PULTEVENT
Office superlatives: 6 steps from nominations to the trophy moment
On the table by the stage stands a plastic trophy somebody spray-painted gold in the parking lot at lunch. The screen says Best Out-of-Office Message, three names underneath, and a bar chart that stays hidden. Eighty phones have voted. The room has gone quiet in the way it only does when people genuinely want to know. I let it sit for two more seconds, then press the button.
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Office superlatives are the funny awards: Human Search Engine, Calmest in a Crisis, Most Likely to Fix the Printer with a Paperclip. Done well, they're the warmest twenty minutes of a work party. Done badly, with votes counted on scraps of paper in a corner, they drag, and the one category that was a bit mean is the one everyone remembers.
Here's how I run them now. Nominees go up on the big screen with a photo, guests vote from their phones by scanning a QR code, and the result appears only when the host decides. There's no app to install and no account to create. Phones do need internet. Everything else is a laptop, a browser and a projector.
Six steps to a superlatives show that nobody regrets
1 Choose kind categories
Eight to twelve categories that celebrate something people do, not something they are. Best Desk Plant Parent. The Person Who Remembers Every Birthday. Most Creative Use of a Spreadsheet.
How to run it. Test every category with one question: would the winner be happy to see it on their desk on Monday? If there's any doubt, cut it.
The tone of the whole segment is fixed at this step. Kind categories still get big laughs, and nobody spends the night pretending not to mind.
2 Collect nominations
Ask the office for names by email or a short form, and keep the top three or four per category as voting options.
How to run it. Give each nominee a quiet heads-up and a chance to withdraw. Nearly everyone stays in; the few who don't will thank you.
Nobody gets ambushed, and nominees often bring a prop or a line for their moment on screen.
3 Warm up with Guess the Guest
Before the voting, show a handful of fun facts about nominees and let phones name the colleague behind each one.
How to run it. Use it to check that every phone has joined. Anyone who hasn't scanned will do it now so they don't miss the votes.
The room is connected, laughing and looking at the screen before the first category comes up.
4 Introduce the nominees
Splash screens put each nominee's name and photo up large while you read the category and a line about why they're there.
How to run it. Keep the introductions short and warm. One specific detail per nominee beats a paragraph.
Being on the big screen is half the prize. People photograph their own name.
5 Vote live and reveal
Guests vote from their phones in live voting. The bar with the numbers stays hidden until you press the result button, then it goes up for everyone at once.
How to run it. Announce when voting closes, count down from five, wait, then reveal. Have the winner come up for the trophy while the music plays.
Live results are honest and fast, and the room sees that the count wasn't fiddled by whoever organized it.
6 Ceremony and credits
If departments or teams competed during the party, the awards ceremony closes that with titles for every team. Then the credits roll with winners' names and photos.
How to run it. Write the credits like a film: a heading for each category and the winner's name underneath, then thanks to the organizers.
It gives the segment an ending instead of a trailing 'and that's all the awards, enjoy the bar.'
Votes counted as they come
Phones vote, and the tally builds in the background, invisible to the room until you reveal it.
You control the reveal
Nothing shows until you press the result button. The pause before is yours to stretch.
Faces on the screen
Splash screens with names and photos turn each nominee into a small moment of their own.
A finish with credits
Closing credits roll every winner's name with photos, like the end of a film.
Categories that work, and ones to drop
Good superlatives point at a habit or a skill the whole office has noticed. Best Out-of-Office Message. Most Likely to Answer a Question Nobody Asked Yet. Unofficial IT Support. Calmest on a Deadline. The Snack Drawer Everyone Knows About.
Drop anything about looks, age, weight, drinking, dating, or who's always late. Drop inside jokes that only three people understand. And never run a category where the obvious winner is someone who's leaving under a cloud. I've seen that one go wrong at a Christmas party and the room never quite came back.
How long it takes on the night
About ninety seconds per category once you're rolling: read it, show the nominees, vote, reveal, hand over. Ten categories plus a warm-up and the credits fit in twenty to twenty-five minutes. That's the right length. Past thirty minutes, the back of the room starts its own conversation.
Put superlatives after dinner and before the dancing. People are fed, settled and still paying attention.
Have the trophies lined up on a table the room can see from the start. A row of cheap gold cups under a spotlight does more for anticipation than anything I can say on the microphone. Give the winner ten seconds at the mic if they want it, and keep the music ready to cover them if they don't.
Team awards alongside personal ones
If the party already had team games, a quiz or a race, the team scoreboard has been counting all evening. The awards ceremony picks titles from those results so that every team leaves with something, and you can rename any title before the night. Run it straight after the personal superlatives and the evening's two storylines finish together.
The setup and its limits
You need a laptop with a browser, a projector or TV, and internet. Every voter needs internet on their phone, from the venue Wi-Fi or mobile data; there's no offline mode, so check the signal at the venue.
The host console is being localized into English, and guests see their phone screens in their own language. If some of the office is remote, share the stage window in a video call and they vote along with everyone in the room.
Try it before the party
Set up two categories on the free 3-day demo and have a colleague vote from their phone; no card required. The paid version is a one-time license, no subscription, and the price is listed at https://pultevent.ru/en/. Register for the demo 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 office superlatives with live voting
- 1
Pick eight to twelve kind categories and check each one with a colleague you trust.
- 2
Collect nominations and tell each nominee privately before the party.
- 3
Set up the categories as live votes and add nominee photos to the splash screens.
- 4
Buy or make a trophy and choose music for the walk to the stage.
- 5
On the night, show the QR code and warm up with Guess the Guest.
- 6
Run each category, reveal on your cue, then finish with the ceremony and credits.
FAQ
Can people see the results before the reveal?
Can nominees vote for themselves?
Do guests need an app?
How many categories should we have?
Can remote employees vote?
What if a winner doesn't want to come up?
What kind of trophy works best?
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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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