THE SHORT VERSION
Decide whether you want team discussion or individual phone answers. Keep the setup clear, choose varied questions, and leave room for people to talk. Random groups can mix the room, but review the teams before sharing them.
Start with the kind of participation you want.
For a social get-together, choose the format around the experience you want colleagues to have. If conversation is the point, use teams that discuss an answer together. If you want a short activity where everyone submits an answer, use individual play.
In Triviano, trivia nights use teams and rounds with private host controls and a separate audience screen. Live quizzes use individual phone answers in one question sequence. Players can join an active game by PIN or QR code without a host account.
Hosting is currently invite-only. New hosts can join the waitlist; the free planning tools and question collections are available now. You can also use these ideas for a quiz you run with paper answers.
Keep groups small enough to talk.
Try groups of three to five people as a practical starting point. A pair can work for a small gathering; a large table may need more deliberate turn-taking so the same person doesn’t answer every question.
Use the random team generator to mix a player list into groups with similar headcounts. It shuffles names and spreads players across the requested number of teams. It does not assess people’s knowledge or know which colleagues already work together.
Review the result before announcing teams. Let people tell you about a seating or access need, account for anyone arriving late, and add initials if two players share a name. You can shuffle again before sharing the final groups.
Give different people a way in.
Choose a mix of familiar subjects and a few questions that invite discussion. Music, films, places, food, and general knowledge can all work when they fit the group. Avoid making the whole quiz depend on specialist job knowledge or jokes only long-serving colleagues understand.
For an international group, think about which references require a particular upbringing or local context. Vary the categories and ask someone outside your own team to read the set before play.
Start from the public question collections if you need material. Check the answers, accept reasonable alternatives where appropriate, and prepare a replacement for any question that turns out to be unclear.
A short game can still feel complete.
For a thirty-minute social slot, consider two rounds of five questions. At forty-five seconds per question and two minutes for answers per round, the questions and reveals take eleven and a half minutes. Adding five minutes to welcome teams and five for final scores gives a plan of twenty-one and a half minutes.
That leaves some room for people getting settled, clarifications, or a tie-breaker. It’s an example, not a guaranteed finish time. A group that likes to discuss each answer will need a different pace.
Use the trivia-night planner to adjust the numbers, and read our rounds and timing guide for longer formats. Brief the host on the finish time and decide which material can be trimmed if needed.
Make the first question easy to join.
Explain the scoring, answer window, and submission method before the quiz starts. If a team captain is submitting on a phone, give the group a moment to choose that person. If players answer individually, check that everyone reaches the lobby.
Use a practice question when the format is unfamiliar. Make sure the audience can read the display and hear the host. Offer enough thinking time for the questions you chose, and pause for a genuine clarification rather than making people guess the rules.
A team name can be a simple opening conversation. Keep the game social: explain the answer reveals, enjoy the close calls, and avoid presenting quiz scores as a measure of anyone’s ability at work.
Leave time for the last reveal.
Tell the group when the final round is starting. Read the last answers clearly, announce scores in a way everyone can follow, and use the tie-breaker you explained in advance if it’s needed.
Thank people for taking part and ask which subjects they’d enjoy next time. Keep a note of questions that were unclear or took longer than expected. The next game becomes easier to prepare when you know what worked for this group.
For the full setup, read the trivia-night hosting guide. For a fresh mix of tables, return to the random team generator and start with the actual attendees.