Elementarily: New Event In HSE SPB

New year - new event, new format as well as new atmosphere. Let us find out what “Elementarily” is.

HSE is famous among students from various universities for its’ active student life: from organizations with the basis of interests like poetry, chess, cases, travel, Chinese language, French language, sports etc.  to  events mainly created by special organization Students for Students. There are traditional events that take place for several years in the row such as  Ice-Vyshka, Mister and Miss HSE SPB, SDS-party, “Yarmarka VolHSEbnikov”. But still, novelty is significant as far it reflects development and attracts new students to participate (if they have got different interests).

So here comes mix of intellectual activity and entertaining relaxing context - quiz in bar. The idea is the following: students divide into teams (4-10 persons) and then come to the bar where quiz will begin. The topics of questions assumes usage of personal background. It is nice if there are people from different departments - who knows, what they have to answer about,

HSE Illuminated conducted an interview with one of the coordinators and SDS directors - 4th course student Ivan Burkov. Let us see some insights about the event!

How long ago was the idea of the event born? Did you take something as an example?

We came up with a pub quiz in December last year, when we met with the new leaders of the SDS and discussed events for the entire year. We realized that we didn't have anything for the student's Day, and we wanted something new. So we came to the pub quiz using the brainstorm method. The format, to be honest, is not new - it has long been held in the city in a wide range of variations. However, we decided to create something different, unusual and special. Judging by the number of guests, the reviews and the atmosphere, we managed to do it really well.

Did it take a lot of time and efforts to fully implement it? What was the most complicated part?

A lot! We have been preparing this for 2 months, which fell at the same time on the session, the end of the calendar year and on vacations. Plus, we have been preparing it for the first time: we had no experience in organizing such type of event (pub-quiz), either only as participants. We worried, tried, tested! Fortunately, turned out the way we wanted. This is really cool!

I heard that you had sold out a few days before the event! Were there any concerns before the launch of the PR campaign that the guys would not respond so actively to participate, since the format is still quite new?

We haven't expected this and were incredibly excited when the sold out happened. Concerns? Certainly. We were afraid that it would not be interesting for everyone, that we would not get at least a minimum of participants (since this is only pilot-version).  I think that the PR was really great, the date was well-chosen - the student's Day on Saturday evening. The amount of the contribution was small (lower than the average for the city), which probably played a significant role.

What topics was the quiz about? Were there any funny answers to the questions?

We had not any themes as such, instead we had thematic tours: audio tours, visual tours (pictures), blitz tours, logic tours. The prize for the funniest answer was awarded to the team that answered in the visual tour. 

The team's response: take care of the paper - go to the toilet less often.

The correct answer is: paper will tolerate everything.

Were there any fail situations or overlays?

Yes, there were few small ones, but, in fact, they did not spoil anything at all. For example, we printed out everything that is possible in a bunch of instances, but there was no script for the host. They took a bunch of batteries for microphones, but all were almost discharged. The technical specialist explained everything to us very quickly by the sound and dumped us, as a result, we could turn on either very quietly or insanely loud, which made everything around us background. But in the end it was fine.

Please tell us about your impressions of Elementary on student's Day! Maybe a little bit about the atmosphere. Will SDS introduce a tradition to celebrate the holiday this way? Do you think that all expectations were met?

Well, we are all amazed so much of that everything turned out, even several times better than we expected. It was incredible to see the audience - the emotions of our friends and new people - who came, actively participated and showed satisfaction! We were very excited about what was happening. The feedback made us proud and pleasant to everyone who was part of the event.

Yes, of course, SDS will introduce the celebration of this holiday as a tradition. We suppose pub quiz will be repeated next year! Subscribe to our group (vk.com/hse_sds) and Instagram (instagram.com/hse_sds) - all relevant information will be there. Stay in touch with us!

I hope that this reflection makes you to come next year to "Elementarily". Perfect combination of entertainment, intelligence, fun, relax, cooperation and glass of cocktail! Do not miss the opportunity.

Interview by
Anastasiia Vanchurina