The race that stops the nation.
The lunch that fills the gallery.
This page is for the office social committee, the pub running a Cup Day lunch, and anyone hosting a marquee on the first Tuesday of November. The photos start with the fascinators at the door and peak at three o'clock when the whole room turns to the big screen. Then they sit on forty phones, and the one of the sweep winner holding the envelope never reaches the person who organised the sweep. One QR code on the tables and beside the screen collects the lot, and the host decides what the whole company gets to see.
One-time. No account needed to buy — about a minute.
The moments guests actually photograph at Melbourne Cup parties
Why Melbourne Cup parties work better on Picsui
Written for the person hosting this one, and checked against what the product actually does.
A work function the HR manager can sign off
A Cup Day lunch is a work event with an open bar, and the gallery goes to the whole company. Turn on host review and every upload waits until the organiser approves it. AI screening flags anything questionable first, so approving a long afternoon of photos takes minutes before the wrap-up email goes out on Wednesday.
The photo wall on the same screen as the race
Open the live slideshow on the big screen while the room waits for the barrier draw, and the fascinator photos from the door appear as guests upload them. Switch to the race coverage at three and back to the slideshow for the presentation to the sweep winner, from a phone remote at the bar.
One archive for the newsletter and the noticeboard
The social committee downloads every original as one ZIP the next morning: the best dressed, the sweep winner and the group photo at three. No chasing colleagues for the one they took, no compressed copies from a chat, and the gallery link goes into the wrap-up email for everyone who wants their own.
No app. No account. One scan.
Guests point their camera at a QR code and are uploading in seconds. Nobody installs anything, nobody creates a login, and the grandparents can do it as easily as the teenagers.
Live photo wall on any screen
Open the slideshow on a TV, projector or laptop and new uploads appear as they arrive. Grid and collage layouts, transition presets, and a phone remote to control it from across the room.
You approve before anyone sees
Turn on host review and every upload waits in your queue until you approve it. AI screening flags anything questionable so you are not scrolling through hundreds of photos at midnight.
A guestbook with your own question
Replace the generic prompt with one that fits the day. Written messages are collected alongside the photos and kept with the gallery.
Full-resolution downloads
Download any photo, or the whole event as one archive, at original quality. What guests uploaded is what you keep — no compression, no watermark on paid events.
Private by default, never indexed
The gallery is only reachable by the link or code you share. Guest pages are blocked from search engines and named AI crawlers, and you can close the gallery whenever you choose.
How it works
Set up in a minute. Collect for the whole event.
Create the event the week before with the company or venue name and the date, and set the guestbook question to something like which horse you drew in the sweep.
Put the QR code on the table cards, beside the sweep board and on the screen before the race, and mention it when the fascinator judging is announced.
Guests upload through the lunch and the race. The organiser approves from a phone between courses if host review is on, and the slideshow runs on the big screen between races.
On Wednesday, send the gallery link in the wrap-up email with the sweep results, and download the full archive for the intranet and next year's invitation.
Try uploading as a guest.
Scan this with your phone the way a guest at your event would. Choose a sample photo and upload it from your browser, then open the demo gallery to see it land. Photos pass a quick AI check first; videos wait for a person.
- Scan the code with your phone camera — it opens straight in the browser.
- Upload a sample photo. Look for the upload confirmation so you know it reached the host.
Use a sample you are comfortable sharing with Picsui. Please keep personal or sensitive photos out of the demo.
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This is the same kind of code your guests scan at your event.
Getting the most from Melbourne Cup parties
Treat the Cup Day lunch as a work function first and a party second when you set it up. Turn on host review, name the organiser as the host so the queue sits with one person, and tell guests on the table card that photos are reviewed before they appear. That one line does two things: it makes the cautious colleagues comfortable uploading, and it reminds everyone that the gallery is going to the whole company. Approve during the lunch rather than the next day; the list is short and the slideshow on the screen rewards people for uploading while they are still in the room.
The race itself is three and a half minutes and every phone in the room will be pointed at the screen, which produces a hundred photos of a television. Ask for the other moments instead: the sweep being drawn, the fascinators arriving, the table before the food goes, the winner collecting the envelope. Put the QR code beside the sweep board, because that is where people gather twice, once to draw a horse and once to find out who won, and both times they have a phone in hand and nothing to do with it.
For a pub or restaurant running a public Cup Day lunch rather than a company booking, the same setup works with one change: keep the gallery private and share the link only with the people who booked, not on a public noticeboard. The gallery is never listed publicly and guest pages are blocked from search engines, so a link in the booking confirmation email is the whole distribution. Close uploads on Wednesday evening once the last stragglers have sent their photos, and download the archive if the venue wants the best-dressed photos for next year's promotion, with the permission of the people in them.
Common questions about Melbourne Cup parties
Does everyone in the office need an account?
No. Anyone points the phone camera at the QR code on the table and the upload page opens in the browser, with nothing to install and no sign-up. A name is optional, though for a work function most people add one so the organiser knows who took what. Colleagues who work from home and only dial in for the race can use the same link to see the gallery afterwards, and to add the photo of their own fascinator.
Can we check photos before they appear on the screen or in the gallery?
Yes. Turn on host review when you create the event and every upload waits until the organiser approves it. Nothing reaches the slideshow on the big screen or the shared gallery until then. AI screening flags anything questionable first, so the person approving works through a short list between courses. Anything that slips through can be removed afterwards, and the organiser can hand the login to a second person for the afternoon.
Can the photos play on the big screen before the race?
Yes. The live slideshow is a web page, so whoever is running the screen opens it in a browser on the laptop already connected and it fills the display. New uploads appear within a minute or two. Run it while the room settles and during the sweep draw, switch the screen to the race coverage at three, then bring the slideshow back for the presentation to the sweep winner and best dressed.
The office is in Perth and half the team is in Melbourne. Can one event cover both?
Yes. One event has one QR code, and it does not care which city a guest is standing in, so the Melbourne office and the Perth office upload to the same gallery on the day. Remember the three-hour difference in November: the race at three in Melbourne is midday in Perth. If one office runs the lunch, the private broadcast included with the Event Pass lets the other watch the speeches and the sweep draw live on one link.
What does it cost for an office of eighty?
An Event Pass is $29, paid once for the event, and the price does not change with the headcount. It includes unlimited uploads with a 25 GB fair-use bound, the live slideshow, host review, the guestbook, full-resolution downloads and 365 days of hosting, which is long enough for the gallery link to still work at the Christmas party. There is no subscription and nothing charged per guest, and where Stripe offers it, checkout can show the total in Australian dollars before you pay.
Every photo from Melbourne Cup parties, in one place
One-time Event Pass, $29. No subscription, no per-guest fee.
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