dimensionmedia/wpgameshow

Resources For Running Your Own Gameshow at Conferences/Events

Resources For Running Your Own Games at Conferences/Events

After two years of doing gameshows at WordCamp Miami, I've gotten alot of questions how we did the gameshows so that other people at conferences, meetups, and WordCamps can host their own. So I put this repo together so that people can know about ways to add entertainment to their events.

Trivia Games

We have found Kakoot to be the best way to go this. At the time of this writing it's free (athough you can temporarily upgrade to a paid account for better branding). There are individual and team "modes" for your questions. Best to set up some questions and play with yourself, your family, or a few people to get how it works although it's straightforward. Some tips:

• You can set question time for each question. I recommend 10 seconds unless it's a long question, then go with 20 seconds.
• Kahoot can handle alot of players at once. WCMIA had over 200 people playing at one point without problems.
• If you are planning on 30 minutes of trivia (say at closing remarks or after party) then 10 rounds of 5 questions will likely be enough, but always create a few additional rounds just in case. We found at WCMIA people stayed longer at our closing remarks.
• I found the best way to go a trivia gameshow is to have the most people in the same physical room, although virtual/live games are possible.
• Use "team" mode to pit sponsors or companies against each other - it's fun to mix things up and have audience cheer and call out answers (like a gameshow) as the teams battle it out.

Pre-Built WordCamp/WordPress Related Kahoot Trivia

Don't have the time to make Kakoot trivia games? Feel free to use these! And submit PRs to share any that you've created with other camps OR HELP TRANSLATE THESE FOR NON-ENGLISH WORDCAMPS AND EVENTS.

• Title: WordPress Trivia (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/e443bb7b-3161-487e-9ea5-1ce02248dda8

• Title: Company Slogans (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=6ba162e1-5f2a-4d18-be88-341f26026895

• Title: Get Nerdy - Part 1 (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=38b94447-2340-4d60-a786-4c2a350e8086

• Title: Get Nerdy - Part 2 (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=f5e887b8-1dae-47e5-bedd-554ecf4c7e68

• Title: WordCamp Miami Trivia 2 (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=0d2423f0-37aa-4380-a01f-cc59228c46f2

• Title: Quick Fire Round: WordPress Plugin Logos (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=4587bf51-f339-41b1-9f4f-51469e6d0a1c

• Title: Quick Fire Round: Online Logos (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=957d39b6-c843-4f5b-86df-be394611ddfd

• Title: Quick Fire Round: WordCamp Miami Trivia (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=5d700600-169d-4919-9eba-d0f78c365b74

• Title: Quick Fire Round: WordCamp Miami + General WC Trivia (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=a8f0ad39-ccbb-4b92-a336-c56749427e44

• Title: Wapuu Trivia (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=087108c1-aba6-4cc3-bac5-8fc356a43bbd

• Title: Developer Tears (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=5e42de40-c324-4e77-ae5b-941ed73fd3e8

• Title: Know Your Sponsors (General) (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=01d3e136-acb1-4319-99b2-f356f89d46fa

• Title: Know Your Sponsors (General) (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=55e4816f-bdee-4d35-b7d8-0056f01ced2d

• Title: Know Your Sponsors (General) (English)

  • Url: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=d52ecd8b-e9eb-405d-90c1-5671ea4c1322

WPBingo

Created by Brian Richards. This was beta'd at WordCamp US in 2017 and polished up for WordCamp Miami in 2018. You can learn more about it at WPBingo.com and reach out to Brian if you want to incorporate this into your event.

Photo Contests

Done to death, but still popular and easy because anyone with a phone can take a great photo. It's easier to ask at opening remarks for people to add a unique hashtag to find them faster on Twitter but if your event is small enough then a simple photo hashtag search on Twitter works too.

Speaker Cards

Dsitribute speaker cards randomly to attendees and have them try to collect as many unique cards as they can. This is not only a great contest (which has worked over 5 years at WordCamp Miami) but also a great way to get attendees to network and interact with each other. Bonus is providing sponsor cards that attendees need to get from sponsor tables, and providing a prize if someone can collect all the sponsor cards.

Here are speaker cards from WordCamp Miami 2017.

Gameshow Tips

In our current experience WordCamp Miami seems to have the most success having a 'gameshow' on :

• Saturday night before/during after parties (2018 we had Matt Mullenweg do a keynote so everyone was in the same room at the end of the day, and we did the gameshow right after that before people left to go the after party)
• Another (usually shorter) round of trivia during closing remarks.

Both of these end the day of the event on a high note.