Today my schedule took me, and with me GameTime 24x7, all over the city to meet with a variety of game-loving people.  First thing this morning, I had the privilege of sharing breakfast with Mary Couzin, founder of the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, Carina of Casa De Carina, and Carina's cousin Danny Lewis of the DLRP Marketing Company.  We are developing a collaborative effort to market an incredible game system to the Latino community - LOTERIA MIX™.  You'll be hearing more about this over the next few days.

I also had the opportunity to speak with Michael Harper of TalentGenesis.  We're going to meet in a couple weeks, when he returns to Chicago, to discuss games and professional development.  In the mean time, he suggested that I get a copy of The Kids are Alright: How the Gamer Generation is Changing the Workplace.  I found a copy on sale cheap at Amazon.com, so I should have it shortly to review.  I'll share what I learn about the gamer culture and its impact on the business world via this blog.

At lunch, my friend and business associate Brian Blankstein met up with me and we got together with Yan Pritzker, CEO of Planypus, a website designed to support impromptu get-togethers among friends.  We may find ourselves collaborating soon on a special project - stay tuned.

In the evening, I returned to my favorite Argo Tea over at 16 W. Randolph for this Wednesday's GameTime Afterhours.  Brian and I helped introduce a few newbies to Settlers of Catan and then we settled in for some team-based party games, beginning with a rousing game of Cranium and wrapping up with a marathon session of Taboo.  We almost ran through every single one of the pink-colored cards.  My most intriguing observation of the experience was how radically differently every player approached the challenge of providing clues without using the restricted words.  Players provided hints ranging from very literal word associations to vague implications and from terse terms or expressions to very verbose, rapid-fire commentary.  From this observation, I discovered that there is a value to collaborating with someone who has a complementary communication style OR one who has a style that can adapt to complement yours.  When you discount the challenge of avoiding the restriction words, performance between pairs or teams varied wildly from -2 points at the minimum to 7 points at the maximum in a single round.  I'm very eager to learn more about how Taboo could be used to evaluate communications styles and enable teams to more effectively communicate.

Argo Tea was once again the place to be tonight, as the board games came out and the gloves came off.  I felt honored to introduce Duane to Scrabble for the first time - we played a "pointless" game and he quickly picked up the mechanics.  We then turned out attention to Settlers of Catan - wouldn't you know it, the tables at Argo are the perfect size to fit the 3-4 player map for Settlers of Catan!  After a serious shortage of wheat, followed by a dearth of ore, Duane managed to pick up all the right resources and came out the winner after earning the Largest Army card.

Night #2 of the week of games at Argo Tea on Randolph Street has passed and with it, another fun night of games.  There was something for everybody as players participated in Spades, Scrabble and Backgammon.  I had the privilege of reintroducing a hopeful Chicago transplant to the game of backgammon as we brainstormed ways to provide games and fun to the armed forces - an entirely new idea that I hadn't even considered.

A couple of the Argo hospitality are getting intrigued as well - it wouldn't surprise me if we had a couple of them joining in the games later this week during their days off.  I even had the privilege of meeting the visionary who founded Argo Tea - we have plans later in the week to talk, entrepreneur to entrepreneur.  I'm excited...

Want to unwind after a long day at work?  Do you prefer Scrabble over sitcoms, euchre over football, or just love to play games?  Or maybe you just missed your Metra by a few minutes?  Whatever your reason, we've organized GameTime Afterhours as an opportunity for you to roll out of the office and relax with fun and games, whatever your fancy.

• Who: Anyone who loves to play games - table games, card games, puzzles, word games... you name it!
• What: B.Y.O.G. (Bring Your Own Games) game night in the Loop
• Where: Argo Tea, 16 W. Randolph St. (upstairs on the mezzanine level) - centrally located within 2 blocks of all major CTA trains and downtown express busses
• When: Monday-Friday, from 4pm ‘til close, starting Monday, February 4
• Why: You love to socialize, play games and meet new people
• How: Stop in at the mezzanine level of Argo Tea at 16 W. Randolph St.