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Evening scenarios

What four hours looks like.

Choosing a format is the easy part. What people actually want to know is how an evening is laid out hour by hour: when guests arrive, when the activities open, where the speeches go, and when it finishes. Below are four scenarios we run most often, with the formats that suit each one.

Times are examples. The order of the parts is what matters, and the coordinator moves the timings on the night rather than compressing anything that cannot be repeated.

The scenarios

Company evening / 4 hours

The Table Rotation

The standard shape for a company evening with our table programme. Guests arrive into a dressed room, learn the tables in small groups and then move freely for the rest of the evening. Speeches sit in the middle, when everybody is in the same room and still listening.

  1. 18:30

    Arrival and the tables open

    Welcome at the door, a prop handed over, and croupier-hosts teaching each table to whoever walks up first.

  2. 19:15

    First rotation

    Three tables running at once. Guests move at their own pace; nobody is put on a schedule.

  3. 20:15

    Speeches and a pause

    Tables go quiet for 15-20 minutes, the host hands over your microphone, then the room reopens.

  4. 20:45

    Second rotation and the photo corner

    The busiest part of the evening. Music comes up, the photo corner gets used properly.

  5. 22:00

    Close on the microphone

    Chips are collected, the host thanks the room, and pack-down starts after your guests have left.

Private celebration / 4 hours

The Long Table

A seated evening for a birthday, an anniversary or a small private celebration. The entertainment is deliberately light: two short moments at the table and plenty of time to eat and talk. It also works as the first half of a longer evening.

  1. 18:00

    Arrival drinks and the photo point

    Guests gather away from the table while the room is finished and the candles are lit.

  2. 18:45

    Seated

    The host seats the room, runs through the evening in two sentences and hands over to your caterer.

  3. 19:30

    First table moment

    One short game or round between courses, about 15 minutes, played from where people are sitting.

  4. 20:30

    Speeches

    Microphone passed around the table. We keep the music off until it is finished.

  5. 21:00

    Music and the floor opens

    Centrepieces consolidated, the end of the room cleared, and the evening moves to standing.

Team day / 3 hours

The Circuit

An afternoon programme for a team that has been sitting down all day. Short rotations, clear instructions and a debrief that takes ten minutes rather than an hour. Runs indoors, under a marquee or on grass.

  1. 13:00

    Briefing and teams

    Teams drawn on the spot, vests handed out, rules explained once on the microphone.

  2. 13:20

    Rotations one to three

    Twenty minutes per station with a facilitator at each. Scores go straight onto the board.

  3. 14:30

    Break

    Twenty minutes. The board stays up, which is when the arguing happens.

  4. 14:50

    Rotations four to six

    Harder stations, same timing. The last rotation is worth double, so nothing is decided early.

  5. 15:45

    Results and debrief

    Final board, certificates, and a ten-minute debrief if you want one.

Conference wrap / 4 hours

After the Last Session

The evening that follows a full conference day, in the same venue. The room has to change character in about ninety minutes, so the programme is built around lighting and sound rather than heavy dressing. Standing, with seating for about a third of the room.

  1. 16:30

    Turnaround

    Your last session ends and we re-rig the room: lighting, sound, photo corner and dressing.

  2. 18:00

    Doors and arrival set

    Guests come back into a room that no longer looks like a conference. Music low, lights set.

  3. 19:00

    Short programme moment

    One thing only - an award, a thank you, or the tables opening. Fifteen minutes maximum.

  4. 19:30

    Main evening

    Full music set, activities open, host available but mostly out of the way.

  5. 22:00

    Close

    Last track announced, room cleared, pack-down the same night so the venue is free in the morning.

Moving the parts around

How a scenario is adapted.

  • Order of the parts. Activities can open before dinner or after it. Before suits a group that does not know each other; after suits a group that wants to eat first.
  • Level of the tasks. Puzzle and quiz content can be set easier or harder, and we will usually pitch it easier than you expect.
  • The quiet gap. Speeches get a protected window of fifteen to twenty minutes, placed wherever you want it rather than at a fixed hour.
  • Dinner and service. We work around your caterer's service times, including a delay, instead of asking them to work around us.
  • Length. A 4-hour programme can run as 3 hours with one part removed - not by shortening every part, which is what makes an evening feel rushed.
  • Intensity. Two stations instead of six, or one short table moment instead of three, if the group would rather talk.

Questions we get asked

Questions about the run of the evening.

Can we move the speeches?

Yes. Speeches are the one thing we build the run sheet around, because they are the only part of the evening that genuinely cannot be repeated. Tell us roughly when you want the microphone and we will put the quiet part of the programme there.

What if dinner runs late?

It usually does, by about twenty minutes. Our run sheets have that slack built in, and the coordinator on site moves the programme rather than compressing it. The parts that absorb a delay are the open activity blocks; the parts that do not are the speeches and the close.

Do guests have to take part in everything?

No. Taking part is voluntary in every format. Hosts invite, explain and move on - they do not push anybody, and there is always somewhere in the room to sit and talk instead.

Shall we check your date?

Send us the date, the town and roughly how many guests. We will tell you whether the date is free and what the package would cost, in writing. An enquiry does not reserve a date.

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