PULTEVENT
Company picnic games: 7 family day formats with a screen in the shade
A park pavilion in suburban New Jersey, a Saturday in June, about 11 a.m. Smoke from the grill, a bounce house thumping away on the lawn, eighty employees and roughly as many children. Under the pavilion roof, out of the sun, a big TV sits on a rolling stand, and in front of it a knot of six- to ten-year-olds is shrieking at a horse race they are running by tapping their parents' phones. One father has given up any pretense and is tapping too. His daughter's horse wins. He tells everyone it was her.
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A company picnic has two audiences who want opposite things. The children want to run, shout and win something. The adults want to eat, talk and not be embarrassed in front of their manager. The best picnic games serve both at once, and give the grown-ups an easy way to join in for five minutes without committing to a sack race.
PULTEVENT works well for this when you have a screen in the shade: a TV on a stand, a rented LED panel, or a projector inside a pavilion or marquee. It is run from a laptop, and people play from phones after scanning a QR code, with no app. Those phones need internet, so check the mobile signal in the park well ahead of the day.
7 picnic formats for families, with the screen doing the counting
1 The kids' horse race
A few children at a time each ride a horse from a parent's phone: tap to gallop, switch lanes, jump the little fences. A new heat every time a new crowd gathers.
How to run it. Put a volunteer at the laptop for an hour at a time and run heats whenever there is a queue.
It is the magnet that keeps the pavilion busy while the parents eat.
2 Aquarium
An aquarium fills the screen and each phone becomes a window into it. Kids tap a fish to catch it with a net, the fastest net wins it, and a funny monster fish is best left alone.
How to run it. Let the younger ones practice before the start; in the warm-up the net moves but no points count.
The controls are one tap, so the youngest kids, who cannot handle a race, still get to win something on the big screen.
3 Fun Flight
Players fly planes from their phones through the sky on screen, collecting coins. Easy to understand in five seconds.
How to run it. Run it as parents against kids. The kids usually win.
A game where a nine-year-old can beat the CFO in public, which both of them enjoy.
4 The family quiz
Each family plays as one team from one phone. Questions about the company, the town, animals, cartoons and summer, with a leaderboard on screen.
How to run it. Write questions at two levels, alternating one for kids and one for adults, so both have a job.
It gets whole families working together, and the company learns the kids' names.
5 Which baby is your boss
Baby photos of managers on screen, children and partners guess from their phones which grown-up at the picnic it is.
How to run it. Ask managers to stand in a row by the screen during the reveal so people can compare faces.
Kids love seeing their parent's boss as a baby. So do the parents, secretly.
6 Kids' dance battle
Two groups of children dance to the same track in front of the screen, the adults vote from their phones.
How to run it. Make sure everyone gets a small prize. Kids' competitions should have no losers, only runners-up.
It burns off the sugar from the ice cream and produces the photos every parent wants.
7 The big raffle
Families scan a QR code to enter. At the end of the day the draw runs on the big screen, names rolling until one stops.
How to run it. Tell people at arrival that the draw is at 4 p.m. and they must be present to win. It keeps the crowd until the end.
It gives the day a clear ending, and nobody loses a paper ticket in the grass.
Children play on a parent's phone
Kids tap, parents hold the phone. Nobody under ten needs their own device.
Short, loud rounds
Three-minute races and quick quizzes suit short attention spans and full plates.
A raffle that runs itself
Families scan once, the draw runs on screen, no paper tickets blowing across the lawn.
Shade is the only rule
Screens are hard to read in direct sun. Put yours under a roof.
The screen and the sun
Projectors are close to useless outdoors in daylight, and even a bright TV washes out in direct sun. Plan the games area under a solid roof: a park pavilion, a marquee with sides, the company canteen with the doors open. If you rent an outdoor LED screen, it copes with daylight, but check what input it takes.
Face the screen away from the open side of the tent. It makes more difference than brightness.
Power and internet in a park
A laptop and a TV need power. Parks rarely have sockets, so ask the pavilion booking office, or bring a quiet generator or a portable power station and test how long it runs the TV. For internet, phones use their own mobile data in most parks; check the signal on two different networks on a site visit.
The phone games need that internet. If the signal is poor, the day still works with the phone games switched off and old-fashioned sack races on the grass.
Ages from three to eighty
A family day crowd includes toddlers, teenagers too cool for anything, employees and their parents. Give each group something. The aquarium for the little ones, the flight game for the ten-year-olds, the family quiz for mixed groups, and the raffle for everyone. Teenagers will usually take over the horse race if you let them run the laptop.
Families who speak different languages
At many companies the partners and grandparents at a picnic speak a different first language from the office. Guest screens follow each phone's language, so the game controls appear in the language that phone is set to. Keep quiz questions short and friendly, and add a picture where you can.
Who runs the screen
Rotate volunteers in one-hour shifts so nobody misses the whole picnic. Give each one a printed sheet with the running order and three buttons to know. Somebody from HR should do the raffle, because the prize winners will want to talk to someone official.
"Can I go get a burger?"
"After this heat. There's a queue of seven-year-olds."
Test it on a weekday
With the free 3-day demo (no card needed) you can set up the quiz, the raffle and a race and test them on the office TV at lunch. For the picnic itself you buy a one-time licence, with no subscription behind it. See pultevent.ru/en for pricing.
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 run company picnic games on a screen
- 1
On a site visit, find shade for the screen, a power source and check mobile signal on two networks.
- 2
Book or rent a TV on a stand or an LED panel, and arrange power for it.
- 3
Write the family quiz and collect managers' baby photos and raffle prizes.
- 4
Set up under the roof in the morning and run a practice aquarium round as families arrive.
- 5
Run horse races on demand, the quiz after lunch and the dance battle later on.
- 6
Draw the raffle at the announced time and close the day on screen.
FAQ
Can we use a projector outdoors?
Do children need their own phones?
What if there is no Wi-Fi in the park?
What are good company picnic games for toddlers?
Can the raffle hold a hundred families?
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See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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