Scaling The Quizzy Heights

The past twelve months have been exceptionally busy here at Brain Men - The Quiz Professionals. Here are some of the highlights.

Our highest profile quiz of the year is the annual fundraiser for campaigning charity English PEN, which we've been involved with in one way or another for almost a decade now. This year's celebrity host at the impressive St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London was actor and comedian Omid Djalili, a very amusing gentleman and an utter delight to work with. There were one or two celebs in the audience too...

Earlier in the year we presented our sixth annual fundraising quiz for Working Families, the charity which helps parents, carers and employers towards a proper work-life balance. The quiz took place at the historic Vintners' Hall in the City of London...

The annual quiz at the Sadhu Vaswani spiritual centre in north west London is one of our favourites. 2015 was the fourth we've done for them, raising money for a very worthy cause...

We've not just been helping organisations to raise funds, we're also in demand for fun quizzes to entertain commercial clients as well as colleagues and staff. In the past year we've worked for the likes of Apple, Goldman Sachs, DNB Bank, Danone, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, APPI Health Group and London & Capital. Here's a wintery snap from our sixth annual quiz for Origin Asset Management early in the year at the London Wall Bar & Kitchen, next to the Museum of London...

In addition we hosted a more intimate quiz for KPMG partners at their international summer conference in Sussex...

And an entertaining quiz for the staff of the British Safety Council at their summer party...

We've also been going down a storm with schools, and have produced PTA quizzes for The Roche School and St Paul's Girls' School in south west London, and Belmont School (Mill Hill Preparatory) in north London...

And we've been putting on monthly quizzes for the Royal Over-Seas League in the heart of London, plus regular quizzes for the cricket magazine The Nightwatchman in the iconic Long Room at the Oval...

So as you can see, Brain Men truly are the quiz professionals. If you're looking for fun and entertainment at your upcoming event, just tell us about your intended audience and we'll do the rest. Our quizzes are tailor-made, original, accurate, entertaining and thoroughly researched. Unlike others we could name, we don't cull questions from quiz books or the internet.

More to the point, our quizzes are meant to fun, not an exam! We can add music rounds, film and TV rounds, picture rounds and electronic scoring, just about anything you like to sharpen your guests' competitive instincts, as well as keeping them informed and amused.

For more information or for a quote for your quiz, email us at info@brainmen.co.uk or speak to one of our friendly Quiz Producers on 020 7272 4448.

Quiz Biz Heats Up

Here at Brain Men - The Quiz Professionals, we've had a rush of quizzes commissioned for both the corporate and charity sectors. Here are some of the recent highlights...

Air New Zealand commissioned us to run a quiz for around 100 guests from the travel trade to help publicise their sponsorship of the All Blacks. We produced a lively, shorter format, pub-style quiz which lasted 45 minutes and kept everyone entertained and engaged.

Investment fund admin specialists Cofunds held their annual autumn quiz in the City of London. A social occasion for colleagues, our Brain Men Quizmaster for the occasion was Marcus Berkmann.

Still in the City, the world's largest asset manager BlackRock asked us to produce a social quiz, again it was for colleagues.

It was BlackRock once more who kindly sponsored a grand pub quiz in the City for almost 300 people, raising thousands for CHaL - Children's Hospices across London - a most excellent cause. Chris Pollikett was our Quizmaster on that occasion.

The annual English PEN quiz moved venue this year to the recently refurbished St Pancras Hotel. This magnificent location saw 250 journalists, writers, publishers and lawyers raise money for PEN, which fights for writers' rights and freedom of expression across the globe. Journalist and comedian Viv Groskop did a superb job of presenting our quiz on the evening.

The following night we were back in action at the magnificent Reform Club in Pall Mall for the annual Working Families Grand Dinner and Quiz. Working Families helps parents and carers achieve work-life balance, and the quiz raised a substantial sum for the charity.

We rounded off the year with our third visit to the Sadhu Vaswani Centre in Cricklewood for the centre's annual fundraising quiz.

As you can see, Brain Men are the quiz professionals, providing fun and entertainment for client evenings, social events, fundraising evenings and more. All our quizzes are tailor-made to suit your needs, just tell us about your intended audience and we'll do the rest. Our questions are original, accurate, entertaining and thoroughly researched - no reading from quiz books or culling questions off the internet for us!

We have bags of experience, so we can guarantee your night will run smoothly and be a success. As well as traditional questions, we can also provide music rounds, film/TV rounds, and picture rounds, with electronic scoring that will keep your guests on the competitive edge! We can also advise on venues, and help plan your quiz around food and drink breaks.

For more information or a quote for your quiz event, email us at info@brainmen.co.uk, or speak to one of our friendly Quiz Producers on 020 7272 4448.

English PEN Quiz 2013

Here are a few snaps from last week's English PEN quiz, held at RIBA and hosted by Clive Anderson. We Brain Men get involved by writing the quiz and twiddling the technical knobs, ensuring that 250 writers, authors, literary agents and journos have a splendid evening, and empty their wallets for a good cause.

This year's winners were The Telegraph, scoring a whopping 60 out of 70, with The Guardian/Observer and The Literary Review both narrowly pipped to second place on 59.

Hardeep Is Your Quiz?

Broadcaster and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli was the quizmaster for this year's Four Colman Getty English PEN Quiz, now in its 11th year and one of the highlights of the pre-Christmas season. The questions were devised by our very own Marcus Berkmann, with further Brain Men back-up running the big electronic scoreboard.

240 journalists, writers, authors, publishers and PR people enjoyed a fantastic dinner six spectacular rounds at The Royal Institute of British Architects in Portland Place, culminating in one of the tightest results we've had. The Daily Telegraph and The Times drew for first place, and drew again on the tie-break! A second tie-break was called into play, with Education Secretary Michael Gove, representing The Times, pipping the opposition to the answer.

Who's A Naughtie Boy Then?

Radio 4 Today presenter James Naughtie (also famed for his on air spoonerisms) fronted up our annual quiz for English PEN last night at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

There wasn't a Jeremy Hunt in sight, although Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, was on the Times team.

Top three scores on the doors, in what is designed to be one of our toughest quizzes of the year, were: The Agile Agents (A P Watt) (64/75), The Telegraph (63/75) and The Times (63/75). Bottom of the heap of 23 teams were Bloomberg (34/75).

Congratulations to everyone who took part - tons of money was raised for English PEN (which does splendid work campaigning for press freedom around the world) through ticket sales, joker rounds and new membership sign-ups.

Colman Getty Pen Quiz 2011

On 21 November, Brain Man Marcus Berkmann will be posing the questions at the 2011 Colman Getty PEN Quiz, which will be held as usual at RIBA. This year the quiz will be presented by Radio 4's James Naughtie, with a little help from Channel 4's Jon Snow.

Click here to see the advance publicity.

Oh, and while we're at it, we forgot to show you a pic of the 2010 Colman Getty English PEN Quiz which we also compiled the questions for. So here's David Baddiel doing the honours last year...