The Quiz Night, Some feedback!

Hey guys!
Just want to thank you for last night. It was a great idea to hold the auction and the raffle. I could see the work that went into the whole thing - and as someone who was involved in the running of 2006/2007 I appreciate all of your efforts.

I hope you don't mind giving you some feedback for next time - although Miranda has said she's had enough!

The good.
Judge bribing - very nice idea
Goodie bags - Anything that gives me free stuff is good. Even though I only got an UNO pack and my friends got some DVDs.
The venue - well chosen.
Prizes for raffle - considering I got a great one, I'm very happy with my 'Verse cashy money.
Running of raffle prizes - good job on letting people pick what they wanted.
Bar service - very good
Preview of Joss's stuff - good

The bad
Timing - yes I know it said the event would go on until midnight, but at the end I really couldn't have cared less about who won, and that's bad because I'm usually very competitive. When people at other tables start building towers out of cups and you're fighting to stay awake, you know it's gone on for too long.

The auction needed to go faster, and there should have been a lot less "come on, it's for charity, it's for a good cause" because it sounded like you were begging. Maybe next time contact someone who's run auctions before (maybe someone who works at an auction house) and get some hints and tips. The same with the raffle - sure, winning stuff is great but it went on too long. Perhaps the auction should have happened in the middle of the quiz (separate items between rounds?) or at the end to give people more of a chance to look at the stuff?

Suggestions - Maybe have the events separately? - Movie in the afternoon then a break of a few hours and then the quiz night? Although that might drive people away a bit. My dad also suggested that it might be an idea to add some non-serenity items to the auction.

The noise - someone needs to fix that microphone. The screeeeeeeeeeeching was pretty bad but we were getting headaches at the back because it was just too loud. Perhaps some testing beforehand?

The music round - having done this for a quiz night before I can suggest slightly longer clips. If you have to squish them together that's fine, but let us have a listen first. Also there wasn't enough time between tunes. By the time we'd recognised the first song, the second one was playing and we couldn't write quickly enough.

Bonus points for first in - NOT a good idea, you could have Ochealth and safety people all over the place. Negative points for countdown was a good idea though.

I hope you don't mind my criticisms, they're all meant to help with next year's event from someone who has been on both sides of the project.

Congratulations on getting in a LOT more people than we've done in previous years. Plus I could see the winter appeal boxes overflowing when I popped my jackets in, so I'm sure that the Mission will be very happy.

I can't wait to see how much we've helped raise for Equality Now.

Stay Shiny!

Amy
Event Manager CSTS Adelaide 2006
Co-Coordinator CSTS Adelaide 2007
Greedy audience member CSTS 2008

As next years organiser, I will take the feedback onboard.

I completely agree with you on the venue, the place was great and the staff were friendly and awesome. I may look into it for next years event. Also, it seemed to be a good location, without having to make your way and pay for parking in the city.
After last years raffle, we decided not to number prizes purely because some people were winning things they already had, therefore either doubling up, or choosing to go without.
And we did do the goody bags to be completely random. I know one of my friends was more excited about the blue gloves than anything else......As a firefly fan, what did you think of that little touch?

On this note, everyone was aware before it started on what our planned end time was. Our table was busy in between rounds filling out the bonus sheet for the word play round and the flags, which is what they were for.
We did end earlier than the time we intended aswell.

The thing you have to remember is it was a charity aution. It was for charity, so all the money made from it doesnt go to us. The more we got for things the better in my mind. And it was because of the "begging" that we raised more than we would have if we had flown through everything. Although it was our first time doing the auction ourselves, between us we have been to numerous fan conventions that run their auctions in the same way that we ran ours.
More of an opportunity do show what is for auction is a good idea though.
Setting the stuff up on a table to the side, much like the Starship Mawson had their display. So people could mill past it on their way in and what not, not have to make their way to the stage at the front.

It was during one round toward the end of the night that a Judge made a comment 'bonus points for being first in'. It wasnt something we set out in the beginning. And when it was apparent somebody could hurt themselves through this, it was announced there would be no bonus points for first in again.

I do think there should have only been one song per question, because by the time the first song came to you, you were distracted by the second. As for the length, I think it was fine for the clips chosen. The point was for it to be tricky after all!

So... now im not in the middle of running the actual event, feedback is a little more relevant. not really a good idea to go up to the person running an event in the middle of it, and tell them how they can make it better for next year before this year is even out. that's why you kinda got snapped at Amy.

1. the microphone. no one told me about it being too loud til right near the end. our sound checks were done in an empty room. once someone said something to me, i tried to lower my volume. the screeching seemed to stop (at least from where i was) once i got the wireless mouse and stayed away from the laptop and speaker in the roof.

2. raffle. this was done in between events because i was told by many of the people booking the tables that many of their table would not be at the movie as well, and by people attending the mvoie that they weren't going to go to the quiz night. it was the only time when both groups would be present. otherwise we would have had to ship out prizes to people who had left, which decreases the money donated to EN, which is obviously something we try to avoid unless necessary. almost no one bothered to look at the raffle prizes before the movie started despite their being plenty of time. IF the same venue is used (no idea where Jess is gonna take the event next year, location or style) then yes, having the prize table away from the entry way is probably a good thing.

3. Auction was our first live auction. Dana was pushing because we needed to at least cover costs on some of the items, and she's used to Sydneysiders being far more active in auctions

4. the music round. I've seen this done with far more songs put together, with much shorter sections. I'm sorry you found it difficult to keep up, but again, no one yelled out that they needed more time inbetween the questions, and with 10 people on the table i thought people would be able to remember the second song til the first was written down. nothing i can do to change it now. we didnt originally intend to play them twice, so we did try to make it a bit easier, by doing that. as Jess said, it wasn't meant to be a breeze.

5. the length of the evening. if we had had the two separate.. i think no one would have bothered to come for the movie. no one wants to have to travel down twice. i know i wouldn't if i was attending. ive seen the move a half a dozen times on the big screen now, and i live down north. not really a feasible option, esp with petrol the way it is. people would opt to skip the movie, which is what the event is supposed to be about. we would have skipped rounds but of course people had selected them as bonus rounds and would have been pissed if their round was missed. we did skip a number of mini games.

6. Part of the reason the event dragged out so long was because people took forever to hand in their sheets. as Jess said, the moment we saw it was dangerous and someone would get hurt, we stopped the first in gets a bonus point thing.

7. goodie bags. everything that went into those bags was either bought by me, or comes out of the profit. obviously buying everyone something that could cost as much as their ticket is not feasible, or even half their ticket. everyone got SOMETHING though, even if it was small.

I did like the gloves - although it did take me a second to realise the connection. I haven't watched Firefly in a while (in terms of too much of a good thing can make it less of a good thing) but I did like it. Until the people at the next table started using them as missiles and hit me in the leg.

I did read on the website that it would be from 6 until 12. Perhaps the problem was lack of fresh air? I came in wearing 3 layers and a coat and by the time I was down to my CSTS t-shirt I was still really hot - the loud microphone noises weren't helping either.

For those of us who had come at 8pm so as not to miss the quiz, by 9:45 we were getting a bit sick of waiting around for the quiz to start. I know at our table there was a bit of complaining going on. A suggestion would be to give an approximate time for the raffle/auction to start/end although this might be a bit difficult.

Ok, I bow to your experience. Since we didn't have auctions in the previous two years I can't comment as an organiser. I still believe that perhaps the auction could have been split up between rounds in order to give a bit of a break to the proceedings. That would give people more time for the "on the table" questions and a chance to talk.

On a separate issue, I'm not sure the answer sheets were a good idea. I haven't been to any conventions myself, but my dad was reading this reply and brought up the point that the sheets didn't encourage co-operation between the team-members.

One person would write the answer to the stuff they knew and pass it on to the next person. There wasn't much conferring and debating at all - and that's what makes quizzes fun IMHO. Usually at quizzes you have to keep your chatter low so the others can't hear your answers - and I did find this quiz a lot more antisocial than I did at other ones. Two of my table members actually ended up talking about nuclear physics for most of the evening because we the other members were the ones filling in the questions. Also as an example, look at what happed at the last question. People were getting up and running to the front before the last question was read out. In terms of time I'm not sure if this would have extended the quiz too much - but it would have been a lot more enjoyable for me at least.

Tricky I do understand - so the length for the clips would have been fine if they had been played one song per question. I was actually covering my ears trying to sing the first songs and missed the second ones for other people at my table to pick up.

On another note, what were the prizes at the end? They looked like bags of chocolate, and if I had won (and my team did come fourth! Darn that Disney round) I'd be wanting a little more Serenity stuff than just choccies. Of course we didn't win, so if I'm talking rubbish about the bags then please forgive me.

I was also a bit peeved about the Whedonverse questions. IIRC there was ONE Firefly question and the rest were Buffy/Angel/Dollhouse questions - where were the Serenity questions (ok, you had the Fanty/Mingo one)? I was at the CSTS quiz night right? Did I suddenly get transferred into a Buffy and Angel convention?

Miranda, I remember asking you about this on Messenger and you said that it'd be mainly Serenity questions since people would have just watched the movie - and the rest would be 'verse. And that they wouldn't be really hard. I mean, I think a question like "Who was the actor that played the Operative" would be reasonable. Or "When was Serenity released in the US"? or "What did Alan Tyduk take from the set when Firefly was cancelled?"

Looking forward to your comments :)

Amy

Edit - Hey Miranda, I was writing my post at the same time as yours so I haven't commented on the stuff you raised.

The fact that some people chose to use the gloves as missiles couldnt be helped by us. Its would have been the same as someone taking a flyer we included and making a paper plane out of it really.

Nobody complained to us that it was too stuffy/hot in the venue, if it had been bought to our attention that it was making people uncomfortable we would have talked to the staff about adjusting the air conditioning.
Start/end times for the raffle/auction may have been a bit hard, you can never tell how long they will go for really. As far as I was aware it had been advertised for our event that there weas to be a raffle and auction. As Miranda said, we felt to maximise potential from both, having them cross over with both the people who came for just the movie, and just the quiz night was our best option. And from experience, dividing up the auction items for seperate times during the night, not effective.

Co operation between the team members may have to have been encouraged by the team members. Our team got the sheet, and we handed it around the table conferring with each other as to what we thought the right answers were, with majority vote if there was an unsure answer. And if we knew somebody was especially knowledgable in an area, such as the IT and sport questions, we would give the sheet to them once the rest of the table had had a look at it.

If you've heard the radio competitions at all where they play 10 songs one after the other at more than half the length our clips were played at and compare it to the format used, ours was a walk in the park!!!

Prizes at the end consisted of a mixture of things, chocolates, dvds, games. They werent huge, if you were hell bent on some serenity merch your best bet was the raffle. What use would it have been if a team who was there for the quiz night alone had won a basket full of serenity merch? We put the things to raffle, and Miranda left those decisions to me, that if people wanted them enough, they would buy tickets. In my opinion we raised more money on the raffle by having such good serenity based prizes than we would have if we had put the better collectable things into the prize pool for the quiz night.

Miranda and I discussed the quiz night and what the questions would be. Die hard Serenity/Firefly fans would love a quiz night that was purely based on our very favourite things. As organisers we would have painted ourselves into a corner when it came time to convince people to attend who weren't familiar with the verse.
It was decided a general quiz night with a Joss themed round was the best way to go, purely so we had a chance to better the number of people we could get to attend.
And not all people would have just seen the movie, as some groups opted for only the quiz part of the night, and some people came for the movie and didnt stay for the quiz.
Yes, you were at a CSTS quiz night. A night we ran to help raise money for equality now, and to spread the word a little further about Serenity and Firefly so that new people to the verse may come to our future events. But if we pidgeon hole everything around serenity, I dont think we'll get the same turnout as we did this year.