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New York - Seminars
BIOS & HEADSHOTS


Social Media 101
Nicole Ginsburg
In this fast-paced 60 minute seminar, participants will get an overview of the top 5 social media outlets and how to use them to build your business. From Facebook and Instagram... to Youtube and Twitter, attendees will walk with a clear sense of how social media plays into modern business.


Motion in Escape Rooms: Using tech, actuators & motion components!
Brian Warner
More info coming soon


Creating a great experience the first time (Right out of the gate!)
Tim Bunch
Get a fast track to success with this comprehensive seminar that offers the blue prints to a successful room escape game.


Creating Great Games - An in-depth look at a successful room
Renee Ryckman
More info coming soon

Making the perfect Gamemaster FREE
Paula Norder Moderator (Names of game masters and companies)
A panel with 4 of the industry's top game masters talk about how to run the perfect game. Moderator Paul Norder will cover ask questions about the intro, debrief, in-game clues, customer service and more. 


​Co-Working, Co-Exsiting...and THRIVING!
A panel of top room escape companies talk about co-existing, working together and operating nationally-renowned escape room games.

Moderator: David & Lisa Spira

Join Rise Escape Rooms, 13th Gate Escape and Clue Carre — three of the industry's most well respected companies, as they talk about their businesses, working together and offer strategies for creating popular games.


Live Podcast Recording with Room Escape Divas - FREE 
Room Escape Divas
 
A FREE,  60-minute, live podcast recording! Join podcasters Room Escape Divas as they discuss escape rooms, community, player experience and more — with a live audience. Attendees will hear, first hand, from the nation's leading escape room podcast, what players value most in a good escape room experience. 



Quick Fixes and Simple Creations to make a HUGE Impact!
Andrew Dekruiter, Escape The Estate

A 2-hour interactive workshop designed for current and aspiring game owners.  (Also great for mini-groups and teams). 

This workshop will focus on how to create quick replacements and/or repairs for damaged props and how to make simple, inexpensive props for escape rooms. 
More info coming soon


ESCAPE GAME NUTS & BOLTS: Effective and efficient tools to use in your daily business.
Dave Ferrier
 
An intro seminar offering the day-to-day “musts” in an escape game; This course is a short-cut to all the things you need to know in daily operations. Hear tips on how to keep the show going when things go wrong. Learn the secrets of getting corporate bookings, keeping your room full — and more. Learn what it’s really like to run an escape game on a daily basis! From booking and sales, to debriefing and staff — get the nuts and bolts on the escape game business.
 
• What should be in your escape game “toolbox”?
• What equipment do you need in your control room?
• What should be on your cheat sheet?
• How do you do a proper brief and debrief whether they escape or not?
• What policies do you need?
• What are your game master’s tasks?
• How to provide amazing customer service
• How to “guest proof” your room


​
Open Your Own Room Escape - A Complete Guide
Elisabeth Garson

A presentation on how to open your own room escape fast — and how to be the one that sticks around.

• Industry Overview
- Strategy - Buying a game from overseas vs. buying a one-off game vs. writing your own game.
- Industry - What's happening in the industry? Is it saturated? 
- Costs & Profits - How much does it cost and how much can I expect to make?
- The type of people that should open a room escape

• Building a GOOD room escape
-- Industry is splitting. Players are demanding more. 
-- "Good room escapes" vs. "Hacks"
-- Game Options - Buying, Writing, Partnering
-- The importance of UX and player experience
-- The importance of the Game Master and Tech Master
-- Location

• Puzzles and Tech
-- Developing puzzles that are interesting and interactive. Locks are getting boring.
-- Central Command and overrides
-- Clues - how many to give. Weave an invisible thread so players feel they’re in control.

• Practical Guidance
-- Booking Systems - quick overview
-- Reset Times - what should you expect
-- Staff - how many, how to manage
-- Insurance - What do I need?
-- Legal - When you need advisement
-- Advertising - Best advertising. What works and what doesn't
-- Groupon / Living Social
-- The value of reviews
-- Industry competitors


Creating a Game from Scratch: An Advanced Guide on Taking Ideas From Your Brain to the Interactive Games Space (Workshop)
Shawn Fischtein

As the industry growth settles and customer’s demands are more refined, how do you ensure the survival of your escape room business? Easy, unique and exciting content. In this 2-hour workshop, nationally renowned room escape owner Shawn Fischtein reveasl the secret of how his design team takes an idea from the back of a bar napkin...and into the real world. This step-by-step guideline will show you how to work your ideas into a successful installment. If you don’t have ideas, that’s ok! We can show you how to generate exciting ideas that can keep your customers engaged and your name on the top of the review charts. 
 
Topics that will be covered:

• The Staples: Ideas that you can’t go wrong with.
• What sells, what doesn’t? How to know your market. 
• The art of telling your story in an escape room.
• Working the story into gameplay.
• Where designers go terribly wrong.
• Q&A: Story & Design.


Room Escape Artists! Goldi-lock-ing Your Escape Room Business: Learn the difference between magnificent, average, and tragic escape room design.
David & Lisa Spira

We want to help you understand the tangible differences in execution between escape rooms. 

We’re going to do this by looking at common interactions in escape room design and walk you through some of the differences that set apart the best and worst that we’ve seen in our approximately 300 games as reviewers. 
We’re going to talk about all of the greatest hits: Locks Blacklights Gamemastering Books Trap doors Customer service And more
Bring your questions and an open mind. We’re here to help. 


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Team Building
AJ Hughs

AJ Hughs walks you through everything you need to know about team building.
*more info coming soon
​


Focus on the customer: Delving deep into the player's experience
Jessica Worbach
*more info coming soon


Pulling off the Perfect Pop-up Escape Room Games
Melissa Eapen

Develop themed games that connect with educational or learning subject matter and work with schools, cities, museums and more.
 
Open your market to city-wide initiatives, exhibit installations at local museums and galleries, schools and universities — and more. You'll learn how to create pop up games, present them, sell them, and run them! This is a seminar designed for escape game owners and game writers that want to expand into this ever-growing (and extremely fun) market. 
 

- learn and understand how to develop a pop up game in the location you're given 
- learn how to take a mini game experience to corporate teams, private facilities + more 
- mini pop up game workshop: work as a group to create a 5 minute pop up game 
- how to use pop up games as an effective marketing tool 
- focus on the experience instead of the escape
There will be a 10 minute Q&A session.

​
Virtual Reality A-Z
Shawn Fischtein
This seminar will jumpstart your knowledge into this emerging tech and provide you with a ton hands on information that you can’t find on the web. We’ll literally cover everything from how the tech actually works, what it can do, and where it can fit into your business plan. Whether you know quite a bit or you’re just starting out you are sure to learn something in this jam-packed hour long event with actual live demonstrations. 

What will be covered in this seminar:
-A brief introduction of the technologies behind the most mainstream technologies.
-What are the start-up costs and what skills you may need in order to get it working. 
-VR arcades VS. VR supplemental installments (eg. Escape Rooms, Multiplayer Interactive Adventures)
-The possible future of the VR.
-The economics & ROI of VR equipment. 
-How to get started with developing your own content. 
-Some things to consider before you take the plunge. 


Make Your Game Immersive: Using Story, Set & Actors
Marty Parker
Info coming soon


BIG Ideas for the not so big budget: Guerilla Marketing
Anthony Purzycki
Info coming soon

What you REALLY need to know: Top 10 Escape Room Rips
Greg Salyers
10 must-know tips for anyone and everyone that owns a room escape game. Whether you have a game, or are looking to build one, these tips will help increase your profits, avoid in-game problems and lead to a powerful player experience.
• Player Tips
• Design & Build Tips
• Business Tips
• Gameplay Tips


Construction & Fire Code for Escape Rooms
Matthew DuPlessie
More info coming soon


Create your own Control & Command Center! An advanced tech seminar.
Vinnie Ingallaria
Info coming soon
 
(Most) Everything You Know is Wrong: A Journey Through the Most Common Misconceptions in the Room Escape Industry
Nate Martin
Info coming soon




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SENT DESCRIPTIONS - WAITING TO HEAR BACK

BIG Ideas for the not so big budget: Guerilla Marketing

Anthony Purzycki

Besides pictures of cute cats and food, what kind of posts do you see on Facebook and Instagram? When you're at the water cooler talking about your weekend, do you talk about gardening — or the flash mob you saw in the subway?

As people, we love to tell stories: About the weird things we saw. About the unexpected. About something so bizarre, we can't wait to share it. 

Escape room owners are missing a HUGE marketing opportunity to create viral conversation, video shares, photo posts: It's all about guerrilla marketing. If you have a "jail break room", pay your staff to parade the downtown one afternoon in "jail garb". Have a mystery room? Cover the sidewalk with chalk clues that lead to your website.  

Guerilla Marketing is the most overlooked aspect of escape room advertising. By the end of this seminar, participants will walk away supercharged with flash alternative marketing ideas.

​
Create your own Control & Command Center! An advanced tech seminar.

Vinnie Ingallaria

Ever wish you could control the tech props in your game.... easily? Do you wish you could see what codes players enter into your props? Wouldn't it be great if you could press "RESET" — and have the entire rooms tech reset itself?

Good news. You can do all of these things.

In this 60-minute seminar, attendees will learn how to create their own "smart" escape room, using Node Red — the nation's leading Intranet escape room system. From programming the game set up, to compatible prop tech and hardware — this is a dense class designed for anyone with a basic knowledge of escape room tech.

Seminar will include content on:

​
• The Node Red Program - Intro
• Compatible prop tech and hardware
• Game Layout into the system
• Networking, wiring, relays

The Room Escape Experience: Own a wildly popular game by focusing on interactivity
 JESSICA

This seminar shows room escape owners how to produce room escapes that will trump the competition by focusing on the importance of player engagement by intentionally creating interactivity, teamwork, player rewards and more. Participants will learn how to build a room escape EXPERIENCE, start to finish, by taking a hard look at the interplay between game, storyline, set, game master and props/puzzles.

How to add Team Building to your escape game. Attract more corporate groups!
AJ HUGHES
 
How do you provide corporate groups with what they need to feel they got a solid team-building experience for their staff? This seminar delivers sure-fire methods to add team building value to your escape games including entry, in-game, and debriefing tips. Whether you’re currently open or planning on opening, this seminar shows you how to attract the corporate market.
 
• Understanding the difference between corporate groups and regular groups
• Providing a perceived team building value

• Intro (how to add team-building into the intro)
• In Game Tips (team-building  & competition in game)
• Exit photos
• Debriefing 

Make Your Game Immersive: Using Story, Set & Actors
MARTY
​
Learn processes to create immersive stories that fit with your puzzles, props and scenery!

This seminar will explore tactics for creating powerful game stories that lead to player immersion. The session will explore the pros & cons of actor-use, how to create spikes in gameplay, tactics for set design and props and much more.   Learn simple tricks to bringing relevancy, fun, and suspension of disbelief into your escape game.

• Who are the players? (Game character they’re assuming)
• Why is everything locked?  (Goal of escape)
• Why do they only have an hour? (Bringing time into the game)

Similar content presented at TransWorld 2017


NEED SPEAKERS

Room Escape Partnerships, Real Estate Deals & Tips on Funding: The art of good business
NEED SPEAKER - PEOPLE THAT DAVID & LISA RECOMMENDED
A 60-minute business seminar that covers the art of striking deals, merging with other game companies, smart contracts and ways to get funding. Learn how to find “the right” partners (and what you should be looking for), contract negotiation tips, real estate secrets (you should never offer full price for rent), insider tips to getting capital — and much more. Attendees will walk away with a new perspective on business in this dense and comprehensive class.



LAST YEAR

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The Player Experience: Make Your Game the Right Kind of Memorable FREE SEMINAR
David & Lisa Spira

A FREE seminar outlining the keys to opening, operating, naming and delivering a successful escape room game! Presented by nationally recognized room escape reviewers David and Lisa 
Spira (RoomEscapeArtist.com).

Arrival & Game Master ­ The player experience begins long before we set foot on your property. Your company name, website, booking, pricing... these things matter. We discuss the ways an escape room company can delight or torture their customers before they ever walk through the door. 
The rapport a game master establishes with players during the pre­game briefing and rules explanation can either build or diminish trust and respect.

Room Immersion & Post Game Experience ­ We take you through the good, bad, and ugly of setting, immersion, puzzle design, and hinting systems. Win, lose, or record shattered, leave a positive final impression. Know when and how to give a walk-through. We cover strategy for handing indignant players or an unhappy team. 


Strategy - Participants will also learn techniques for encouraging the escape room bug, approaching inter­company competition, and sharing players with quality competitors. Understand that you are an ambassador for the escape room industry. Each player’s first game could easily be their last.



Immersive themed environments: Make the game REAL for your guests
 Matthew DuPlessie

Designing a new room, or ready to take your current room escape to the next level?  You’ve got some clever puzzles, a good location, and a dedicated staff.  It’s time to add the production values – the SETTING that sets you apart from every other entertainment offering your city has to offer. 
 
In this informative talk, Matt DuPlessie, whose background includes “theming” work for Disney and Universal, will cover case studies from 5 Wits’ walk-through adventures like Tomb, Espionage, Drago’s Castle, and Deep Space, to show what is possible in creating compelling themed environments that fully immerse your guests in the game.  Full of practical, “how-to” advice, this session will inspire you and get into the nitty-gritty questions and answers that will take your room to the next level.


Open multiple games at your facility. Grow your room to other locations!
Edwin Tsui
​
This is a densely packed seminar that presents vital information on multi-game and multi-location escape games. You’ll find answers to your questions on practicality, workload, finances, day-to-day operations and much more. This seminar is an absolute must for any escape game owner or prospective owner that’s looking to grow. Learn the fundamentals of both business models and get the information you need to make wise expansion choices.
 
Multiple games in the same location
  • How does a location scale with multiple rooms? Should I expect diminishing financial returns?
  • How much space do you need for a multi-room facility? How does a multi-room facility differ from a location that offers 1 or 2 different games?
  • Scheduling – how do you manage the flow of players in & out of your facility?
  • Corporate bookings – how to structure & accommodate large groups
  • Managing & Scheduling Staff – how to streamline your facility

Opening rooms at different locations
  • What does the booking system look like when you have multiple locations?
  • How do you create a website that effectively markets multiple locations?
  • Customer Service – how do you manage the volume of calls and emails involved with owning multiple rooms?
  • How do bookings scale with having multiple facilities?
  • Marketing – How do you build your brand and manage your reputation?
  • Competition – are you spreading yourself too thin?
​

Make Your Game Immersive: Using Story to Inform Gameplay
Debra Beardsley 
​

A hands-on workshop where you’ll learn processes to create immersive stories that fit with your puzzles, props and scenery!

This seminar will explore tactics for creating powerful game stories that lead to player immersion. It’s a hands-on development workshop where you will brainstorm storylines with acute focus on details. Most games adhere to interesting themes and we choose puzzles that fit the theme. But do they fit the story?

By splitting into teams, you will develop a short story around a series of puzzles and unique props. We will discuss what details can be added with minimal cost that will have maximum perceived value. In the end, participants will learn:
​
• The difference in writing a game vs. writing a story
• Balancing game mechanics with player immersion          
• Integrating props and puzzles so they make sense with your story
• Immersive theming related to questions such as:
 
• Who are the players? (Game character they’re assuming)
• Why is everything locked?  (Goal of escape)
• Why do they only have an hour? (Bringing time into the game)


Pop Up Games / Historic and Educational Games
Melissa Eapen
​

Develop themed games that connect with educational or learning subject matter and work with schools, cities, museums and more.
 
Open your market to city-wide initiatives, exhibit installations at local museums and galleries, schools and universities — and more. You'll learn how to create pop up games, present them, sell them, and run them! This is a seminar designed for escape game owners and game writers that want to expand into this ever-growing (and extremely fun) market. 
 
- Gamification, and how escape rooms can use this theory
- Creating a historically accurate experience
- How historic and educational games differ from other escape room experiences
- How to build and run the experience
- Lose the aspect of “escaping”, instead aim to achieve a goal
- How to find this market and connect with the right organizations
 
There will be a 15 minute Q&A session.

Open an Escape Room in Haunts, Malls & Amusement Centers — Double your revenue!
Nicole Ginsburg
​

Should you open your game in a mall… or on the street? Thinking about adding an escape to your haunt or amusement center? This seminar is an absolute MUST. Nicole Ginsburg of Escape The Estate offers guidance, benefits, business models and financial overviews of opening a game inside an existing location. Learn about her experience in opening a game inside a Haunted Attraction — and a second location inside a mall!

The Basics - Benefits of opening an escape experience, effective and efficient ways to get up and running this year and how to work with codes and location specific restrictions

Haunt - Scary easy ways to make an escape experience in your haunt a hit this year, unlocking the right back story for your location, quick-fire do’s and don’ts.

Mall - What to know before you sign the lease, creating an immersive experience 2 store fronts down from a shoe sale! How to build a buzz within the mall walls to get you off to a running start, Quick-fire do’s and don’ts

Amusement - Taking your existing entertainment and stretch it into an escape experience and jow to determine the right experience for your audience.


Make your own Gen 2 Tech Prop!  Workshop
Vinnie Ingallinera

Workshop will be a hands-on experience where attendees will create their own tech prop! This workshop is intended to provide a hands-on approach to creating basic sensor-based props for Escape Room — and designed for anyone with a basic interest in technology. In the end, participants will walk away with a completed arduino based tech prop they can use in their own game.
 
Upon completion of the workshop, participants will be:
•  Familiar with the Arduino Development Environment software
• Understand Arduino programming code structure
• Able to read sensors with both analog and digital values
• Create a custom output based on readings from the sensors
• Be familiar with basic input and output circuits
• Have their own tech prop
 
Pre-requisites:
- Participants must bring their own laptop
- Have Arduino programming software (IDE) installed prior to the class (participants will be sent a link and video on how to install software)
​

Escape Game Tech — 101

An intro to escape room tech perfect for anyone that doesn’t understand it!

Brian Warner

This is a basic, intro 101 seminar that defines escape game tech and the basics on using tech puzzles in your room.
​
• Magnetic Doors/ locks - An intro to set up and how they work
• Microcontrollers & puzzles- - explain what they are, how they’re programmed, how they work — and show examples
• Relays - An intro to set up and how they work • Wiring - - An intro to set up and how they work
• Pneumatic Props & puzzles- explain what they are, how they’re programmed, how they work — and show examples 

Learn about the tech in a Gen 2 Escape Game!
Brian Warner

A seminar that shows what’s inside a Gen 2 escape game. Learn about the types of puzzles, props and technology available for room escape games, how they work, and what you need! Ideal for anyone that’s thinking about putting tech into their game.
​
• What does a Gen 2 escape room look like?

• Where do I find puzzles and what can they do?

• What’s needed to build a Gen 2 tech game
- type of help / level of skill
- type of setup (networking, internet etc.)

• Puzzle Types (cover different kind of tech and the differences they make in a game)
• Central Command / Control Panel Systems / Front desk systems

• Networking, wiring, relays
 



Melting the Mind: How to "imprison" your customer's reality.
Shawn Fischtein
 
This is advanced Game Theory! Let’s face it; as time goes on, customer expectations of escape rooms are rising. Long gone are the days you can build a Victorian bedroom with antique furniture and padlocks. So how to you develop a game that suspends someone’s reality with only an hour of their time? With proven game techniques utilized in the video game industry today, we’ll take a good hard look at some of the do’s and don’ts of invoking psychological responses that create repeat business.
 
 Topics Covered:
 
  • Emotional focus, what does this mean and why do I want to know?
  • The 5 Categories of brain responses and how you can control them.
  • Is anxiety an emotion I want to invoke? 
  • Difficulty settings and how they can break your game. 
  • Ambiguous puzzle design: the fastest way to a 1-star review.
  • Why being able to design a game is important?
  • Critical moments of a mission where your dollar goes further.

Escape Games for families & kids
Henry & Dennis Spector
​

There's a huge market out there that's being overlooked by escape game owners: Kids under the age of 16. Add games specifically designed for kids and/or families, and open your market to summer camps, schools, families — and more. Learn how to create games designed for kids aged 10+.

Topics will include:

• Learn how to create a kid/family game that that can be completed by groups of kids in a birthday party setting.

• Encourage teamwork and critical thinking while still maintaining an air of fun.
• Get basic tips on game writing, puzzle design, adding humor to the experience via the “giggle factor”.
• Set design that’s “kid proof" aka why low tech is kid friendly.
• Utilizing a well informed puzzle master to create an adaptable experience for a variety of age groups and intellect levels.
• The importance of briefing and debriefing.
•  Realizing the potential of using escape room formats as an educational tool for local youth groups and school districts.

​


Advertising for Escape Games
Elisabeth Garson
 
From websites and social media, to google SEO and AdWords, to Groupon and promo codes — this is an extremely dense, consolidated seminar that outlines the most important things you need to know about advertising your escape game.

Participants will identify their target audience and learn how to reach them via branding, copy, design, SEO and utilizing media that pivots around customer touch points.

Types of Advertising
A quick review of the types of advertising including traditional, viral, branding and shock advertising. We'll cover the importance of branding, often overlooked by most escape games. You'll blast ahead of the competition if you invest in your brand.

Advertising Science - What Fortune 500 companies do

Learn the basics of writing "benefit driven copy". See how huge advertisers generate action by targeting your demographic and providing a Call To Action (CTA). Learn how visuals are strategically chosen and inextricably linked to garner target audience response. Learn what "concepting" means and why it's vital in producing collateral. 

Advertising Tactics - Learn where to put your money based on your target audience
• Brand/image/logo
• Website
• Social Media Marketing
• Google / SEO - how to get better rankings (basic)
• AdWords - A fast, hard introduction
• Facebook / Yelp Ads
• Groupon & Deal Sites
• Review Sites
• Print

• Radio - (Don't bother)
• Video and Photography (don't use stock)

When advertising dictates business.
Your business strategy can (and should) be impacted by marketing communication. Learn how to build "easy to market" packages that appeal to your target audience.

Q&A




Live Podcast Recording with Room Escape Divas - FREE SEMINAR
Room Escape Divas  **
 
A FREE,  60-minute, live podcast recording! Join podcasters Room Escape Divas as they discuss escape rooms, community, player experience and more — with a live audience. Attendees will hear, first hand, from the nation's leading escape room podcast, what players value most in a good escape room experience. 
 
Booking Systems Overview
Learn about escape game booking systems, what to ask when selecting a booking company and how to configure your rooms, emails and policies.

• Learn the true costs of the major booking companies
• What is a payment gateway?
• What questions should you ask when selecting a booking company?
• Tips to save and migrate your data
• How do you configure your Rooms, Times, Messages, Payments
 
Booking Panel Q&A
Find the exact booking company you’re looking for! Get overviews and ask your questions to a panel of escape game booking companies, compare answers, and learn which works best for your company. A moderated panel where booking companies answer questions from the attendees. Compare and choose your booking company while you’re sitting in the audience!


ESCAPE GAME NUTS & BOLTS
Dave Ferrier
 
An intro seminar offering the day-to-day “musts” in an escape game; This course is a short-cut to all the things you need to know in daily operations. Hear tips on how to keep the show going when things go wrong. Learn the secrets of getting corporate bookings, keeping your room full — and more. Learn what it’s really like to run an escape game on a daily basis! From booking and sales, to debriefing and staff — get the nuts and bolts on the escape game business.
 
• What should be in your escape game “toolbox”?
• What equipment do you need in your control room?
• What should be on your cheat sheet?
• How do you do a proper brief and debrief whether they escape or not?
• What policies do you need?
• What are your game master’s tasks?
• How to provide amazing customer service
• How to “guest proof” your room

MEGAGAMES – THE FUTURE OF THE ESCAPE GAME INDUSTRY
Noam Strassfeld
​

Every had a corporate group call and ask you to host their group of 50-300? Offer a mega game! Create re-playable, scalable games for 50-150+ people —with one to four hour games.  Open your target audience to large corporate groups and host games at your location… or theirs.  Learn about creating, implementing, and marketing these games and the business model for this new industry.  Presented by one of the nation’s leaders in mega games, after the seminar, you can play a megagame on-site.
 
Seminar will cover the following:
  • What is a megagame
    - How it works (high level) & brief history
    - Benefits for megagame (replayable, scalable, longer games, flexiblility)

  • Creating a megagame
    - Describe commander problem and how to solve it (team game with different roles)
    - Games that all affect other games players are playing (and/or other teams playing)

  • Game mechanics
    - Immerse someone in the scenario and/or role
    - Affect other players on the players team/other teams/is boosted or requires something from another player
    - Encourages role playing and player improvisation
    - Builds on itself so the player feels like they are making progress
    - Builds on the shared story so it crescendos

  • Financial model
    - Flexibility allows more revenue/shift if one type of game is popular
    - Discuss different revenue streams, costs,
    - Future crazy out there models: Twitch participation

How To Get 5 Star Ratings — The Psychology of a Successful Escape Room Experience
​Kaycie & Andrew Davis
 
Behind every good game is a game master that’s manipulating and controlling the player’s experience… and their reactions. Andrew and Kaycie divulge their secret sauce on how to create a powerful, psychologically based escape game experience that impacts players: from the moment they book online….until the time they leave the building.  Learn about the power of the game master, sound, creating mini climaxes, spotlighting players — and more. This course provides exactly what you need to know about running a powerful, 5-star escape game — and getting exactly the reactions you want. This course is great for owners and enthusiasts alike.
​ 
·       Setting the tone with your intro emails / booking process
·       How to train game masters
·       Pre-game introductions
·       Psychological tricks to avoiding room breakage
·       Expanding on Marty Lee Parker’s chemical seminar (brain chemistry and how to manipulate it)
·       Game flow theory as it applies to Psychology and Physiology
·       Creating wow moments within your game (both high and low tech applications)
·       The big finish
·       Maximizing participant morale

CREATE A POWERFUL DEBRIEF!
​Kaycie & Andrew Davis

​NEED CONTENT

Escape Games: Working  with Brands, Film and Corporations 
Nate Martin
​

Open up your target market, increase revenue and create experiences backed by big budgets! This highly lucrative market that can work in addition to your on-site operations. This is an advanced level seminar providing a blueprint of the ins and outs and dos and don’ts of establishing a partnership and collaborating on a successful escape game product.

Starting Off – All the pre-work that needs done prior to putting pen to paper
  • Making the connection
  • Identifying what (doesn’t) make sense
  • Budgeting, scheduling, negotiations, contracts.
  • Is it worth it?

Designing a Perfect Experience – Using design expertise to collaborate to design the perfect product for both your client and your client’s clients.
  • Does your partner know what they know? Don’t know?
  • What is the Ultimate Goal?
  • What’s the form factor?

Building and Delivering – Because nothing makes itself
  • The lost art of logistics.
  • Who’s doing what?
  • Living and dying by schedules.

THE BUSINESS OF ESCAPE GAMES: WHAT DO I DO NEXT?
Nate Martin
​

The physical Escape Game Revolution is about 3 years old. How did we get here? What’s happening now? What’s happening next? And, most importantly, how can I avoid being left in the dust? For audiences of all experience levels.

A Brief History of Time (of Escape Rooms)
We will cover a high level abbreviated history of the quick evolution of the escape game industry. How the industry arrived at its current form plays a vital role in understanding what’s coming next.
​
Growing Larger, Growing Apart
We will cover some of the ways in which assorted escape game companies have begun to diverge and distinguish themselves, and in what ways these trends are expected to continue. We will also look at how to go with the flow, or against the flow, as best determined by your local market. In addition, we’ll look for answers to common growth questions:
  • Should I open more locations?
  • Build partnerships?
  • Build more rooms?
  • Build different types of games?
  • Focus on different audiences?

Parallels and Actionable Predictions
In many ways, the escape room industry is sui generis; there is simply nothing like it. In other ways, there’s a wealth of historical comparisons staring us right in the face. As we are able, we will visit the similarities to other industries. With careful examination, we are able to make likely predictions on what trends we can expect to (not) see, and how best to be prepared for what’s coming.
 


Mobile Escape Games - Drive to corporate locations, festivals and more!
Jason Garvett

Take your escape game on the road and drive to corporate client locations, schools, summer camps and festivals! Learn how to create mobile room escape games, trailer design, legal requirements, and the ins and outs of getting to your target audiences. This seminar examines the advantages and challenges of owning a mobile escape game and provides tips on how to open, operate and run a successful business. It’s ideal for anyone considering opening their own mobile game.
 
• How do I open a mobile escape room?
• Top Target Audiences
• What are the game differences with a mobile unit?
• Legal Aspects


How to add Team Building to your escape game. Attract more corporate groups!
Erick Gyrion
 
How do you provide corporate groups with what they need to feel they got a solid team-building experience for their staff? This seminar delivers sure-fire methods to add a team building value to your escape games including entry, in-game, and debriefing tips. Whether you’re currently open or planning on opening, this seminar walks you through some great options on how to maximize profits with the corporate market.
 
• How to create a fun and exciting game for corporate groups
• Playing the game vs. full team building
• How to provide a Return on Investment for your clients and keep them coming back again and again.
• Easy options to get your show on the road
• Advertising (how to reach them)
• Entrance Delivery (how to add team-building into the intro)
• In Game Tips (team-building analysis & competition in game)
• Exit photo (Important tips)
• Debriefing (This is vital in teambuilding)
• Create a powerful ROI
• Follow Up Communications (Providing value to the HR)

Today & Tomorrow: An analytical look the true financials of Escape Rooms.
Shawn Fischtein
 
Escape Rooms and Escape Game facilities can be a lucrative business if you play your cards correctly. Using standard business projection models and historical knowledge, we’ll take a systematic look at how to make sure you’ll be maximizing your margins for today, and protecting the life of your business for tomorrow. Through techniques used to predict industry specific developing markets we can use what we already know to predict what will happen.
 
What we’ll cover:

  • The get rich quick pirate ship. Has it sailed? Where did it sail to? Is it coming back?
  • Costing: how to know the barrier to entry in your area; how does this help?
  • How a quick ROI can mean a quick OOB (Out of Business).
  • Pricing & Value for Money Proposition, the driving force behind Escape Games.
  • A possible (but very likely) future for Escape Room’s balance sheets.
  • The competitive Landscape in the USA circa 2018 and beyond.
 
Questions that will be answered:
  • How do your financials stack up against your competitors?
  • What will my competitive landscape look like in a few years?
  • Where can you viably cut financial corners to maximize profits?
  • How much should you invest into new missions?
  • Is there a big fish or whale in your back-yard? Should you even care?
 



Starting an Escape Room from A-Z 
Derek Petit
Learn the basics to opening an escape game, from a practical point of view. Get the scoop about what you need to get started, and what to expect in the industry.

So you think you want to start an escape room?
  1. Motivations & Expectations
  2. Resources Needed

Create a plan of action! 
  1. Site selection
  2. Target demographics & Advertising
  3. Zoning / Certificate of Occupancy
  4. Building Layout and Construction Stage
  5. Story line and Puzzles
  6. Prop sourcing and Development
  7. Insurance and Corporate Governance
  8. Hiring Phase/Training
  9. Training Phase
  10. Alpha Testing of Rooms
  11. Beta Testing of Rooms
  12. Operational Systems Development including bank Accounts and Point of Sale System
  13. Equipment: Room over watch and control stations Sound system
  14. Launch
  15. Exit strategy

Questions and answer session Exchange Marketing information 


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​Contact Us: 215.688.0572
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