It is curious how often a chance encounter or occurrence leads to a brilliant idea, one that it so good it makes you wonder why no one thought of it before.
Ian Woolley’s first and abiding passion is music, and he spent many years in bands, DJ-ing and compering, which culminated in an audition for lead vocalist in the Rubettes. During this time he amassed a huge collection of records, which allowed him to start running quizzes based around this mountain of vinyl.
He freely admits to preferring to ask the questions rather than answer them, and once into quizzes has continued setting questions for Apps, TV shows, companies etc. His clients include some diverse organisations such as BskyB, Reading Beer Festival and the Air Ambulance Trust. He can also be found closer to home hosting quizzes around the New Forest.
And then came the lightbulb moment on a holiday in Suffolk. His family were keen to find a pub quiz to enter, feeling, probably with some justification, that they would have a very good chance. There were no online listing of pub quiz nights anywhere to be found on the internet. And so Quiz Britain was born, and within twelve months the web site was up and running, listing pub quiz venues for the very reasonable sum of £10 per year.
Showing that the concept works is the very first customer, still listed and still running quiz nights.
A rather bleaker example was the pub that insisted that a board outside was all the advertising needed, and with a certain inevitability went into receivership shortly afterwards.
Curiously, there are pubs listed on Quiz Britain that don’t actually run quizzes, but still see the benefit.
Truth be told, we at Quiz Master Shop use the site to find quiz nights, so we can check things out, and maybe pick up an idea or two!
A nice addition to the portfolio of products came soon afterwards with the Quiz Britain quizfinder App. This allows SmartPhone users to find the nearest pub quiz to them on that particular day, and to contact the venue from their phone.
Quiz Britain also produces tourist guides that list pub quiz venues in popular tourist areas. These started with the New Forest, followed closely by the Cotswolds, and now cover over ten localities around Great Britain.
And so what to the future, and the next five years? Well, who knows, but it would seem to be onward and upward for Quiz Britain.