Gehrig, Ghandi, Churchill, Mandella, LBJ, FDR, Steve Jobs or William Faulkner - So many amazing speeches to choose from.

TV Commercial Audio rounds are fun. Play a clip and get the players to identify the brand. Some ideas are Fabreze, Old Spice, Dos Equis Beer, Menthos, Axe Deodorant, Snickers, Wendy's, Lucky Strike Tobacco, or an Apple product.

Game Show Theme Music - GREAT idea for an audio round for your quiz. Some you could include are Who wants to be a Millionaire, Family Feud, Deal or no Deal, The Gong Show, The Weakest Link, The Price is Right, The Dating Game, Jeopardy, Pyramid and The Chase!

There is a lot to choose from if you decide on a TV Character themed audio round. you could choose a decade, or go more broad to satisfy a wider audience. Some ideas are Anna Gunn from Breaking Bad, Howie Mandel from St. Elsewhere, Lisa Kudrow from Friends, Farrah Fawcett from Charlie's Angels, James Franco from Freaks and Geeks, Brent Spiner from Star Trek TNG, David Hyde Pierce from Frasier, David Cross from Arrested Development, Lorne Green from Bonanza, or Ted Knight from the MTM Show.

Video game sounds for a trivia audio round may seem like it would only appeal to the geeks, but a LOT of people played these games growing up including Sonic the Hedgehog, Galaga, The Sims, Skyrim, Dragon's Lair, Super Mario Cart, Pokemon Go Minecraft, Legend of Zelda or Grand Theft Auto 5.

There is always 1-2 people on each team that are good at sports. Throwing in a sports category once in a while is a good idea. NHL broadcasters is a great audio round idea. These include Howard Cosell, John Madden, Joe Buck, Al Michaels, Chris Collinsworth, Jim Nanz, Phil Simms, Merlin Olsen, Don Meredith and Pat Summerall.

We have MANY more available. Click here for details.