Table Of Contents
PART 1 – What is, Who for, Verdict, Support
PART 2 – The awesome people behind RECON ’21
PART 3- Escape game jam, Playpass
PART 4 – Workshops
PART 5 – Featured talks
PART 6 – Sponsors and vendors, Takeaways
RECON ‘21 sponsors
Here are the escape room brands and marketing firms who sponsored RECON ‘21.
Telescope Live by Buzzshot
Platinum sponsor
Almost every escape room enthusiast has heard of the Telescape software that makes playing online escape rooms a dream!
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
The Lost Keys
Platinum sponsor
The design consultants behind some of the world’s best loved escape games!
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
Escape Room Labs
Gold sponsor
They specialize in making escape games immortal…in the sense of converting physical escape games that are being replaced into modular escape games that can be moved or sold.
Escape Connection
Gold sponsor
An escape room directory that’s looking to change how you search for escape rooms. It lets people search from amongst tons of escape rooms based on relevant parameters, and also make a booking.
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
Indestroom
Gold sponsor
They are one of the largest escape room builders and suppliers in the world.
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
SEO ORB (that’s us)
Gold sponsor
Helping escape rooms crack the marketing puzzle so they can reach out to more people, intrigue them into booking, and then booking again, and again…till they’ve played all the games at the escape room!
The Impressive Company
Gold sponsor
They focus on using technology to bring storytelling, technology and gamification together to create magical experiences.
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
Meridian Adventures
Gold sponsor
Meridian creates escape rooms and immersive experiences for enthusiasts to enjoy. They’ve also published a book on the history of immersive entertainment…with a toolkit for players to beat escape rooms!
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
Ubisoft
Gold sponsor
If you’ve played VR escape games, you’ve heard of Ubisoft. They’re one of the most well-known creators of VR escape games.
Trap Door Escape
Gold sponsor
I’d be wrong if I said Trap Door is one of the best-known escape rooms in the world. That’s because they go so much more beyond escape rooms into other forms of immersive entertainment, like puzzle-themed weekend getaways and even a ‘spirit tasting’ experience!
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
Fun Virtual Event
Gold sponsor
As you may have guessed from their name, these guys help folks like you and me create thrilling online experiences, by licensing out their games.
iDventure
Gold sponsor
They’re THE WHOLE PACKAGE! They literally create experiences – detective stories, escape games, puzzle adventures – that fit inside packages that can be carried anywhere!
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
RECON ‘21 vendors
PostCurious
They combine the escape room experience, the board game concept and interactive elements to create one helluva ‘narrative puzzle adventure’. Does that make you curious?
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
Puzzling Package Industries
They create immersive puzzle experiences based on hand-curated mysteries from the past, and they can deliver your chosen experience at your doorstep. Puzzled?
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
Morty
Morty is an app that lets you find, plan, book, review and remember escape room games. Think of it as Tinder for Escape Rooms.
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
Zolitopia
A consultancy and learning forum for escape rooms BY escape room owner ‘Zoli’, the co-founder of ClueQuest, which has grown into a multinational escape room brand.
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
USB Escape
So far we’ve seen creators of physical escape rooms, VR escape rooms, modular escape rooms and tabletop escape rooms.
So it’s entirely appropriate that this next name on the list is a creator of escape room games that can be played through a USB stick!!!
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
District 3 Escape Rooms
In-person/physical escape rooms. Digital escape rooms. VR escape rooms. Tabletop escape rooms. Printable escape rooms.
You name it, District 3 has it.
Visit their website
Follow them on Instagram
Solve Our Shirts
The escape room experience you’ll NEVER see coming.
An entire escape game, inside a SINGLE SHIRT.
Trapped Puzzle Rooms
A family-owned escape room brand, Trapped has covered escape rooms, puzzle hunts, created custom experiences for corporate customers, and ‘escape room takeouts’.
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
MindGames Productions
They provide escape game building, mobile game building, and consultancy services to escape rooms.
We The Enthusiasts
They have a unique service for escape room fans over the globe.
They issue ‘escape room passports’, and subscribers can get their ‘passports’ officially stamped at participating escape rooms. Oh, and they might have the odd deal for you!
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
The Code and Key Escape Rooms
They both have a highly successful escape room of their own (in Bloomington, Indiana, USA), plus they sell escape game plans and puzzle boxes.
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
The Cryptex
The cryptex – a cylindrical lockbox – is a central plot element in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
Justin Nevins has been creating best selling puzzle pieces based on the same cryptex since 2004.
Terpeca
The Terpeca Project aims to bridge escape room owners and enthusiasts by ranking escape rooms on the basis of their contributors’ (experienced enthusiasts) experiences.
Visit their website
Follow them on Facebook
ERGO
If you are an escape room owner, chances are, you’ve heard of ERGO.
It describes itself as “an organization for theatrical escape rooms that operate live immersive experiences”, that tries to develop and maintain “best practices in the immersive entertainment industry”.
My verdict on RECON ‘21
The short version is: RECON is only for those people who have a very specific interest in escape room industry aspects like hospitality, narratives, engineering and tech, and industry lobbying.
And if you believe that then you also believe that K-pop songs are for teenage girls only.
Jokes apart, what’s the verdict on RECON ‘21?
Why should you attend it?
Should you think about financially supporting it?
Here’s how I see it…
RECON for escape room players and enthusiasts
Like I need to tell you about the joys of chugging beer (or orange juice, if that’s your jam) in your room, meeting up with enthusiasts from various other corners of the world, learning so many things about your favorite industry, and of course…playing lots of escape games!
RECON is a conference on something we’re all passionate about.
So whether it’s learning about escape rooms from different cultures,
Meeting some of the people who may have actually designed some of your favorite games,
Or striking up lifelong friendships…
The sky is the limit at RECON!
RECON for escape room owners
As an owner, you KNOW how important innovation is, if you want to survive.
And to innovate, you simply need to know more about your industry.
- Where is it headed?
- What are some of the best practices that are attracting repeat bookings and rave reviews?
- How can you identify weakness in your game?
RECON offers a great opportunity for you to rub shoulders with fellow owners, enthusiasts and thought leaders,
So you have a chance to gain the knowledge and strike up the relationships you need to innovate and grow your escape room.
Creators and designers
It ain’t news that creators and designers don’t get a lot of visibility in the industry.
That’s just how the experience is – 90% of the visibility and credit for a great experience goes to escape rooms and their owners.
This is where RECON comes in.
It’s a perfect opportunity to gain visibility at par with escape rooms.
Meet up with enthusiasts and get their perspective on what they like or dislike in the escape experience.
Interact with other creators and designers and strike up collabs.
Meet with the owners who are your prospective clients.
Attending RECON is a no-brainer for creators and designers.
Suppliers and agencies
As a supplier/agency for escape rooms…
What better place to be than an event where there’ll be so many escape room owners, enthusiasts, designers and creators present?
Understand industry requirements from owners.
Get feedback from enthusiasts.
Interact with creators and designers, some of whom you may be interested in working with, in future.
If you have a product/service that needs to be validated, there’s no better way of getting it done than booking a stall at RECON!
The final word
Here’s the deal…
The crux of what’s been said over this 6th part review of RECON ‘21.
RECON is an escape room conference unlike any other.
- It’s big tent – escape rooms and immersive experiences from any and every niche are welcome.
- It’s diverse – you get a sample of various escape room and immersive experience cultures.
- It’s fun – you get to interact with people from all over the world; you get to play escape games…and sometimes, you get a sneak peek of new game releases.
- It’s informative – As we have seen, RECON is a fabulous opportunity to gain insight into key industry aspects from thought leaders, through workshops and featured talks.
- It’s a movement – for the growth of the escape rooms and immersive entertainment industry, by the escape rooms and immersive entertainment industry.
And they’ll be back in 2022.
Bigger.
Better.
And I hope to meet you there.