PULTEVENT
Hybrid event games: 6 formats where remote guests are not an afterthought
A hotel ballroom on the first morning of a sales kickoff. A hundred and forty people at round tables, a camera operator on a riser at the back, and on the laptop beside the lectern a video call with sixty more faces from Lisbon, Warsaw and someone's kitchen in Ohio. The same QR code sits on the LED wall and in the call. Ninety seconds later, the scoreboard shows a team with two people in the room and three at home in the lead.
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Most hybrid events I've been hired for had the same weak spot. The room got the energy, the stream got a static wide shot and a chat box that nobody on stage read. Remote guests were technically invited and practically forgotten. Games are the quickest way to fix that, as long as remote people play the same game on the same terms rather than watching the room play.
The setup is simple. The host runs a console in a laptop browser. The stage window goes to the projector or LED wall for the hall, and the same window is shared into the video call for everyone remote. Both audiences scan one QR code and play from their phones, no app, no registration, and their answers land on one scoreboard. Every phone needs internet, in the building and at home.
Six hybrid event formats that treat remote guests as equals
1 Roll call poll
The first thing on screen is a live vote: where are you watching from? The hall, home, a hotel room, a train. The result goes up for everyone at once.
How to run it. Read the result out, and name a few remote locations on the microphone. The people in Warsaw will wave at the camera.
It tells the room from minute one that the remote audience exists, and it tells remote guests that the host can see them.
2 Mixed-team quiz
Teams built across the room and the stream answer a quiz from their phones. Questions go on the wall and into the call at the same moment.
How to run it. Write questions that need both halves of a team: something only head office knows, something only the regional offices know.
Remote guests stop being spectators the moment their answer changes their team's score.
3 Room against remote
A lighter round where the hall plays as one team and the stream as another, both on the team scoreboard.
How to run it. Use it once, not all day. Keep the questions short so the stream's small delay doesn't decide the result.
A bit of us-and-them is great fun in small doses, and remote teams love winning this one.
4 Audience decides
Let both audiences vote on something real: which topic the panel covers first, which product demo to see, where next year's kickoff goes.
How to run it. Keep the result hidden until you press the button, then act on it straight away. A vote that changes nothing teaches people not to vote.
It proves the remote audience has the same say as the room, which is the whole promise of a hybrid event.
5 Breaks both sides can see
Event timing and break screens put the break, its name and a countdown on the wall and in the call. Lunch, 45 minutes. Back at 13:30.
How to run it. Set up the break before you announce it. The screen keeps showing the event title until you do.
Remote guests know exactly when to come back instead of guessing from a frozen stage shot.
6 Final standings
Before closing remarks, the scoreboard with every team's total goes up, remote members included, followed by the awards.
How to run it. Read out the remote team members' names by name, not as 'and our friends online'.
A named winner in Lisbon is a better story for next year's attendance than any survey result.
One code for both audiences
Hall and stream join through the same QR. Nobody gets a separate link or a second-class version.
Mixed teams
Put remote guests on teams with people in the room. The scoreboard doesn't care where anyone is sitting.
Timing on screen
Event timing and break screens tell both audiences when things start and when to be back, so remote guests aren't left looking at an empty stage.
Nothing to install
A browser on the host laptop, a browser on each phone. The call service is whatever your company already has.
Stream delay and why games need a call
A broadcast stream can run twenty or thirty seconds behind the room. For a keynote that's fine. For a quiz it's hopeless, because remote players see the question after the room has answered it.
For the game segments, put remote guests into a video call and share the stage window there. The delay drops to a second or two. Many agencies run the main stream for watching and a call for playing; guests switch across for the games and back afterwards.
Even then, lengthen the answer timers a little. It costs nothing and removes the one complaint remote guests always have.
Who runs what on the day
The host's laptop runs the console and the stage window. The AV team takes the stage output to the wall via HDMI and into the call. One producer watches the call chat and passes the host anything funny or urgent from remote guests.
That producer is the most underrated person at a hybrid event. Without them, the host is speaking to the room and glancing at a laptop. With them, remote guests get mentioned by name and feel present.
For event agencies and HR teams
Agencies can run the same console across different clients' events, loading each one's questions and timings. HR teams running quarterly all-hands can reuse the formats with fresh questions each time.
The host console is being localized into English, and guest screens follow each person's phone language, handy when your remote audience spans six countries. The built-in quiz decks are mostly Russian for now, so write English rounds in the quiz builder.
The honest requirements
Internet for the host laptop, internet for every phone. In the hall, test the venue Wi-Fi with a full room, not an empty one; three hundred phones behave differently from three. Mobile data is the backup. There's no offline mode.
Remote guests need a phone and a device for the call. Most have both on the desk already.
Price and demo
Rehearse with the free 3-day demo, no card, ideally with a colleague joining from home. The full product is a one-time license, not a subscription; pricing lives at https://pultevent.ru/en/. Register at https://pultevent.ru/login.html?mode=register&next=/app/
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted events since 2014: more than 500 weddings, office parties and birthdays. TOP 100 Awards named him best host in Moscow in 2024 and in Saint Petersburg in 2023, and he still runs his own nights from this console. More at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run games at a hybrid event
- 1
Build mixed teams with remote and in-person members before the day.
- 2
Write the quiz in the builder and set up the votes, breaks and timing.
- 3
Set up a video call for remote players alongside any broadcast stream.
- 4
Send the stage window to the wall and share it into the call; test both.
- 5
Open with the roll call poll so every phone in both audiences connects.
- 6
Run the games, show breaks on screen and close with the final standings.
FAQ
Do remote guests and the room use the same QR code?
Can remote players compete fairly with the delay?
Does anyone need to install an app?
Which video conferencing tool should we use?
How many people can play?
Can the break screens show different times for different time zones?
What does it cost?
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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