Encouraging Team Connection Through Trivia
With Guest Noah Tarnow, Founder and Producer of The Big quiz thing
Noah Tarnow is the founder and producer at the Big Quiz Thing, the nation’s premier company for high-level corporate and private trivia events. As the company’s head writer and senior quizmaster, he starred in, wrote, and produced The Big Quiz Thing TV show; the world’s first bar trivia television program.
Noah also co-hosts the podcast “I Don’t Get It: The Pop Culture Get-Off-My-Lawn Cast.” He was an editor for Rolling Stone and Time Out New York, and he has written for other notable publications as well. In 2017, he raised thousands of dollars for the ACLU by singing 400 karaoke songs in one year.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Noah Tarnow shares how he got started in trivia and founded the Big Quiz Thing
How Noah transitioned to virtual trivia events
Creating compelling trivia events to encourage team building
Noah discusses the challenges and successes of his signature events
Tips for entrepreneurial success
How does the Big Quiz Thing create value with its events?
In this episode…
In today’s volatile business landscape, team building has become more important than ever. So how can you bring your team together to foster a deeper connection and strengthen your business?
Quizmaster Noah Tarnow has leveraged trivia events to enhance an organization’s value and promote interest among team members. He shows the value of hosting customized events that incorporate elements of a company’s brand to optimize engagement. With its innovative trivia events and quiz games, The Big Quiz Thing encourages interaction and allows businesses to connect with each other.
In this episode, Paige Buck welcomes Noah Tarnow, Founder, Producer, and Quizmaster at The Big Quiz Thing, to discuss how to develop interactive trivia events to amplify businesses. Noah shares how he transitioned to virtual trivia, the challenges and successes of the platform, and how the Big Quiz Thing creates value through its events.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events.
Kennedy Events creates stress-free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs — from in-person to hybrid and virtual events.
To learn more about their services, schedule a consultation today to find out how Kennedy Events can guide you in making your event successful.
Transcript
Below is an AI-generated transcript, full of all sorts of amusing foibles and mistranslations. Take it with a grain of salt!
Intro 0:04
Welcome to The Kennedy Events Podcast where we feature top marketing, communications, and future-of-work leaders and share their biggest takeaways and insights. We love these conversations and hope you will too. Let's get started.
Paige Buck 0:24
Hi, I'm Paige Buck, and welcome to The Kennedy Events Podcast where I get to speak with amazing innovators in the event industry. This episode is brought to you by Kennedy Events. Kennedy Events create stress-free conferences and events providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs, from in-person to hybrid and virtual. You can learn more about us at Kennedyevents.com. Today I'm talking with Noah Tarnow. Noah is the founder and senior Quizmaster of The Big Quiz Thing, America's premier provider of corporate and private live trivia events. former journalist, stand-up comedian, and TV game show champion, he founded The Big Quiz Thing in order to simultaneously make use of the massive amounts of trivia lodged in his brain. And to satisfy his desire to be on stage. Noah has taken The Big Quiz Thing from a casual New York City nightlife event to a national event planning company with amazing offerings. Welcome, Noah.
Noah Tarnow 1:28
Hello, Paige. Thanks for having me. Great.
Noah Tarnow 1:38
Well, I was living in New York. And I was, you know, I'll say it a failing stand-up comedian I've been doing stand-up for years. And really, you know, it's a tough job. And you got to be a certain kind of person to make that work. And it was clear to me, I wasn't that person. But I'd always wanted to be a performer. And I wanted to keep being on stage. So at the time, I had been to a couple of bar trivia nights. And at the time bar trivia in the United States was pretty rare. You know, it's been a big thing in England and in India for a very long time. Half the pubs in London have always had a quiz. But I think I tried to go to every bar trivia event in New York, and I counted like five of them is 20 years ago. So I said, You know what, I want to do something like that. I love trivia. I've always loved games, I was playing Trivial Pursuit a lot growing up. And I said, but I want to make it a little more like a show. You know, I want to make it a little more spectacular than just the guy reading question. So I said, you know, what, what do I have to lose? I'll try this. I convinced. A famous burlesque club called the Slipper Room, it's still there. To give me a Monday night, I handed up flyers at those pub quizzes and got kicked out of one of those bars. And I had fun writing it, I had fun hosting it. And you know, I got a crowd, which was pretty nice. And, you know, that first night, I think I made more money than I could make in like, a year of stand-up. I mean, it had a lot of problems. I didn't realize that people don't carry pens in their pockets. People were asking me for writing implements. I'm like, what do you need a writing implement? Don't you carry a pen with you?
Paige Buck 3:21
The early barrier to entry.
Noah Tarnow 3:23
I know I think pens. Another way I a new way. I discovered I'm a nerd. I carry a pen with me all the time, even still after the advent of smartphones. So, it was so much fun. So I decided to keep doing it. I did it at that bar every other Monday night, bi-weekly for five, or six years, and then moved to a bigger bar. After a few months, someone just approached me and said, Will you do an event for my office? And it hadn't even occurred to me to do a private event or a corporate event. I figured I do this for fun. Maybe I'll get lucky. And I'll get seen and I'll get on TV or I'll get a writing job for a game show. I really wanted to write for a game show. I actually auditioned to be a writer for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. And they said I did a good job. But my timing was off. Because that show anyone remembers that show was a huge hit. At first, they put it on five nights a week. Yeah. So they were I met a couple writers, they were grabbing people from the street to write for them. So maybe if I apply to you earlier, I would have had a better shot. You know, so that's partly why I tried it. i i I figured no one will pay me. I'll pay myself to do it. Um, so yeah, so then the corporate events kind of snuck up on me. And I started doing that, you know, it was still a occasional thing. I the bi weekly public event. I still had a day job. I was a magazine editor for many years in New York. And um, you know, eventually, it became a bigger and bigger part of my life. And in it's been since 2014. It's been my full time job. And you know, I didn't know I'd say this a lot, I didn't intend to start a business. I'm not an entrepreneur, I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And I wanted to do it my way. And I figured out how to do it. So I, I learned what I needed to know about business. I mean, there's always more to learn for every entrepreneur. And I moved from New York to San Francisco seven years ago, partly to expand the business, partly for personal reasons. And now I have a team of quiz masters, seven other quiz masters around the country, you know, other admin people, you know, we all work remotely, no one else is literally no one else is in the Bay Area with me. And it's fun, I still get to, you know, I still host maybe one to five events, I write 95% of the material, I edited it all on the behind the scenes force of every event. And it's a real gift to be able to do something that's fun that entertains people. Yeah, as a kid, my dream was to be on TV was to be on Saturday Night Live and to be famous, because, you know, I'm a, I like attention. But I didn't happen for the best. But I do get to entertain people for a living. And I get to do it my way. You know, if I had been hired by Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, I'd be writing their way if I got hired by some other TV company. Now there are a whole bunch. Now. bar trivia is really big in this country, I'd have to do things their way. But I get to do on my way. I get to put my creative vision out there for a living, entertain people, make people happy, make people smile, make people compliment me again, I like attention. And it's a real gift to be able to do this. It's hard work, as I say, but you know, it's if it weren't hard work, it probably wouldn't be worth doing
Paige Buck 6:39
well, and doing it your way has presented a number of other opportunities. So what I mean, I would love to say this is like fully in the rearview mirror. But at least in the early days of COVID, lockdown, you had a tremendous opportunity. What Yeah, look like?
Noah Tarnow 6:54
I mean, I think this happens in every business. You know, I remember when the hammer came down. I remember, literally half of our events for March 2020 were canceled. And I'm sitting there going well, if we, you know, if we don't do any events for two weeks, we'll be fine. Haha, everything
Paige Buck 7:12
along we have to hang in there, right? No exact
Noah Tarnow 7:14
Yeah, well, you know, it would have helped if we had. So we're like, Alright, there's got to be a way to do this virtual right online. Because thinking ahead, several years earlier, we had built a digital answer system. I mean, I think still to this day, if you go to a typical bar trivia event, or trivia team-building event, you're on paper and pants. And we wanted to stop doing that years ago, that was inspired by here's an incident, I wasn't hired. I did a quiz about my father at my father's 70th birthday party in a wine cave in Napa. Napa Valley, he had a party. So there I am, in the dark, surrounded by drunk people who know me since I was a baby. So they work. And I've never seen worst handwriting in my life page. So I remember like trying to read people's answers. They're making stupid jokes. They're making fun of me. They're drunk off their asses. And I'm thinking, Alright, I need people to be typing in the answers. I can't be dealing with paper and pen. And so I hired an app developer and they built us an answer system. And you know, I felt it was a little ahead of its time. And it was because now because of COVID, every trivia company does that. Anyway, we knew we had this tool. And we put it to use, we figured out how to make it work. Everyone was jumping on Zoom. So zoom seemed to be the most useful tool. And we have found it still is the most useful tool. And our business exploded. I remember my goal for 2020 was to was to do every month, at least 20 events. I think in 19, it was about average, like 15. And April 2020. We did 35 or so. And by the end of the year, we were doing ATM, ATM. Yeah. All virtual. So, you know, the business really grew. And I think we did one in person event that summer outdoors in someone's backyard. And now we're back to I'd say it's two thirds in person. 1/3 virtual we also do you mentioned the term hybrid. Yeah, something like, oh, everyone will be in one room. But the host will be on Zoom, or most people in the host will be in one room. But a couple teams will be at other offices. We figured out how to do that. So yeah, it was an opportunity. And we made the most of it. And it worked out great for us. 2020 was our most lucrative year ever. Also, our most tiring year but our most liquid
Paige Buck 9:35
well and your see your clients are coming to you for team building. Yeah, for a deepening connection. You know, you're here in the Bay Area. So you I know you've like harnessed the ethos of the interests of Silicon Valley. Right. But why? What what what is it about The Big Quest Thing that really works for that compared with AI Uh, you know, beer pong, or, you know, or or any other get together, you know, social opportunity?
Noah Tarnow 10:10
Well, I think two things about it one is every event is customized. Now what is customized need, it can mean, hey, these people are you know a lot of the tech companies that are in their 20s. So that colors, what material we use. And by the way, one of my challenges is like, Alright, I know this movie, it was everywhere when I was 16. But two people in their 20s know this movie. Now, sometimes it's hard to guess that. Also, you know, I get older, but I gotta keep up with what young people are the music, they're listening to the TV shows, they're watching things like that. So it might be customized in that level. Obviously, we like to put the company front and center. So we brand everything with their logo, their images, things like that. And then of course, we can do custom written material. So that could be everything from I did an event in Google's office in in Sunnyvale a couple months ago. And you know, they wanted material about Google, its history, the founders, things like that, which is a lot of fun. We've done a lot of Google stuff. So I actually already had that in my opera.
Paige Buck 11:09
Yeah. You know, the answers to all those customers. Anything Google?
Noah Tarnow 11:13
Yes, yeah. But you know, all sorts of companies, companies you've never heard of, they want stuff about the partners or will send a will send a spreadsheet, like, tell us three fun facts about everyone in your department. So we kind of use that as a launching off point to write trivia about people or about their interests, we'd like to make it less than you can
Paige Buck 11:30
tease that out from them. Yeah. Yeah, I remember when you did this. So you've done a team building event for us when we were distributed, and also very stuck on the holidays last year. And I remember that the teased out questions were fantastic. And were shaped into trivia that I wouldn't have expected.
Noah Tarnow 11:51
Yeah, that's, that's a fun thing. Because, you know, I've been doing this for a long time. And I also have a very good professional writer helping me, you know, one thing we love doing with a custom material, like we don't want companies to write their own material. In fact, we kind of don't let them
Paige Buck 12:04
it would just be multiple choice questions or balls. Yeah, multiple choice.
Noah Tarnow 12:09
Sometimes it's okay. I mean, actually, what I saw will say, look, let's, we'll make it easy for you, we'll just go to your website, and we'll find stuff, or we'll find stuff about you online. And then we run it by you and you go, this is okay, we don't want to talk about this, this is actually wrong. You know, you get a look at it. Or you can send us specific material, we want stuff about this deal. We just finished. Here's the press release, you know, things like that, or like I said facts about the client, about the staff. But in terms of like what you said, turning it into good material. I actually kind of like it when they write their own questions, because the process of rewriting your questions to make them more interesting is in some ways easier, but some ways just feels like, you know, I really get at what they find most interesting about this info. So I'm happy to dig into just, you know, your web presence, right, some companies easier than others. You know, when when I know specifically what you think will make a good question. That's a good launching off point for me and my team to kind of make it into something creative. And try to
Paige Buck 13:09
say, I think I think you're underselling by saying, team building. Because I think you're naturally deepening their connection to their work at the same time as you're creating a fun opportunity for them.
Noah Tarnow 13:26
Yeah, no, I think at our best, we're really making people realize that like, their job is interesting. Wow, we did that. Yeah. We did a lot of you know, yes, we get the Googles and the Amazons of the world, but we get, you know, we get companies you never heard of, we get companies that do, you know, financing for? For transport ships? We do companies that do, you know, scheduling for people who fix air conditioners? Yeah, like companies that look to the layman sound pretty boring, I'll be honest. And maybe the people work, they're like, hey, it's just a job. And we really are able to find the fun in the driest material. We say sometimes. So I think people really appreciate that. And the other thing that I think makes it really good compared to, you know, beer pong, or whatever is, um, you know, we hear a lot of people say, Oh, I'm not good at trivia, or I don't like trivia. And I kind of push back on that because I say, look, there's different kinds of trivia. I mean, there's different kinds of music, there's different kinds of literature, there's different kinds of trivia. And I feel like yeah, a lot of people when they say I'm not good at trivia, they can't remember obscure facts, but we've trademarked a word figure routable. And that's sort of to sound a little pretentious, that sort of ethos I applied or material that it's not about, you know, what are you don't know, it's not about guessing how many jelly beans are in the jar. It's about thinking through something and putting your heads together. And if you're an educated person, you got a shot. And if you work well with your team, you got a shot because one person can throw in one idea and other person can build on that. So it's really More about puzzling things out. I think archery materials a little more puzzling. And I think that makes people feel good. Because if they're quote-unquote bad at trivia, they might have a shot at this. And not only that, but even if they get it wrong, they still have fun with it. Right? Yeah, we very much de emphasize prizes at our events, because winning is a bonus. You know, winning is fun. Winning is great. Of course, it's great. It's healthy competition. But this idea that the winner should get, you know, tons of money or huge prizes, I just think takes away a lot of the fun of it. It's just about having a good time. It's not about winning, it's about learning something maybe.
Paige Buck 15:38
Right. So there's, there's like the team building and team engagement component, there's maybe you'll learn something about yourself, I'm reminded that one of our team members was filled with rage after our okay, it was a she had had a blast rate.
Noah Tarnow 15:57
And I'd like to hear rate, she was
Paige Buck 15:59
making light of herself. She was laughing and joking and having a blast during the event. And then afterwards was like, Oh my gosh, I'm in a funk. Why am I in a funk? What is wrong with me? And she was just mad that she couldn't get the question. Yeah, that somebody 20 years younger, knew something about an 80s song that she should have gotten. And she's like, well, I you know, I really learned something about myself.
Noah Tarnow 16:24
Yeah, I mean, I think that's the idea is, is to kind of explore a part of you that you don't really look at that much. Right, right. These days, we all need fun. We all need to something to cheer us up
Paige Buck 16:36
and take us take us out of our day to day. It's
Noah Tarnow 16:39
not just the stress of life in 2022. It's also just, you know, I think this is a lot of reason why trivia is more popular than it used to be. Our brains are just stuffed with stuff, type. Info, details, history. I mean, culture moves so much more quickly than it used to, right. I feel like what do we do with stuff? You know, is it stressful? Is it difficult? Is it maybe depressing? Well, or is it just useless? It's just taking up space, here's a way to have fun with it. Here's a way to take it and put it to good use. And it's you know, it's not you know, it's not curing multiple sclerosis, but it's, it's, it's letting you have a good time, relax, maybe build some healthy camaraderie.
Paige Buck 17:22
So what are some of your biggest or favorite experiences and delivering as fair clients?
Noah Tarnow 17:29
Well, I like to talk about the the biggest event we ever did, we I flew to Bismarck, North Dakota, and did a Chamber of Commerce event for 1000 people on the governor of North Dakota was there and we had custom material about North Dakota, I learned a lot about North Dakota, some of the nicest people I've ever met. And that was a great event, especially since we had we had a bit of a technical snafu. And I was able to recover pretty nicely. So I I was very proud of myself after that,
Paige Buck 17:59
with 1000 person event. Are you doing numerous teams? Or are some people like in a pub, like some people opting into play and others opting into?
Noah Tarnow 18:07
Well, I will tell you, part of the technical error was we were we were doing numerous teams. And then I don't want to get into the nitty gritty and I had to shift gears literally in the middle. And do we sort of do an alternate style where we do it like, for volunteers that have time come on stage, and they buzz in with our buzzer system, we sort of do ally most team events. So we shifted to all that. And it worked out great people just had the time of their lives. So I was sitting there going, oh my god, I screwed it up. And they were so happy they loved it. Yes. You know, I mean, you know, you do events, like stuff happens, stuff happens. Good you are no matter how well you prepare, stuff happens, and it's how you deal with it. And if you were able to turn what, really in the moment, 1000 people looking at me felt like a disaster, you're able to turn it around into something successful. You know that? I mean, that certainly built my confidence,
Paige Buck 19:01
but focused on it. And it sounds like you focused on the experience they had as rich or richer and experiences they would.
Noah Tarnow 19:10
Yeah, get people going. It would have been fun to play more teams. And like, yes, and what have
Paige Buck 19:15
you told me about a weird one. Tell me about uh,
Noah Tarnow 19:17
oh, I did an event in the back of a moving truck. It was stationary. It wasn't literally moving. But it was a truck used for moving. I love the story. This was not a corporate event. There's a thing. I think it's still happened. I went to one in Oakland maybe five years ago. This artists these artists groups in New York like wacky Brooklyn artists groups would like once every couple months, they would do what's called a night market. And they would ask volunteers, you know, artists people, you know, pick a corner like out in the outer boroughs and everyone would come with a moving truck. And every truck was like a lounge. So people go from truck to truck to truck. You go to one truck and someone's telling fortunes, you're going to one truck And you can sing karaoke you go to another truck and people are giving you advice you know experts giving you advice in your on your love life. I mean some of this was really crazy. One one person put two trucks together back to back and there was bowling one, two trucks back to back and actually built a hot tub in one truck. The other truck is where you put your clothes in a dipping by went to one of these nets and you know what I want to do the big quiz truck. So we rented the truck. People came and we did three people at a time with buzzers, we played the game we had like little little lights hanging and it was a lot of fun. It was freezing cold. Remember it was absolutely freezing. I had a fleece on under my sparkly under my frilly Quizmaster jacket, Quizmaster shirt and sparkly Quizmaster jacket. That was an experience that was that was really experienced. And then I done. I mean, look, the nature of trivia, we tried to make it just about fun, but you can't avoid the nerds. And I've had some of the most ridiculous discussions in my life with people nitpicking over things. I've had to argue with people about what the word popular means, right? What's the meaning of the word popular? I once had to extend the discussion about what Billy Joel meant at the end of we didn't start the fire by rock and roll or cola wars, like literally had to pick that apart with this guy that was sitting there going,
Paige Buck 21:19
was that the nature of the question? What is the meaning of this lyric? No, the question
Noah Tarnow 21:24
was, at the end of we didn't start the fire. This was a piece of old music What does Billy Joel say he can't take anymore? And the answer I was looking for was rock and roll or cola wars, right? And a team wrote cola wars. And I gave them half a point. And this guy was furious.
Paige Buck 21:47
He's not a rock and roller to modify. It's like the structure of the sentence. You can't when
Noah Tarnow 21:53
I don't remember because even though I was debating with them, I was you know, fighting the urge to to, you know, to stick a cream pie in his face.
You know, but the main thing is I'm like, Ben, it's just a game. It's just a game. It's just a game. But look, people get defensive. And yes, these are usually guys. I once had an argument. I had a question. Here's a question for you. Can you guess what is the largest city by population? What does the United States mean for a former president? If you have a guess? I don't think it's an easy question.
Paige Buck 22:27
Interesting. Yeah, I'm like, I'm assuming it's not the first one that leads to your mind. Um, my Washington DC, which doesn't work, right, because it's actually not a very large city at all.
Noah Tarnow 22:38
I mean, it's, you know, yes. But it's like, the 35th largest city or something. So yes, not Washington's, sorry. I'm like, Wisconsin. Nope. The correct answer, I believe is the 12th or 13th biggest city in the country. Okay. You give up?
Paige Buck 22:52
Yeah. It's super obvious. And
Noah Tarnow 22:55
what is it? Jacksonville, Florida. Ah, I don't know that. Yeah, Robbie's. So this guy comes up to me during a break, and says, How is it Jacksonville, Florida. I said, What do you mean how he's like, Well, how? And I'm like, because he has a lot of people. And he's like, Yeah, but how does Jacksonville have a lot of people? And I'm like, I don't know, sprawl, you know? So surprised by the answer, but he couldn't process that I was right about it. That's hilarious. And I want to go dude, it's a game also, like, I'm trying to work. Like, yeah, right.
Paige Buck 23:29
I got two minutes because I got to stay there.
Noah Tarnow 23:32
I mean, call me pretentious. But like you wouldn't interrupt a band between songs, right? You wouldn't go up on stage. Some people would. Some people Yeah. It's it's the price I pay by dm minutia. Like dealing with trivia nerds. Ah, I think most the vast majority of people are really cool. And I think we do a good job of really encouraging this, this ethos of like, it's just fun. And, you know, most people who lose, you know, notwithstanding your colleague, most people who lose have a big smile on their face, because they had a good time, you know,
Paige Buck 24:08
oh, even even she had a big smile on her face, and like, and we I think part of it is because she had a hard time. We all have fantastic memories from it. I want to stress I think you, you were talking about the it's just fun. You also make it incredibly easy for your customers to spin this up. Like, thank you, you've got this down. It's very easy to feel like well supported in building something, putting something together for your team that you don't have to fret over.
Noah Tarnow 24:41
Well, well, thank you. I mean, we we've worked on that a lot we learned I was doing when I have an excellent team. I haven't. My sales manager now is relatively new, but she's fantastic. You know, she she's kind of the go between because I'm still the artist. I mean, I'll tell you like a year ago when I was doing salesman So like I said, this whole thing of corporate events snuck up on me. I remember a dude coming up to me at that burlesque club. And he said, Oh, I'd love to hire you for my party next week, what do you charge? And I literally said, and as soon as it came out of my mouth, and it was a mistake, I literally said, Well, what will you pay me? I really I said, You know what, dude, if you want to make it go private parties and corporate events, that's not
Paige Buck 25:21
let that not be the thing that I say next time. And that's a perfect segue to my next question, which is like, as an as an artist, as an accidental entrepreneur, and as a person who would say, I don't know, what do you got in your pocket? Yeah. In response to how much does it cost? Where do you go for, like, four lessons in being a better entrepreneur and business person?
Noah Tarnow 25:47
Well, funny, you should ask. Well, like you Paige, I'm a member of entrepreneur organization, accelerator, EO. And it's funny, like I had been doing this 1516 years when I joined DOA. And, you know, still a lot of basic stuff that because I learned by doing, I mean, I've been in it like a year and a half now. And I think the most useful thing I've learned from it is just some stuff that I think comes not necessarily natural, but, you know, probably many, many entrepreneurs know from day one. I mean, I didn't have a bookkeeper till, like, a year and a half ago, myself. And like I said, I started I was doing sales myself. And, you know, partly the explosion of business in 2020 forced needed to delegate a little I mean, this is the bunion artists thing, like, doing it my way. I'm a control freak. One of the biggest challenges I have is delegating. Like, how do I I just want to be the creative director, how do I get to that point, and that's one thing that your way is helping you with, is just figuring out, alright, how do I delegate? How do I take the things that forget not liking? I'm not particularly good at? How do I take them off my plate? To people I trust and still have the oversight I need? So the big question is still, you know, up to a high standard that I wanted to have. It's very challenging. It's very, very challenging. But like I said, it's, it's not worth doing if it's easy, maybe,
Paige Buck 27:13
maybe. Exercise, I love that exercise of like, what am I best in the world at? And what do I enjoy doing most? Yeah, and then what exercise? What steps do I need to take to get all the other stuff, right? The stuff I'm not good at? And I don't like doing but also the stuff I maybe I am good at and don't like doing on to somebody who will love it and be better at it than me? Right?
Noah Tarnow 27:42
And there are so many things to balance there. Because when you're starting out, you got to do it all yourself. I mean, that's the price you pay. It's not instant. You know, I have personally seen some entrepreneurs fail, because from moment one, they didn't want to do the work. I mean, I'll be frank about, you know, they thought it's below them. I'm a I'm an artist, I have a vision, well, great, but you got to get to a certain point where I mean, it's a luxury, it's something you earn, by being able to have, you know, people below you people do that stuff for you. I mean, yeah, it's easier if you got a ton of money in your pocket, to start a business and just throw money at every problem. But even then, even those people, I think, have to do certain bits of work that, you know, are their favorite thing. But, you know, I mean, a great hero once said, With great power comes great responsibility. And, you know, to have the power of doing your own thing, you know, the buck stops with you, another person said, not a superhero president. So our buck stops here. So, you know, it's, it's hard getting to that point. And doing that. And, you know, finding the right people and delegating and, you know, find people to do this stuff, can I afford to pay them? You know, it's an incredible balancing act. So you know, doing your own thing, it's a lot of responsibility.
Paige Buck 29:02
Are you coming back? As we come back into live events, and you're shifting, you know, back out of this COVID world? Do you see an opportunity? And have you done things in like large conferences and trade shows where this is a value, add somebody sponsor booth,
Noah Tarnow 29:20
we've done it a few times we work with, you know, we work with companies like yours, you know, what we think of as third party agencies, right. And in fact, that's one of our big pushes for the fall we're planning it now is we have great relationships with several agencies, but are always hoping to do more of some of those people are just, you know, they'll throw us 1000 companies, 1000 departments, and in some ways, it's it's easy, it's easy to get that work. So I've done that for a couple companies like that. I went to actually right before COVID I went to Las Vegas and you know, people going from booth to booth to booth. And, you know, our booth was more fun than a lot of the other booths because you could come Um, play a game, you know, play with the buzzer and three people time. Some people would watch some people would play some people come back and play again. And of course, other people would come by and talk to me. You know, it was good networking thing for me. We love doing that. I love doing that. Yeah, the opportunity and anyone listening wants me to come to their conference and set up a booth and quiz people. I am available, my team is available. I still love hosting, like I said, but I do maybe one in five events. A lot of our business but half of our business still in New York area. So that's where the bulk of our Quizmaster team is in Boston in Chicago in LA, and I am in training a second one here in San Francisco. So you know, we have a lot of flexibility. We love stuff like that. And trade shows are fun, you know, you get to see the event business, you get to be part of something bigger than just your event.
Paige Buck 30:55
Well, and the way you're like there's something very like amplifying I think for you and for your the company that's hosting you in their booth that people are like, there are more smiles in your spaces, more energy, whether you're working or not. Right,
Noah Tarnow 31:12
we're a lot more fun like I just a side note, I once went just to meet with someone I sort of knew I like a job used to be right near the Javits Center in New York. Yep. And I needed to just drop something off with someone I knew. And she was at a conference in the Javits Center convention for medical supply company. So I had 20 minutes wandering through the medical supply convention was funny. The only other time I had been to convention at Javits was Comic Con. So this was very different. So it was just funny walking by all these booths and seeing what people are selling as medical supplies or medical, like, there was a booth for curry, you know, they're saying, Hey, you have occurring in your waiting room, you know, I'm like, well, that's a good idea, right? In fact, I think, trivia fact I think the guy who invented the correct that was his idea, and he's kind of ashamed that everyone has it in their homes, because of the wasteful pots. He said, I didn't say no,
Paige Buck 32:07
I have heard that about how he feels. I use refillable pods. Yeah, yeah.
Noah Tarnow 32:12
So yeah, it was just so funny looking at all these things. And I mean, I hate to sound. I don't want to sound like I'm more interesting than people. But like, I was like, oh, man, this is kind of be so boring. So yeah, I think we kind of add a real fun interactive element to things like that. Oh, 100%.
Paige Buck 32:31
And I think that sponsor, sponsorship sales folks and their partners, and the sponsors themselves are always looking for ways to increase traffic, increase conversation, like find a way of like starting that conversation, that's more than just like here get this little tchotchke. Right, you when you let me scan your badge. Yeah.
Noah Tarnow 32:55
Chain versus playing a game really interactive. One of my, one of my goals in business, and really in how I you know, life beyond that is how can I, how can I do a win win? Like, how can I market my business in a way that also serves people when I do so I do a lot of pro bono events for pauses, I believe it I personally believe. So in a few weeks, I'm doing a fundraiser for a political candidate, I believe. And I don't accept payment for those things. Occasionally, I'll take a token fee if it's really complicated. And, you know, people thanked me profusely, when they go well. But I say look, I'm marketing myself, I'm selling myself. Like, I always feel like if people want to get involved in the causes, they believe in or volunteer, like, the best way to do it, and you can always do is the best way to do it is how do I volunteer in a way that a keeps me in my comfort zone, because then it's easier, and be, you know, furthers more selfish goals for lack of a better term. So like, here, I get to support the causes I believe in, but I also get to market my business, and I get to host which is fun and comfortable for me. So I kind of feel that way about the conventions, too. Yeah, I'll help this third party agency, you know, promote their brands or whatever. But I'll also be, you know, having a good time and so on myself. Yeah. A
Paige Buck 34:20
a lot of exposure. Yeah. Anything else you want to share about yourself or Big Quiz Thing before we wrap?
Noah Tarnow 34:28
Well, you know, as I said, it's a real gift and a real privilege to be able to entertain people for a living. I have so much fun with it. You know, one of our slogans is we make trivia fun for everyone. So I really think that's true. I really think we found a way to take whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever your age is, you know, we've done events for older folks, we do events for kids, we've done events for developmentally disabled people. You know, we can really whoever Whatever it is, we can really make trivial work for them. I'm very proud of that and proud of my team proud of myself. So yeah, you know, check us out, learn more about us. You know you will, you will have a good time guaranteed.
Paige Buck 35:14
Great, thank you. Well, I've been talking with Noah Tarnow, founder and senior Quizmaster of the Big Quiz Thing? No, where can people find you online?
Noah Tarnow 35:23
We are bigquizthing.com Our newly revamped website as of last week. That's the place to find out more about us to book us by test game, watch some videos, learn more about the other hosts, and things like that. Bigquizthing.com is where it all happened.
Paige Buck 35:41
Fantastic. Thank you so much for being here today.
Noah Tarnow 35:44
Thank You page, I appreciate
Outro 35:51
Thanks for listening to The Kennedy Events Podcast. Come back next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
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PAIGE BUCK
Paige Buck is the co-owner of Kennedy Events, a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.
About Kennedy Events
Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
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