You’ll be able to type your questions (and comments) in the chat to direct the Q&A part of the livestream. Feel free to send us a message in advance if there is anything you’d especially like us to cover.
Story Time: Remember that time in an escape room when…
By the way, for story time, we told a story about our early days in escape rooms. Click through to see photographic evidence of Drew’s epic mustache. We also answered a bunch of viewer questions. These were our favorite parts.
In short, we’re doing right by everyone, and we’re striving to make these changes as painless as we possibly can… because 2020 has sucked enough, we aren’t looking to make it worse for anyone.
We want to use this post to give you a behind-the-scenes look at why we’ve decided to make this change, and help you understand how we’ve been able to do it.
Why Delay RECON Boston?
We don’t need to tell anyone in the escape room industry how hard 2020 has been. So we won’t.
We don’t need to explain the reasons why we’re delaying a year. They are obvious.
We’ve been watching how big events outside of the escape room world have been handling their decision-making process. We realized that the shows that we were supposed to go to that cancelled early and sought to serve their communities digitally caused a lot less drama.
We didn’t want to engage in a months-long will-they/ won’t-they with all of our supporters caught in the wind.
So we began exploring our options.
How Did This Happen?
This is the part where we thank people.
The RECON team is fantastic. We are constantly amazed by their professionalism and ability to execute. No one is making any money off of this. We’re so honored that they share their skills, knowledge, and time to make these events amazing, even when circumstances are seemingly impossible.
We also need to thank Boston Marriott Cambridge. When we approached them early looking to delay, we didn’t know what to expect. We found partners. They have gone above and beyond to help make this process as painless as possible. And believe us, there were plenty of opportunities for difficulty.
Finally, we thank our ticket holders, exhibitors, and sponsors. Not a single person or entity has caused any drama whatsoever. The faith that you have shown us has been noticed and deeply appreciated. We hope that the manner in which we’re responding is worthy of the trust that you’ve put in us.
Why Go Digital?
Even if we weren’t already planning a real-life convention, under the current circumstances, we would be producing a digital convention in 2020.
Now is the time for the escape room community to come together to:
Share knowledge
Learn how to weather the present challenges
Build a stronger, more resilient future
We have an opportunity to connect people from all over the world, and we’re going to make the most of it.
Above all, in times like these, events need to be inclusive.
We invite you to join us into building the global community that this industry has long needed.
This may not be our original plan, but we’re going to adapt and deliver value nonetheless.
We realize that the tours are approaching more quickly than RECON. These are smaller events with less risk of exposure. That said, we are monitoring the situation closely and we will be sharing updates with our attendees as they become available.
In all cases, our sentiment and approach remains the same:
We’re going to do the research and hard work to take care of our attendees. If you were on our New Orleans Tour last year when a hurricane struck, you would have seen how tirelessly we worked to turn that event into a success through dedication, adaptability, and a near total lack of sleep.
We truly appreciate those who have purchased tickets to our 2020 events already. We want the rest of the community to purchase with confidence that those hosting them are attentive, responsive, and alert.
