There is only one more week until RECON and we’re excited to announce the second of two panels: Owning an Escape Room in 2020.
The panelists will reflect on where we were, where we are, and where we’re going.
WHO’S WHO?
Amy Philip of Escape Games PDX, Portland, OR, USA 
Anne Lukeman of CU Adventures, Champaign-Urbana, IL, USA 
Bogdan Dascalescu of Puzzle Punks, Dubrovnik, Croatia 
Gijs Geers of DarkPark, Zoetermeer, Netherlands 
Megan Mouton of Clue Carré, New Orleans, LA, USA 
Seth Wolfson of Hourglass Escapes, Seattle, WA, USA 
Summer Herrick of Locurio, Seattle, WA, USA
Read the speakers’ bios on the RECON website.
ABOUT THE PANEL
Nobody is having the year they envisioned on New Year’s Day 2020. At RECON, we feel it’s important to recognize this, and how escape rooms have been impacted by the state of our world. This group of owners will share the different ways they have reacted to the upheaval in the world and in their businesses. With a mixture of insights, and maybe a little group therapy, this panel documents what we hope will ultimately be a short-lived chapter in the history of escape rooms.
About the Panelists
We invited a group of creative and articulate owners to speak about their experiences this year. It’s been a challenging year and these panelists are opening up and sharing their experiences – the good, the bad, and the scary.
I’m excited to be moderating the panel, which in this virtual world means directing the course of the conversation. We’ve got a lot of topics – both lighthearted and deeply reflective – to share with you.
Presented in the order that we’ve first played one of their games:
Summer Herrick
Locurio, Seattle, WA, USA
We first met Summer in 2016. We stopped in Seattle at the end of our honeymoon specifically to visit Locurio, and play her first game The Vanishing Act. It wowed us. Summer is a skilled puzzler and a storyteller.
Amy Philip
Escape Games PDX, Portland, OR, USA
We met Amy in 2017 when we spent a day playing escape rooms in Portland and checked out Amnesia and Portlandia. We’ve enjoyed getting to know Amy at events over the years, but Amy truly wowed us at Up the Game in 2019 when she moderated a panel under challenging circumstances, providing great content.
Bogdan Dascalescu
Puzzle Punks, Dubrovnik, Croatia
On our first trip to Up The Game in May of 2017, we met Bogdan just before we were to take the stage. We loved chatting with him and hoped to travel to Croatia to play his games. That day hasn’t arrived yet, but through the miracle of the internet, we met Bogdan again this summer as Ser Dontos, the avatar role in his virtually adapted Save King’s Landing.
Megan Mouton
Clue Carré, New Orleans, LA, USA
In October of 2017 we first traveled to New Orleans to visit this market that we’d heard so much about. Of course, a hurricane blew in, so we fled to Houston, but less than 24 hours later, we’d made it back to New Orleans so as not to miss our bookings at Clue Carré. It was worth it. Megan has been an outstanding partner in hosting two Escape Immerse Explore tours to New Orleans, hurricane reshuffling and all. We and our tour attendees especially loved French Quarter House of Curiosities and Alien Encounter.
Gijs Geers
DarkPark, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
On our second trip to Up the Game in 2018, we traveled outside of Amsterdam specifically to visit DarkPark, a company we’d heard so much about on our first trip. We played all four of the original DarkPark games in one day, and we were especially impressed with the intensity of these games and Gijs’ attention to detail. We admire Gijs’ willingness to adapt: after we criticized his original games for their weaker endings, Gijs responded resoundingly with a new game called The End. It was amazing.
Anne Lukeman
CU Adventures, Champaign-Urbana, IL, USA
We haven’t traveled to Champaign-Urbana yet, but we truly enjoyed The Lost Temple, CU Adventure’s combination digital + printable game, and we hope to get the chance to visit Anne’s real-life games too. We played an evening of not-so-great escape rooms in St. Louis with Anne last year, but we had a ton of fun anyway, because a great teammate can make all the difference.
Seth Wolfson
Hourglass Escapes, Seattle, WA, USA
Seth is someone you can call on when you need 10 teammates for a game and you don’t know anyone in Seattle. Way back in 2016, before we’d even met Seth, he came through on this ask, and we’re so glad we got to play the game, and better yet, meet Seth. It was a great day! Since then Seth has opened Hourglass Escapes. Our team loved the virtual adaptation of Evil Dead 2 this summer and we look forward to visiting Hourglass Escapes in person one day.
Register for RECON
RECON is almost here! Join us Monday, August 24 at 16:00 (New York time) for this panel.
If you haven’t registered yet, you can do it today. Right now!
By registering you’ll have all the information you need to watch this panel and the other featured talks, and to join the conversation.
Not sure if you guys have thought about this, but will there be a way to watch these panels later if we can’t make the live times? Thanks!
We encourage you to watch the content live as much as possible and to join the conversations in the RECON Discord as it all unfolds. The panelists will be chatting in the RECON Discord after the panels. That said, we realize that time zones can present a challenge, and we’ll be making portions of the stream re-watchable in the weeks after the convention.