What Are Alternatives to Trivia Night for a Group Event?

Trivia night is easy to plan, but it rarely helps a group get to know each other.

Here are 8 alternatives to trivia night, with how to run each one and when it works best.

Guests form teams with their friends or coworkers, then sit with them all night.

If your goal is getting people to meet, trivia works against you.

Trivia is a group staring at a host and whispering answers.

There's very little real conversation, and almost none with new people.

The trivia buffs answer everything. Quieter guests sit back and feel left out.

Instead of answering questions about the world, guests play a bingo networking game and find people who match a prompt.

Prompts like 'Find someone who has lived in another country' send everyone across the room to meet someone new.

Trivia ends with one winning team. Networking bingo ends with a room where everyone knows a few more people.

Guests leave the table they came with and have real conversations with people they'd never have met.

Quiet guests join in too, because nobody has to know the answer. They just have to say hello.

And it keeps the competitive energy trivia fans love, with a leaderboard for the people who meet the most guests.

Jam Bingo is the networking bingo game that gets your group these results.

Best for: 20 to 1,000+ people who don't all know each other.

Teams get a list of people to find instead of questions to answer.

'Find someone born in December' or 'Find two people who play the same instrument.'

Mix the teams randomly at the start, so friends aren't on the same team.

Best for: 20 to 100 people who like a team challenge.

It's trivia about the people in the room instead of general knowledge.

Each person shares three statements about themselves, and the table guesses the lie.

Run it at tables of 6 to 8, so nobody performs in front of the whole group.

Best for: seated events and groups of up to 50.

The host reads statements like 'Stand up if you've been to more than 10 countries.'

Guests stand if it's true and look around to see who else is standing.

It takes 5 minutes, needs no setup, and gives people natural conversation starters for later.

Best for: any size, seated or standing.

Guests pair up for 3 to 5 minutes with one conversation question, then rotate.

Use fun questions, not career ones, so it feels like a game and not a job fair.

Best for: 10 to 60 people who want to meet as many others as possible.

Read a 'would you rather' question and point to two sides of the room.

Guests walk to their pick, then chat with someone on the same side about why.

Each question reshuffles the room, so people talk to new faces every round.

Best for: 20 to 150 people in a standing space.

Mixed teams get simple supplies (spaghetti and marshmallows, cards, tape) and a goal, like the tallest tower in 15 minutes.

Unlike trivia, everyone has a job, so quiet guests contribute too.

Best for: team events and workshops with 10 to 80 people.

One person starts a story with a sentence, and each person adds the next line.

It gets silly fast and needs nothing but a table of people.

Best for: small groups of 5 to 10, or tables at a dinner.

Pick a mingling game like networking bingo or would you rather, so people meet new faces.

Two truths and a lie, Stand Up If... and story chain all work from a chair.

Pick a game everyone plays at once. Turn-based games stall after about 20 people.

Run a mingling game first, then trivia with mixed teams. You get the fun of trivia and a group that actually knows each other.

Want a side-by-side breakdown? See networking bingo vs. trivia vs. scavenger hunt.

See how Jam Bingo works!