PULTEVENT
Kiwi party games: 7 ideas for 21sts, work dos and the club rooms
Rugby club rooms in Hawke's Bay, a Saturday night in autumn. Trestle tables down both sides, every one of them loaded with whatever people brought when the invitation said "bring a plate": three pavlovas, a mountain of sausage rolls, somebody's nana's asparagus rolls. The birthday girl's dad is at the bar reading his speech notes for the fifth time. Hanging behind him on a ribbon is a large cardboard key, painted gold, with 21 on it in glitter.
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Kiwi parties run on a few fixed traditions: the 21st with its key and speeches, the club rooms or the community hall, the work do before everyone disappears for the summer break. What they often lack is a middle. The speeches are done, the food is out, the music hasn't kicked in yet, and a hundred people are standing in clumps of people they already know.
PULTEVENT fills that middle. The host runs a console in a laptop browser, the club's projector or a big TV shows the rounds, and everyone joins from their own phone by scanning a QR code. There's no app to install. The phones do need internet, which in a concrete-block clubhouse in the country is worth checking a week ahead.
7 games that suit a Kiwi crowd
1 The 21st slideshow
Photos from birth to last weekend roll on the big screen while people arrive, with the name and "21" as a caption over the top. When the speeches start, you hit the fanfare.
How to run it. Ask the family for photos a month out. Sort them by year and leave out anything from a flatting party.
The oldies love it, the mates heckle it, and the birthday person pretends not to watch.
2 Messages from the OE crowd
Half the birthday person's school friends are overseas: a pub in London, a ski field in Canada, a hospital in Melbourne. Their thirty-second clips play one after another on the big screen after the speeches.
How to run it. Set a deadline a week before the party. Time zones mean someone always forgets until the last minute.
It brings the missing mates into the room, which matters a lot in a country where so many young people head offshore.
3 How well do you know them
A quiz on the birthday person or the retiring boss: first car, worst haircut, which team they'd never support, what they order at the chippie. Everyone answers from their phone.
How to run it. Get the questions from the siblings and the flatmates. Parents know the old stuff, mates know the new.
Gives the room something to do together between the speeches and the dancing.
4 The Aotearoa round
A quick quiz on the country: which island has the most people, the name of the country's highest mountain in Māori and English, what kai and whānau mean, which city calls itself the windy one with good reason.
How to run it. Use macrons correctly and check te reo spellings with someone who knows. It matters to people in the room.
It suits a mixed crowd: the locals are proud of what they know, the visitors learn something.
5 The dance-off
Two volunteers, or two tables, take the floor. The screen plays the track, the room votes from their phones, the winner stays on for the next challenger.
How to run it. Start with the uncles. Once they've embarrassed themselves, everyone else relaxes.
It gets the dance floor going before the DJ has to beg anyone.
6 Most likely to
Anonymous voting from phones: most likely to get lost on the way to the party, to still be here at two, to turn up with a store-bought pav and pretend they made it.
How to run it. Write questions that tease without hurting. The birthday person's grandparents are in the room.
Shifts the attention round the whole crowd, not just the person of the hour.
7 The work do podium
At a work function, teams play the quizzes and votes through the night and the team scoreboard finishes with a small ceremony: joke awards first, then the winning team, confetti on screen.
How to run it. Mix departments on each team, so the accounts team isn't just playing the accounts team again.
A proper ending before people head off for the summer break.
Made for the 21st
A photo slideshow, video messages from the mates overseas, and a quiz about the birthday person.
Works for a work do too
Team quizzes, office voting and a podium before the Christmas shutdown.
Club rooms or the lounge
A laptop, an HDMI cable and whatever screen the venue has on the wall.
Everyone plays from their phone
A QR code on the screen, answers and votes in, results on the big screen straight away.
The 21st, done properly
In New Zealand the 21st is still the big one. There's the key, the speeches from parents and a best mate, often a slideshow, and a crowd that spans three generations. The games fit after the speeches and before the music takes over: the slideshow on arrival, the messages from overseas right after the speeches, then the quiz and a vote. Twenty-five minutes, no more.
"Do we do the key before or after the video messages?"
"Before. Nobody can hold a key and a tissue at the same time."
Work dos before the summer break
The end-of-year function in New Zealand lands in December, at the start of summer, and plenty of businesses close down over Christmas and New Year. That means the party is also a goodbye for a few weeks, and people are in the mood for it. A team quiz, a round of office voting and a podium keep the evening from being just drinks in a room.
For a work do, keep the questions about the workplace and the year, not about anyone's private life. Test the jokes on someone in HR first.
Club rooms, halls and marae
Most Kiwi parties that outgrow the lounge end up at a rugby or cricket club, a bowls club or a community hall. Some families hold a 21st or a big birthday at a marae, where the kawa of that marae comes first and the host should check with the people who look after it what's appropriate. Wherever it is, ask about the screen, the power points and the Wi-Fi. Club Wi-Fi is often a router behind the bar with a password on a sticky note, and a hundred phones may be too much for it. Mobile data usually covers the gap in towns; out in the country, test it.
If there's no signal at all, the slideshow and the video messages still run from the laptop. The phone games won't.
Te reo in the room
Plenty of Kiwi crowds are comfortable with te reo Māori in everyday speech, and a round that uses it well goes down well. You write the questions yourself, so write them with care, get the macrons right and ask someone who knows if you're unsure. The guest screens follow the language set on each person's phone, which helps visitors from overseas; the questions are whatever language you write them in.
Trying it out
Start with the free 3-day demo, no card needed. Load the slideshow, write a few quiz questions and try it on the lounge TV with the family. If it suits, the full version is a one-time licence and not a subscription, so it will cover the 21st, the work do and the next family reunion. You'll find the price 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 a Kiwi 21st or work do
- 1
A month out, collect photos for the slideshow and ask the overseas mates for short video messages.
- 2
Write the quiz about the birthday person or the workplace, and an Aotearoa round if it suits the crowd.
- 3
Check the venue's screen, power and Wi-Fi, and bring your own HDMI cable.
- 4
On the night, run the slideshow on arrival with the QR code on screen.
- 5
After the speeches, play the video messages, then the quiz and the vote.
- 6
Finish with the dance-off, or the team podium at a work function.
FAQ
Can we use it at a 21st without a hired MC?
What about the club's dodgy Wi-Fi?
Can the quiz include te reo Māori?
How do the overseas video messages work?
Can people overseas join live?
Is it a subscription?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
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