Tis the Season to Be Geekin’- Christmas Table Quiz

December is the perfect time for a get-together. And what better way to ring in the holiday season than with a Christmas table quiz? Some of Dublin’s most prominent tech meet-up groups decided to do just this and get together this month for a festive meeting of minds with all proceeds being donated to the homeless charity, the Simon Community. All of the tech community were welcome to attend the event which was organised by members of the meet-up groups: Ruby Ireland, PyLadies, Coding Grace, Functional Kats and Elm Dublin.

Spreading the Christmas Cheer

This is the fourth year the event has been held, and the second year in a row it’s taken place in Workday. It’s always a brilliant night with plenty of banter and this year saw the biggest turnout to date with about 90 in attendance. One of the event organisers, Vicky Twomey-Lee, explained why the event started: “When me and some friends who were also tech group organisers first came up with the idea of a techie table quiz, it was because a lot of our friends aren’t hugely into sports or regular mainstream pop music, so we thought why not create a set of questions that are geekier? And we can have a bit of fun with it.”

Show Your Smarts

Although it’s a techie event, the questions are designed to be inclusive. Vicky explains: “Myself and my husband were the main ones writing the questions and we wanted people to be more involved. That way everyone gets at least a chance to answer one question instead of having just one smarty pants at the table!” she laughs. “So, we had everything from questions on Star Trek to the history of computers to the Nobel Prize for Literature.”

Get Together

The event is a great excuse to get everyone together to have some fun. Vicky explains: “It’s a great opportunity to mix with other groups because there’s so much happening in Dublin at the moment. It’s great to be able to bring these groups together. Throughout the year, we’re all in our little worlds so it’s nice to have everyone together to have fun and do something like helping a charity too.”

The Christmas table quiz was hosted in Workday’s Dublin offices, who generously provided drinks and warm festive mince pies. “We gave Workday two weeks’ notice and they managed to clear out the cafeteria and everything was all set up for us so that was amazing,” Vicky notes. There were also lots of fantastic prizes up for grabs from the event’s sponsors Python Ireland (who also kept hunger at bay with delicious pizza), Demonware, Rockall Technologies, JetBrains and Udemy.

And it didn’t end when the quiz was over. “It was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. A few of us ended up going to the Generator Bar afterwards and there was another table quiz happening there!” Vicky laughs.

Want to Get involved?

Events like this are open to anyone interested and groups are always looking for help with the organising. Vicky explains: “We’re totally open for people to get involved. You don’t have to be part of the user groups – you can just help out in general.”
Head over to our events page to find your nearest tech event.