Ladies and gentlemen,

I've officially established the date and venue for the next GameTime Connections business relationship event.  Mark your calendars and sign up today.  There is a limited number of seats and we have a special early-bird rate for those who signed up or participated in the March event - $10 for the next week, before the rate returns to the $15 regular rate.  Follow this link to the main GameTime Connections page and sign up today!

Based on feedback from the last event, I expect that the event will fill up quickly.  I look forward to seeing your smiling faces, having fun AND networking at the same time - who knew?

Always have fun,
Jacob

My apologies in advance to those of you who were unable to attend tonight's GameTime Connections event, as this post might make you feel bad that you couldn't join us.  There were eighteen of us playing adaptations of Squint and Cranium to complement the structured networking activities of which we were taking part.  Through rotations between activities, every participant was able to meet and socialize a substantial amount with at least ten other participants.  The conversations ranged from a business focus to personal topics, demonstrating that guests were engaging both at a professional and a personal level.  Here is some feedback from post-event evaluations:

"Overall, very good!"
"It was a good 1st time event for me... thank you!"

Special thanks go out to Julie McGoogan, who ensured that the event ran smoothly, and to our two fine game/networking facilitators, Hope Bertram and Travis Downs.  Thank you to the three of you for supporting me in pulling off such a tremendously successful event.  Thanks also go out to Bella Rossa Restaurant, located at 23 W. Hubbard St., Chicago, IL 60610, for providing such a spectacular spread of pizzas, bruschetta, fried mushrooms and ravioli - all of the food was spectacular and we couldn't have had a more gracious event host for tonight's event.

In lieu of a conventional unconventional activity-of-the-week, I encourage you all to join us for the GameTime Connections idea party/business relationship event.  At times I describe this event as "netplaying", because the connotation of "networking" is so negative and painful for most business people to bear.  Our GameTime Connections event pairs fun games with structured networking to make the process fun and productive for all participants.  Visit the GameTime Connections page to learn more and register.

Games.  Professional development.

Two things, both of which get me very excited.  I decided to start making a list of organizations and individuals that employ games either to help individuals develop professional skills or to enable team-building.  From my personal contacts, these are the following groups who use games in a business context:

• Action Centered Training, Inc. - I was introduced to Ron Roberts by way of Mary Couzin.  Ron has an incredible passion toward professional development and not only uses, but invents games to use in team-building and corporate training endeavors.
• iO (formerly improvOlympic) - Paul Bellos reached out to me after my first GameTime Connections event was promoted in Brad Spirrison's Chicago Sun Times column.  We met in-person and hit it off as we share similar values toward play, creativity and professional development.  iO does great improv shows and has adapted their training programs to support corporate needs.
• The Go Game - My brother-in-law took part in an implementation of The Go Game as a large-scale team-building event for one of his business organizations.  Aside from wire figures dancing like gorillas on the splash page, I get the impression that these people know games and have created a unique approach to team development.

Who else is using games within a corporate framework?  Comment here about the individuals, groups or companies from whom you have experienced team-building or professional development games.

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