PULTEVENT
Office olympics games: 8 events and a live scoreboard for departments
An open-plan office in Austin, the last Friday before the summer break. Desks have been pushed to the walls. Finance has made team shirts with a spreadsheet printed on the back, marketing has matching headbands, and IT has arrived in bathrobes for reasons nobody explains. On the big screen by the kitchen, the scoreboard reads zero for all six teams under the words "Opening Ceremony." Somebody hums a fanfare. The screen plays a real one, louder, and the operations manager, who organized all of this, looks almost emotional.
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An office olympics lives or dies on its scoreboard. The events can be as silly as you like (chair races, paper-ball basketball, a stapler relay) but if nobody knows who is winning, it becomes a series of disconnected games and people drift back to their desks by the third one. The scoreboard is what turns an afternoon of messing about into a competition.
PULTEVENT gives you that scoreboard on the office TV or a projector, run from a laptop, plus a set of screen events that everyone can play from their phones via QR code, with no app to install. Phones need internet. Your physical events (the chair race, the paper-ball toss) score into the same board as the screen events.
8 events for an office olympics, screen and floor mixed
1 Opening ceremony
Each team walks past the screen while their name appears with a fanfare. The splash screen shows the event name, the date and a team photo slideshow.
How to run it. Give each team thirty seconds to parade and a single chant. Judges award style points if you want an early upset.
It sets the tone: silly, competitive and a little bit grand.
2 The phone sprint
The horse race, renamed. One rider per team gallops from their phone, tapping to speed up, switching lanes and jumping fences, while the team shouts from behind.
How to run it. Run three races with a different rider each time and add the results. Thumbs get tired, which is part of the sport.
Three riders per team over the three races means the event is not decided by one person.
3 Drift relay
Up to twelve cars on the screen, each steered by a phone. Teams send two drivers per heat and swap drivers between heats.
How to run it. With six teams of two drivers you fill the track exactly. The swap between heats is where the chaos happens.
It is the most watchable event of the day. People gather around the screen.
4 Tower build
One tower for everyone on the big screen. Teams take turns, and each turn is a single tap on the phone: the moment you tap decides where the next floor lands. Too early or too late and the tower wobbles.
How to run it. Let each team pick its calmest person for the tap. The rest are not allowed to speak.
A quiet, tense event in between the loud ones. Nobody breathes.
5 Bowling final
One bowler per team, three rolls each, played from the phone onto the big screen. Best total takes gold.
How to run it. Teams pick their bowler after seeing everyone else's pick. Tactics matter.
A single champion per team, which creates heroes and villains.
6 The trivia decathlon
Ten quick questions answered from phones, about the company, sport and general knowledge. Fastest correct answers score most.
How to run it. Include two questions about each department so teams get a home advantage somewhere.
It gives the people who hate physical events their moment to carry the team.
7 Dance-off
One dancer per team, one track each, the whole office votes from their phones. No voting for your own team, in theory.
How to run it. Announce it at the start so volunteers have time to warm up, or to find courage.
The clip that ends up in the company newsletter. Every single time.
8 Medal ceremony
The scoreboard runs its award ceremony: special awards first, then bronze, silver and gold with fanfare and confetti.
How to run it. Add special awards for best costume and best sportsmanship so the last-placed team still leaves with something.
The whole afternoon needed a finish line. This is it.
One scoreboard for everything
Screen games and desk-chair races go into the same points table.
Departments as nations
Each team gets a name, and the board shows the ranking after every event.
Events for every body
Mix physical events with ones played sitting down with a phone.
A real medal ceremony
Third, second, first, with fanfare and confetti on screen.
Scoring that feels fair
Keep one rule for every event: gold 5, silver 3, bronze 1, and one point for finishing. Write it on the screen at the opening ceremony. When the scoring is simple and visible, arguments stay good-natured.
Physical events (chair racing, paper-ball basketball, the stapler relay) are scored by a judge with a clipboard, and you add the points to the board by hand from the console. The board does not care where the points came from.
Teams: departments or mixed?
Departments give you instant rivalries and ready-made team identity. Mixed teams build more new relationships. For a first office olympics, go with departments; the rivalry carries the day. Next year, mix them.
Keep teams roughly the same size. If one department has forty people and another has six, merge the small ones.
Events everyone can do
Not everybody can or wants to run a chair race. That is where the screen events help: the phone sprint, the trivia and the tower all work sitting down. Aim for a balance so that every team can win points without its most athletic person, and nobody feels left out.
Running order for an afternoon
Opening ceremony, then alternate: a screen event, a floor event, a screen event. Put the loudest ones (drift relay, dance-off) in the second half and finish on bowling before the ceremony. Use the break screen with a countdown for a snack break halfway, or people will wander.
"How long does all this take?"
"Three hours, including arguing about the chair race."
For offices in the UK
In the UK the same thing is often called a sports day, and it borrows from school: the egg and spoon, the sack race, the three-legged race. They all score onto the same board. If your office has a garden or car park, put the floor events outside and the screen events in the meeting room, and run between them.
Try the scoreboard first
Grab the free 3-day demo, no card, and set up your teams, scoring and a couple of screen events. Run a phone sprint at a Friday drinks as a test. If the office wants the full olympics, the licence is a one-off payment with no subscription; pricing is at 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 office olympics games with a scoreboard
- 1
Split the office into teams of similar size and let each pick a name and a color.
- 2
Choose a mix of screen and floor events and write the scoring rule on one slide.
- 3
Set up the teams on the scoreboard and write the trivia questions.
- 4
On the day, connect the laptop to the big screen and run the opening ceremony.
- 5
Alternate screen and floor events, adding every result to the board as you go.
- 6
Finish with the medal ceremony and special awards on screen.
FAQ
What are good office olympics games for small offices?
Can we add our own physical events to the scoreboard?
How many teams can play?
Does everyone need a phone?
Can remote colleagues compete?
Can the office host run it without training?
What is the price?
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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