Headcount settles it first
A dividing line runs through the catalogue, and it sits around twenty participants. Below it, anything works. Above it, part of the range drops out, not because those formats are weaker, but because they are built for another number.
The Murder Party runs about two and a half hours and takes up to twenty people. That is not an order of magnitude, it is a ceiling: an investigation in which thirty people hunt for clues at once comes apart. The full sequence sits in our article on the murder party.
Casino Night works the other way round entirely. There is no cap on participants: you choose the number of gaming tables, each with its own croupier, and the evening scales with the group. Two to four hours, 750 € excluding VAT per table. The arithmetic and the running order sit in our article on the casino evening.
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Before the table, or after
The second criterion is the hour. Entertainment before dinner and entertainment after it do not ask the same thing of a group, and the difference is rarely discussed in advance.
Before the table you need something that mixes. People arrive in small groups that have already formed, and it is precisely that group you want to open up before everyone sits down. A quiz in teams you compose yourself does it in twenty minutes, without anyone noticing.
After the table you need the opposite. The group is warm, a little full, and will do nothing further that resembles an exercise. There, a format people can walk in and out of, such as gaming tables, holds better than a programme that keeps everyone seated in one room.
Do your teams already know each other?
The third criterion is the least visible, and it decides whether the evening takes. A team of fifteen that works together every day needs no icebreaker, and will meet one with mild irritation.
A group drawn from three departments that meets twice a year needs the opposite. There, an activity with hands is the simplest: the Gusto formats, a cocktail workshop or Top Chef, put people side by side on a task rather than face to face across a table.
The Blindtest and magic quiz sits between the two. Music and general knowledge ask for no preparation, and it is the make-up of the teams that does the work: you seat together people who otherwise never speak.
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What does not work
Three things fail with some regularity, and they have little to do with the activity itself.
A programme that runs past midnight. Whoever arrived at six is finished by eleven, and entertainment starting after that plays to half a room.
A format that asks participants to prepare. Learning something, dressing up, memorising a text: there is always a third of the group who did not read the message, and that third stands at the side all evening.
And a single-winner competition in a group where hierarchy carries weight. Teams that win together works. Individuals playing against their manager, rarely.
Three questions about the entertainment
How much entertainment does an evening need?
One item, usually. Two formats in a single evening means you rush both, and the time between courses is shorter than it looks. The exception is a short quiz before the table followed by gaming tables, because those two do not ask for the same attention.
What if the group is mixed in age?
Then you avoid anything resting on the culture of a single generation. A music quiz covering only the eighties shuts out half the room. It is one of the few points on which we go through the content with you before the date.
Can the entertainment be held outdoors?
In winter, only partly. Fire and standing tables on a covered courtyard hold up; a programme that leaves thirty people standing still outside for an hour does not.
Describing your group to us
Give us three things: the headcount, the hour the entertainment falls, and whether the group comes from one team or several. We will then propose a single format, with the reason attached.
The starting point for all of this sits in our article on organising a staff party. All the evening formats sit under team building, and the seasonal ones on Events.