Common Ground · a Play Along round
Vote with the room. Score for reading it.
Common Ground is a game with no right answers, only popular ones. A question goes up on the big screen, every guest votes on their own phone, and the points go to whoever matched what the room said. It is the fastest way I know to get a room full of colleagues laughing at each other, and I write every question for the people in it.
Think Family Fortunes, except your guests are the hundred people we asked.
How a round plays
How Common Ground plays, minute by minute.
A round takes about ninety seconds from question to reveal, so I can run three between courses or a dozen as the main event.
The question goes up
On the big screen and on every phone at the same moment.
What is the biggest killer of productivity in this office?
Four answers, and a sixty-second clock.1Everyone votes
Not a show of hands, not one volunteer at the front. Three hundred people commit to an answer before anyone else’s is known, and the count ticks up on the big screen.
2
The room has spoken
The bars fill in on every phone. The majority answer lights up, and if you picked it you take a hundred points. Ties count for everyone who called them.
3I read the result
This is where the game lives. Forty-six per cent said meetings, and I know exactly who to look at. The percentages are the punchline; the host delivers it.
4The standings
Scores stack across the night and are grouped by table, so the rivalry is table against table and one person cannot carry the room.
5
On the big screen
The real screens, not a mock-up.
Common Ground runs on two screens at once: the big screen the whole room watches, and the phone in every guest’s hand. Both are my own software, built for live events and run from one control screen at the front.
Three ways to play
Three ways to play Common Ground.
Every game I run can be played three ways, and I pick the way that suits the room, the timings and the layout on the night: as a show at the front, table against table, or with every single guest playing on their own phone. Mix them across an evening and nobody spends the night watching.
As a show
Two panels at the front predict the room
Six or eight guests come up and split into two panels. I put the question to them, they call what they think the room will say, then the room votes and the panel that read it best takes the points. Pure survey-show television, with your own people as the panel and your own audience as the survey.
Best for: awards nights and big dinnersAt the tables
Every table agrees one answer
Each table confers and commits to a single answer, held up on a card or sent from one phone. The table that matches the majority scores, so the loudest voice at the table does not always win, and the quiet analyst who says trust me, it’s meetings
becomes a hero.
On the app
Everyone votes on their own phone
The native version. Guests scan the code on their table and every question lands on every phone at once. Individual scores, grouped by table on the leaderboard. No download, no sign-up, and it has been tested with three hundred phones answering together.
Best for: Christmas parties and whole-company nightsBuilt for the room
Same game. Two very different rooms.
I customise every game for the audience in front of me: the questions, the answers, and the way I present them. The same format is a completely different show for a room of graduates in their twenties and a room of chief executives, and it should be. I write for the people who will actually be there, then I speak into the listening on the night: I read what the room is giving back and change gear to match it.
Fast, cheeky and about them
- A question I would ask
What is the real reason the 9am stand-up gets moved?
Options that name the coffee run, the night before and the manager who is never there.- How I host it
- Quick rounds, a lot of them, and I chase the split votes. Twenty-two per cent of the room admitted something, and I want names.
- What lands
- Being seen. The reveal proves everyone else was thinking it too, and the room relaxes into itself.
Sharper, slower, and still funny
- A question I would ask
Which of these will matter most to this business in three years?
Four options taken from the strategy deck, one of them slightly heretical.- How I host it
- Fewer questions, more room to talk about the answer. A sixty-forty split between the two front-runners is a conversation the chief executive will actually want to have.
- What lands
- Discovering where the leadership team genuinely agrees, and where it thought it did.
1Written for your people
Send me the year’s stories, the in-jokes, the departments and the industry. The rounds are built from them, so the answers land in a way no off-the-shelf pack ever can.
2Speaking into the listening
The words on the screen are half of it. How I present them is the rest, and I pitch the pace, the teasing and the tone to the room that has turned up, not the one on the brief.
3If a different crowd turns up
Eight hundred events across festivals, awards, conferences and dinners means I have hosted every kind of room. If the mood is not what anyone expected, I change the style on the spot, and often the questions too.
In the running order
Where Common Ground fits in the night.
Where it sits in the night
As the opener. It needs no explanation, nobody can be wrong, and it gets three hundred phones out and working in the first five minutes.
How long
Ninety seconds a question. Three questions between courses, or ten to fifteen minutes as a block.
Pairs well with
Follow it with Who’s Bluffing? once the room is warm, and let Side Bets run underneath both.
All fourteen games
Fourteen games. One host. One screen.
Five rounds the whole room plays on their phones, and nine big-screen games with teams at the board. All of it is my own software, run from one screen, so I can switch format the moment the room needs a lift. Tap any game to see exactly how it plays.
Common Ground
Vote with the room, score for matching it
You are hereOn your phone
Who’s Bluffing?
Three stories, one true, the room decides
How it plays →On your phone
The Final Few
A knockout quiz down to the last few standing
How it plays →On your phone
Side Bets
Play money on what happens next on stage
How it plays →On your phone
The Cut
Everyone answers, the lowest scores are cut
How it plays →Big screen
Family Fortunes
Two teams, one survey board, three strikes
How it plays →Big screen
Quiz Show
Categories, buzzers and picture rounds
How it plays →Big screen
Play Your Cards Right
Higher or lower on a row of giant cards
How it plays →Big screen
What the Blank
Fill the gap, match the room’s funniest answers
How it plays →Big screen
Guess the Phrase
A hidden phrase, one letter at a time
How it plays →Big screen
Category Clues
Describe it without saying it, against the clock
How it plays →Big screen
Scavenger Hunt
The whole room up, hunting and mixing
How it plays →Big screen
The Generation Game
The conveyor belt of prizes to remember
How it plays →Big screen
Bongo Bingo
Rave bingo with dance breaks and forfeits
How it plays →Every one of these can be played as a show, at the tables or on the app, and every one is written around your company before the night. Not sure which mix suits your event? Tell me the room and I will suggest a running order.
For the venue and IT
Nothing to install. Nothing to worry about.
- Guests play in their phone’s browser. No app store, no account, no personal data beyond a first name and a table.
- Runs on the venue’s Wi-Fi or on 4G. Tested with three hundred phones answering at once.
- One code for the whole night. Phones follow whichever game is on the big screen.
- The venue provides a screen and a sound system. I bring everything else and run it from the front.
What clients say
Kevin recently hosted a company corporate event and proved to be the consummate professional throughout the evening. He has the unique ability to read a room and keep everyone happy.
Kevin hosted our staff conference event this year which was fantastic. He brought an energy and enthusiasm with him and played a really important part in getting people engaged in the day.
Thank you Kevin for hosting our Christmas party in December 2025. The team had an amazing time. We really liked the intertwining of awards and the game. Everyone had a brilliant time and Kevin was fantastic.
Good to know
Common Ground FAQs.
Is Common Ground the same as Family Fortunes?
It takes the shape of the survey round everyone knows, but the survey is your room. Nobody is guessing what a hundred strangers said; they are guessing what the person next to them just voted. I also run the big-screen version of the survey game itself as one of the nine stage games, and the two work well back to back.
Can the questions be about our company?
That is the point of it. I write the questions around your year, your departments and your in-jokes, and I can type a new question live in the control app if something happens in the room that deserves one.
Are there right answers?
No. You score for matching the majority, so it rewards reading the room rather than knowing things. If two answers tie for the most votes, everyone who chose either of them scores.
How many people can play?
Everyone in the room. The app has been tested with three hundred phones voting at once. For a smaller group I run it as a show or table by table instead.
Do guests need to download anything?
No. They scan a code, the Play Along app opens in the phone’s browser, they type a first name and their table, and they are in. No account and no personal data.
Can we run it as part of a bigger night?
Yes, and it is at its best that way. I host the whole evening, so Common Ground can open the night, run between courses or sit alongside the awards. See the fourteen games above for what it pairs with.
What does it cost?
Fees are quoted individually for the date, the venue and the length of the show. Send the numbers and the running order and I will send a quote.
Enquiries
Put Common Ground in front of your room.
Tell me the date, the venue, rough numbers and the kind of crowd. I will confirm availability, suggest where it fits in the night and send a quote.
