Earnest Labs Charity Tech Pub Quiz

Last week Earnest Labs hosted its inaugural ‘Charity Tech Pub Quiz’.

A meeting of minds in one of Soho’s finest establishment – the quiz was a chance to try out new technologies, give our brains a work out and raise money for a much deserving school in Kenya.

With 10 teams made up of Earnies, friends and families and energy distributors Pavegen, competition was rife to see who knew their bagels from their breadsticks, their Albatrosses from their birdies and their Zuckerbergs from the Musks.

For this event the Akero let us trial their online event registration software, helping us create a quiz registration page and to capture and measure attendees, and syncing with their social and digital activities.

UK grown, but used globally, Akero evolved from a digital agency’s need to demonstrate ROI for their client campaigns and now the Akero software generates thousands of qualified leads for agency clients every week.

As well as the traditional five round pub quiz, the room featured a ‘tech corner’ where quiz teams could test new technologies between questions.

Focusing the mind

On offer was a ‘mind reading’ app that used ‘Mindwave Mobile’ headset to register the user’s brainwaves. Connected to an iPad, players had to concentrate on a pint glass in the middle of the screen in order to try and get a ball to fall into the glass. The harder you concentrate, the closer the ball got. Simple.

The mind reader was kindly donated to the evening by our friends RedWeb Labs, based down in Bournemouth. RedWeb has previously used the Mind Reader linked to a keg of beer, which when the user concentrated hard enough, would pour them a pint to reward their cranial efforts. It’s an exciting bit of tech, especially for any event planners out there who want to add a real head turner to their exhibition.

VR for the masses

Also available in tech corner was Google Cardboard, a cheaper and homemade version of the likes of Oculus Rift which is set to bring Virtual Reality to the home by 2016. Cardboard works simply by downloading a compatible app to your phone, and slotting it into the pre assembled cardboard headset. Plus it works on iOS and Android too.

On the night we were running a virtual reality roller coaster to churn the already beer filled stomachs, but there are many apps out there for cardboard that you can download to your phone – from city explorers, through to immersive experiences in WWI.

Google Cardboard can be bought for under a fiver off eBay and most of the apps are free – well worth a play around (and great fun for the office).

Outside of tech corner we made sure to entice and reward guests on the night with additional mini competitions.

Where location-based apps are at

The Traces app, which we recently reviewed on our blog, enables users to create ‘content bubbles’ that can be discovered by other users of the app.

We used the app on the night to build a ‘photo treasure hunt’ around the room, crowning the winner the person who could spot the link between each photo.

Our very own Event Wallet app was also put to good use on the night.

Using iBeacon technology, Event Wallet enables event attendees to discover, collect and share any form of digital content at an event – meaning they don’t have to walk away with a bagful of printed materials.

We set up a number of iBeacons around the pub, which enabled attendees to collect more information about the charity we were supporting (including information of where to donate) and also to give guests the opportunity to ‘collect’ a raffle ticket on the night for the chance to win two tickets to an England v Australia cricket match.

Live on air – with cursing

With all manor of frivolities occurring over the evening – we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss a second of the action.

The whole event was live streamed through the twitter owned app ‘periscope’ – enabling anyone who tuned in to watch the action and contribute with their own comments (shhh, and answers to questions). For us, Periscope was the real surprise of the evening. In total 30 people tuned in from across the world, which opened our eyes to the potential of this sort of technology. Now with the likes of David Beckham launching his own service, MyEye, it’s high time brands started to take advantage.

A good face for podcasts

Finally, as huge podcasts fans ourselves, we wanted to use the evening as an opportunity to find out what technologies out there are really stoking people’s passions. Get the lowdown in the first Earnest Labs Podcast:

The night proved to be a huge success, getting people using new exciting technology and raising almost £400 for charity (all the while giving everyone the chance to have a good old knees up).

Fancy your chances?

This will be the first of many Tech Charity Pub Quizzes that we host, so if you would like a team to come along to the next one (either in person or virtually), please email james.wood@earnest-agency.com.