PULTEVENT
Leaving do games: 6 ways to send a colleague off properly
Friday, ten past five, the upstairs room of a pub round the corner from the office. The card has been going round in a brown internal envelope for a fortnight and has finally come back with forty signatures and one coffee ring. Somebody has organised the whip-round. Nobody has organised anything else. Dave, eleven years in the team and off to a job in Bristol on Monday, is standing by the bar looking as if he would like the floor to open.
★ Free for the first 3 days, no card required
Leaving dos are strange events. The guest of honour usually does not want a fuss, the people who turn up know one small part of their working life, and the manager has been asked to say a few words with about an hour's notice. It often ends up as a normal Friday drink with a card handed over in a hurry.
A few short games on a telly change that without turning it into a performance. I run them on PULTEVENT: the laptop sits on a bar stool, a cable goes into the pub's screen, and colleagues play from their own phones after scanning the code on it. They play in the phone's browser and there is nothing to install. The phones do need to be online, so ask the pub for the Wi-Fi when you book the room.
6 leaving do games, from gentle to rowdy
1 How well do you know Dave
Ten questions about the leaver: his first desk, the name of the project that nearly broke him, his lunch order, how he takes his tea. Colleagues pick answers on their phones, the leaver answers out loud before the reveal.
How to run it. Collect facts quietly from the people who sit next to him and one from his partner if you can get it.
It is a speech in disguise. The questions say everything the manager would have said, and nobody has to stand up.
2 Who is this, then
A zoomed-in or childhood photo of a colleague on the screen, and the room guesses who it is. The last photo in the round is the leaver.
How to run it. Ask for photos by private message, never in the team chat, or the leaver works it out.
Everyone in the room gets a turn in the spotlight, so the leaver does not have to carry the whole evening.
3 Messages from the ones who left before
Short clips from former colleagues, the old manager now in Leeds, the graduate who went to Australia. Each one plays with a tap from the console.
How to run it. Ask for thirty seconds, filmed landscape. Watch them all before the night.
Leavers are often more moved by a face from five years ago than by anyone in the room.
4 The office awards
Colleagues vote on their phones for the leaver's finest moments: best excuse for being late, most memorable email, the meeting he should never have called.
How to run it. Write the options yourself so nothing unkind sneaks in. Keep one serious category for last.
It gives the team a way to tease him that he will actually enjoy.
5 Eleven years in order
Events from the leaver's time at the company on cards: the office move, the merger, the Christmas do where the fire alarm went off. Teams put them in order on their phones.
How to run it. Mix big company events with small team ones. The small ones are harder and funnier.
Newer staff learn a bit of history, old hands argue about dates, and the leaver sees how much he was part of.
6 Predictions for the new job
A wheel on the screen with predictions for the first week in Bristol: gets lost in the car park, misses our tea round, joins the five-a-side. The leaver spins it.
How to run it. Let colleagues write the predictions on the day. You only type them in.
It ends the games on the future instead of a goodbye, which is easier for someone who hates goodbyes.
About the leaver, not about you
Every question and vote is about their years with the team.
Old colleagues on video
The ones who left before them can still say goodbye from the screen.
Twenty minutes, not two hours
Enough to mark the moment, short enough for a Friday.
Runs on the pub telly
Most function rooms have a screen with an HDMI input. That is all you need.
If the leaver hates attention
Most of them do. Keep the games about the room as much as about the person: the photo round with everyone's faces, a quiz where colleagues answer and the leaver just confirms. Do not make them stand at the front. Let them sit with a pint and react.
And tell them in advance that there will be ten minutes of games. A surprise spotlight is exactly what shy people dread.
If they have been there twenty years
Long-service leavers, especially people retiring, deserve the longer version: the timeline, the video messages, a slideshow of old photos on the splash screen while people arrive. Dig out the staff photo from the first year they were there. Somebody in facilities or HR will have it on an old drive.
The manager's few words
Put the speech after the games, not before. By then the room has laughed together, the quiz has already told the story of the leaver's years, and the manager only needs two minutes to say thank you.
"Should I mention the thing with the photocopier?"
"It was question six. You're covered."
When the leaver works remotely
Plenty of teams are spread out now. If half the team or the leaver themselves cannot make the pub, share the stage window in a video call. People at home see the same screen and join the quiz and the votes from their phones, same code, same scoreboard.
The card and the whip-round
Hand them over at the very end, after the manager has spoken, and put the photo of the podium from the quiz on the screen behind. If the whip-round bought something odd, a framed map of Bristol or a mug with the team's faces on it, the leaver can open it in front of everyone while the screen is still showing the awards. It ties the evening together.
One tip from experience: write down who put money in and who signed the card. The leaver will want to thank people on Monday and will not remember.
What you need on the night
A laptop, an HDMI cable long enough to reach the telly, the pub's Wi-Fi password, and a phone of your own to test with. Get there half an hour before the others. Pub function rooms often have the screen switched to a sports channel and a remote nobody can find, so ask the bar staff early.
Phones without a connection cannot join the games. The videos and photos run from the laptop either way.
Paying for it
For a single leaving do, the free 3-day demo may well cover you: no card, full access, long enough to build the quiz on Thursday and run it on Friday. If your team says goodbye to people often, the full version is bought once, with no subscription; the price 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 run games at a leaving do
- 1
A week before, collect facts, photos and video messages without the leaver knowing.
- 2
Book a pub room with a screen and ask for the Wi-Fi details.
- 3
Build the quiz, photo round and votes, and load the clips.
- 4
Arrive early, connect the laptop to the telly and test a game on your phone.
- 5
Once everyone has a drink, put the QR code up and play for twenty minutes.
- 6
Hand over to the manager for a short thank-you, then the card and the gift.
FAQ
How long should the games take?
Can we do it in the office instead of a pub?
What if nobody sends video messages?
Does everyone need a smartphone?
Can we keep the results for the leaver?
Is it expensive for a one-off?
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.
Start free