PULTEVENT
Company anniversary celebration: 7 ways to put your history on the big screen
A converted brewery in Bristol, a Friday in October. The engineering firm is twenty-five, and somebody has found the original fax machine and put it on a plinth by the entrance with a spotlight on it. Two hundred people, a third of whom were not born when the company was founded. On the screen, a grainy photo of three men in a portakabin in 2001, one of them with a remarkable mustache. "Which of these is our current managing director?" Phones light up across the room. Most people get it wrong. He is the one without the mustache now.
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An anniversary is the one corporate event where the content is already written. You have a history: the first client, the office that flooded, the product that nearly sank everything and the one that saved it. The trouble is that it usually ends up as a slideshow nobody asked for, played while people queue for the buffet. The history is good. It just needs to be something people play with, not something they sit through.
With PULTEVENT the organizer runs the evening from a laptop connected to the screen. Guests take part from their own phones after scanning a QR code: no app, no registration, just internet on the phone. Photos, videos, music and the awards are loaded in advance and fired with one click each.
7 anniversary formats built from your own archive
1 The anniversary splash screen
Your number, big: 10, 25, 50. Behind it, the founding photo or a slideshow of every office the company has had. A caption with the founding date and today's date. Fireworks on screen when the MD raises a glass.
How to run it. Scan old prints properly. A blurry phone photo of a photo looks sad on a six-meter screen.
It frames the night as a birthday, not a conference, from the first second.
2 Put the history in order
Eight milestones on cards: first hire, first international client, the move out of the portakabin, the website that went live in 2004. Guests drag them into the right order from their phones.
How to run it. Mix one or two events from outside the company (a world event from the same year) to give newer staff a fighting chance.
New starters learn the history by guessing it, which sticks far better than reading it on a wall.
3 The history board game-show
The Super Smarts board with categories like 'Old logos', 'Former offices', 'Who said it at the Christmas party', 'Products we would rather forget'. Teams by department.
How to run it. Interview three people who have been there longest. Their anecdotes are your top-value questions.
It makes the veterans the experts for one evening, and they enjoy that more than any plaque.
4 Then and now
An old staff photo on screen, the room guesses who it is from their phones, then the current photo appears next to it.
How to run it. Ask permission, and pick photos people will laugh at with the subject, not at them.
Hairstyles from 2003 do more for team spirit than any values statement.
5 Messages from the people who started it
Founders who have retired, the first employee who now lives in Spain, the first client's buyer. Short clips play on the screen one after another.
How to run it. Give each person one question to answer: 'What do you remember about the first year?' Thirty seconds, landscape.
It connects the people in the room to the people who built it, and it is usually the moment someone cries.
6 Long-service awards
Five, ten, fifteen, twenty-five years. Each name appears on screen with fanfare, the person walks up, the room applauds. The finale is the longest-serving person, with confetti.
How to run it. Check the start dates twice. Getting someone's years wrong at their own anniversary is worse than skipping them.
Loyalty is the thing an anniversary really celebrates. This makes it visible.
7 The credits: everyone who ever worked here
At the end of the evening, a scrolling list of every name that has been on the payroll, current and former, over music.
How to run it. Group by decade of joining. People will stand in front of the screen waiting for their name.
It says the company is the people, all of them, including the ones who left.
Your history as a game
The founding year, the first client, the old logo: all of it becomes quiz and timeline rounds.
Voices from the past
Video greetings from founders, retired staff and the first customer, played on cue.
Long service, properly
An awards ceremony with fanfare for the people who have been there longest.
One evening, one console
Splash screen, games, videos, dance music and credits run from the same browser tab.
Start with the archive, not the venue
Before you book anything, find out what history you actually have. Old photos, press cuttings, the first invoice, recordings of the founder. Ask facilities what is in the basement boxes. Ask the three longest-serving employees for an hour each and take notes.
The venue matters less than you think. The content is what people remember, and you can only plan the formats once you know what material you have.
Bridging old hands and new starters
A twenty-five-year company usually has people who remember the portakabin sitting next to people who joined last month. The formats should give both groups a win: history rounds for the veterans, general knowledge or guessing rounds for everyone else. Mixed teams by department make sure they end up at the same table arguing about the same answer.
"Was the first office really above a chip shop?"
"Two chip shops. We moved."
Founders on video, even when they are in the room
If a founder is present, you might think a video is pointless. It is not. A short pre-recorded clip about the first year, played before they speak, gives them a frame and saves you from a thirty-minute unscripted speech. Keep the live remarks to five minutes afterwards.
When offices are spread across countries
Anniversaries of international firms have guests who speak different first languages. Guest screens follow each person's phone language, so instructions and buttons are in their own. Write the questions in the company language, keep them short, and share the stage window in a video call for any office that cannot travel. They play along from their phones.
Running order for a three-hour evening
Doors and splash screen, thirty minutes. Timeline round, fifteen. Dinner with then-and-now between courses. Messages from founders, then speeches. The history board game after dessert, then long-service awards. Dancing, with the built-in DJ deck if you do not have a DJ, and credits to close.
Use the break screen with a countdown before each block so the bar knows when to push people back to their seats.
Trying it with your own archive
The free 3-day demo, no card, is enough to scan a dozen old photos, build the timeline and run it on a meeting-room screen. If the evening is a go, the full version is one payment for a licence, with no subscription after. Pricing is on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to build a company anniversary celebration around your history
- 1
Two months out, dig through the archive and interview the longest-serving staff.
- 2
Choose milestones for the timeline and anecdotes for the history board game.
- 3
Ask founders, alumni and the first client for short video greetings.
- 4
Get start dates and the full historical staff list from HR for awards and credits.
- 5
Load everything into the console and rehearse the evening once on the venue screen.
- 6
On the night, run the splash, games, messages, awards and credits in order.
FAQ
What are good company anniversary celebration ideas for a small firm?
Can we use our old logo and brand colors?
Do guests need to download something?
How many photos can the then-and-now round hold?
Can former employees join from home?
Is there a ready-made anniversary quiz?
What does it cost?
See also
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