PULTEVENT
Expat party games: 7 ideas for a room full of people from somewhere else
The back room of an Irish pub in Vienna, first Thursday of the month. On the door, a laminated sign reading International Newcomers, stuck on with tape that has given up. Inside, a Brazilian engineer, two Korean PhD students, an Australian teacher who has lived here eleven years and eight people who arrived this autumn and still pronounce the tram stops wrong. Everyone has done the first round of where-are-you-from. The second round has not yet started, and it could go either way.
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Anyone who has run an expat club or a newcomers' meetup knows that moment. People come because they want to meet other people, and then stand in small, polite groups defined by language, until someone suggests leaving. The organiser needs a way to mix the room without making it feel like a team-building course.
I host these evenings with PULTEVENT: a laptop runs the console in a browser, the pub's screen or a small projector shows the game, and guests scan a QR code to play from their phones, no downloads and no accounts. Each guest's phone screen follows its own language, which in a room of twenty nationalities quietly removes a barrier. Phones do need internet, so ask the pub for the Wi-Fi password before you start.
7 games for expat meetups and international clubs
1 Random teams on the wheel
Guests scan the code, then the guest wheel spins through their names and you send each one to a table as it lands. Suddenly the Koreans are sitting with the Brazilians.
How to run it. Number the tables in advance and point as each name comes up. People follow the screen more readily than an organiser's voice.
It solves the cliques without anyone feeling singled out.
2 Home-country quiz
Each question is about one member's country: a national dish, a public holiday, a word that does not translate. The person from that country is not allowed to answer, only to look smug.
How to run it. Ask members to send you one question each about their own country. You get a quiz and everyone is invested.
Everybody gets a turn at being the expert, which matters to people who spend their days not understanding things.
3 Guess the newcomer
Newcomers each send a fact: the job they came for, the thing they miss most, the biggest surprise about the city. The screen shows the fact, phones guess the person.
How to run it. Collect facts when people sign up for the event.
Old members walk over to talk to new ones, which is the whole point of the evening.
4 Local customs, true or false
Statements about the host country: shops close on Sundays, you must greet everyone in the lift, there is a word for a nap after lunch. True or false from the phones.
How to run it. Keep it affectionate. Laugh with the host country, not at it; there will be locals in the room.
It turns daily confusion into a shared joke, which is better than moaning about it.
5 Charades with no common language
Words on the host's screen, a volunteer acts them out, the team guesses in whatever language it likes.
How to run it. Choose words that are the same in most languages: taxi, pizza, passport, bureaucracy.
Miming is the one skill everybody in the room shares.
6 Horse Race for the whole bar
A horse for every guest on the screen, galloped from their phones. The regulars at the bar will ask to join.
How to run it. Let them. Making friends with the locals is part of the point.
It ends the structured part of the evening at full volume, and then the conversation takes over.
7 QR raffle for the membership prize
A small prize from the club: a guidebook, a language-course voucher from a member who teaches, a box of chocolates from home. Guests enter by scanning.
How to run it. Only people present can win, which gently rewards turning up.
It keeps people until the end, and the winner has a reason to come back next month.
A room that mixes itself
Teams drawn at random break up the language cliques within the first ten minutes.
No one gets lost in the interface
Every guest sees the game's buttons and instructions in their phone's language.
Questions that flatter everyone
A round on each member's home country gives everybody a moment to be the expert.
One bag, one laptop
A laptop and an HDMI cable. The pub provides the screen and the beer.
The language question
Most expat events run in the host country's language or in English, and a lot of the room is working in its second or third language after a full day. The guest screens in PULTEVENT take their language from each phone, so the interface (buttons, instructions, messages between rounds) is in a language people read without thinking. The console for the organiser is in English.
The questions are different. They appear exactly as you write them. At a newcomers' night I write in simple English and let the pub's local language creep in where it is the joke. If your club runs in German or Dutch, write in that; the interface will still meet each guest halfway.
Building the evening from what members send you
The best expat quizzes are made by the members. When people register, ask for one question about their home country and one fact about themselves. By the event you have a quiz and a guess-who round, and everyone has a stake in it. The ready-made quiz decks on the platform are mostly in Russian today, so this is also the practical route.
"Is it really true that you have a word for this?"
"We have a word for most things. That's the problem."
Venues and screens
Pubs used to hosting football usually have a screen with an HDMI input. Ask them to turn off the sport feed for an hour and bring your own cable. A community centre or a co-working space often has a projector. Test the Wi-Fi from a phone; if it has a login page, put instructions on the first slide. If the signal is weak in the back room, the charades and true-or-false rounds still work with shouted answers.
Regular events and one-offs
For a monthly meetup, keep it to two games and half an hour, so the evening is still mostly conversation. For a one-off, like a club's anniversary, a summer barbecue or a winter party, you can run a full programme with the quiz, the race and an awards ceremony for the most active members of the year.
Online members
Some members have moved on to another country and still want to take part. Share the stage window in a video call; they see the screen and answer from their own phones, and the club carries on across borders.
Cost and trial
Try it at one meetup with the free 3-day demo. No card is needed. If the club likes it, the full version is a single licence payment rather than a subscription, easy for a volunteer treasurer to approve. Prices are 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 run games at an expat meetup
- 1
When members register, ask each for one question about their country and one fact about themselves.
- 2
Build the home-country quiz and the guess-the-newcomer round in the console.
- 3
Check the venue screen, HDMI input and Wi-Fi, and bring your own cable.
- 4
At the start, put the QR code on screen and spin the guest wheel to seat random teams.
- 5
Run two or three games, keeping the tempo gentle for people working in a second language.
- 6
Finish with the raffle and switch the screen back to the venue's normal programme.
FAQ
What language should the quiz be in?
Do people need to download anything?
Can new members join halfway through?
Are there ready-made quizzes about countries?
Can we use it at a pub with no projector?
Is it expensive for a volunteer club?
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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