Today I'm going to talk about how to start trivia hosting. Please don't think I'm telling you how it should be done, because everyone should develop their own style of hosting, and if everyone hosted exactly like me SL trivia would be a dull place indeed.
There is one thing you need to know about SL trivia, and it's that it's all about Lindens. Seriously. You can run an event if you have no personality, and with questions taken from the Internet, in the dullest sim on SL, but without Lindens you can't run a trivia event. Without prizes SL trivia is just Gogomodo, and we all know how tedious that can be. And if you look about SL trivia you'll find prize levels vary, but for most events we're talking about 20L per question upwards, so if you're going to run 20 questions you're talking about 400L.
St Patrick's Day music at Sharon's Diner with Nelly and the Cows: Maggie Sewell, NellySwindlehurst, Lotus Ceriano
Where does that money come from? I have blogged about the economic aspects of SL trivia before, and you might want to take a look at that post. If you're lucky some venues will pay you to run an event, and let you keep tips. If not, then you're paying for it yourself, either from your credit card or from your SL trivia winnings. And once you've got your finance the rest of the organisation should come easy.
I know some people keep their cam fixed on the sky to try and reduce lag, but I do think ambience can make a big difference to an event. Lebn Bucyk's Barefoot event is set in a lovely park-like space. Sharon's Diner has a wonderful kitschy feel that goes so well with her friendly and fun event. The content of Anamaria Quintessa's Ana-Lytical Trivia is the same, but her event is so much better fro moving to Trivy Island from the prison exercise yard she used to host in.Most clubs will welcome events that bring traffic, so if you have the lindens, take a look about SL and check out the sort of place you might want to host at,and drop a notecard to the owner outlining your ideas.
You've got Lindens, you've got where, next you want to set a time. Of course the biggest factor here will be when you can host, but you also will want to check Events to see if you're clashing with any other trivia events. SL trivia hosts and venues are generally co-operative rather than competitive, and try hard not to clash with each other. I've found the SL trivia community to be really friendly and helpful, and most established hosts will be only too pleased to chat with you about your ideas. There is no reason why you should not run your event against someone else's, but don't expect a big crowd if you're up against a well-known trivia host.
Somebody left a beaver at Sharon's Diner...
I think another piece of good advice is that you should attend other events and get a feel for how other hosts run events. You'll see lots of different hosting styles, and different ways of asking questions and of paying. What sort of host do you want to be? My hosting style was very heavily influenced by Allikatt Knipper and Sharon Scofield, who both ran really well organised fun events. Do you like the more hardcore approach of Lette Ponnier, or do you like the lighter organised chaos approach of Sharon Scofield or Nelly Swindlehurst? If you can emulate any of those hosts you'll be well on your way to running a good event!
And co-host or not co-host? I like having a co-host, because we can inject some style differences to an event, and it isn't all the same old Lotus. One reason why Nelly and I have hosted together so much is that we have contrasting styles, which I think makes the whole of Nellotus better than the sum of its parts. I know, I would say that anyway, wouldn't I?
I think I've said enough for this post. In my next post I'm going to talk about promoting your event and the nuts and bolts of actually hosting. Please let me know what you think in comments!
