World Trivia Night is North America's largest live trivia contest, held annually in Ottawa, Ontario since 1993. (In this sense, "live" means people answering the same questions, read live in the same forum, as opposed to radio contests.) Originally organized by the Kiwanis Club of Orleans (Ottawa), the event is now organized by the Children's Aid Foundation of Ottawa, which uses it to fund educational and life enrichment opportunities for children and youth who are supported by The Children's Aid Society of Ottawa. Each year, 1,500 people play in teams of up to 10 people. The event was originally held at the Aberdeen Pavilion before moving to the EY Centre in 2012. The questions are prepared by Paul Paquet of triviahalloffame.com and the Ottawa Trivia League. Many political and media luminaries attend. Former mayor Jacquelin Holzman once served as a judge, and in 2003, Ken Jennings read the first question via videotape. By tradition, the first answer is always Pierre Trudeau, as a tip of the hat to the long-running radio trivia contest in Stevens Point, which always begins with a question about Robert Redford. Since 2006, the winners have been awarded the Trong Nguyen Memorial Trophy, named after a member of wirecrats.com who died earlier that year. The first place winners also win $5,000 cash if they are a champion team. World Trivia Night 2020 and 2021 were held online due to the pandemic, but returned to an in-person event in 2022. Winning teams 1995: The Data Banks 1996: The Bank Dicks 1997: Puzzles 1998: The Viagrins (later renamed the Smarts) 1999: Puzzles 2000: Random Access Memory 2001: La Triviata 2002: La Triviata 2003: Me and Nine Idiots (after a scoring adjustment, La Triviata shared the title) 2004: Wirecrats.com 2005: Shocked and Appalled 2006: Fran Mahovlich 2007: Shocked and Appalled 2008: La Triviata 2009: I Lost on Jeopardy 2010: Wirecrats.com 2011: Nerd Alert 2012: The Sticky Buns 2013: La Triviata 2014: Nerd Alert (although Mizar Flying Pintos was the top "champion" team) 2015: La Triviata 2016: I Lost on Jeopardy 2017: The Sticky Buns 2018: The Sticky Buns 2019: La Triviata 2020: La Triviata 2021: La Triviata External links Official website Trivia competitions