This past week was quite a busy one.  In just seven days, GameTime 24x7:

• officially partnered with Mary Couzin, Caren Ex and Danny Lewis to secure sponsors for the Loteria Mix game
• engaged with Gamers of Chicago and the Chicago LAN Party Meetup to collaborate on a casual game design competition - site and rules forthcoming
• further streamlined the vision of the GameTime 24x7 physical club concept - a haven for game lovers to meet, play and explore all variety of games

Of course, with our vision of improvisational entrepreneurship, we're always looking for passionate folks who would like to be a part of any of our initiatives, including the three mentioned above.  If you are eager to engage on business or game-related projects, email your interests and past experience to gamesmaster@gametime24x7.com - operators are standing by.

Always have fun,
Jacob

Just wanted to add a thought before signing out tonight.  Amidst the throng of bikers along Michigan Avenue, viewable from my office at 500 N. Michigan, and the din of fireworks that sound almost like downtown Chicago has mysteriously relocated to the West Bank, I've been thinking about how people approach games from the standpoint of rules and what it means in a broader context.  From all of the years I have played games, I've noticed two distinct types of people, those who play according to the rules and those who play with the rules.  Now, the fireworks appear to have caused my brain to lose all capacity to function, or perhaps that's just the time (6:44pm as I type this), so I'll leave the conclusion to you, the reader, for now.  I'm sure that I'll be revisiting this topic shortly.

Man, it feels good to engage with an audience.  Those who have never exposed themselves to public speaking are missing a wonderful exhilaration, something of a cross between a rock star and a professor.  Every time I grab my Atek presenter's remote, firmly clenched in my right hand in a Bob Dole-esque pose, a wonderful rush of energy comes over me, as I know that I'm going to be delivering some truly valuable content to an eager audience.

It was just like I described on Thursday morning when Marcel Skacel, of XenoWize, LLC, joined me in front of an audience of 32 participants in the SCORE Chicago Web Design That Works workshop.  We had a very dynamic dialogue with the audience, as both presenters and audience simultaneously shared their best practices around web design, hosting and eCommerce.  Because there were a number of requests for additional resources in the web design space, I prepared a SCORE Chicago Web Design That Works resource list for attendees and blog readers alike to find sites devoted to a variety of the web design, marketing and sales services that they seek.  Because it can be dynamic, I have plans to add links that I discover or that are sent to me.

If you know of an invaluable site for advice on web design, marketing or sales, throw it on here as a comment and I'll incorporate it into the list.

Following the hot experiences at Argo Tea last week - both figuratively and literally - I have taken the weekend to make some enhancements to the website.  Visitors can now find a full selection of games and game supplies for sale in our very own Amazon.com aStore, appropriately named the GameTime 24x7 Store. Additionally, thanks to some advice from Ishmael, I have put together a Google Calendar to aggregate and broadcast Chicago area game events.  Now you can find all of the major game events in the Chicago area... in one place.  Event organizers are welcome to submit events to us via the GamesMasterATgametime24x7.com address and we'll post them right up in the calendar.

We've just migrated from wordpress.com to BlogEngine.Net, so stay tuned for updates and information about games and activities in Chicago.