Lock Chicago's New Escape Room Location!

Hello Again!

Our team at Lock Chicago is excited to announce we're moving to a brand new location (still in Evanston don't worry!) to 820 Davis Street. This facility will be close to 4,000 square feet and triple the size of our existing space.

This will allow us to add 3 additional escape rooms and enhance our existing rooms even further to provide the best possible experience for our guests. We're delighted to be able to leverage our new innovative technology in our 3rd upcoming room which will launch in July! More details to come in a following post :)

Stay tuned as we will be passing out some hot new deals and promotions on our new room!

Cheers,

Lock Chicago

Understanding Humans and Running an Escape Room

Hello Again!

In this next installment of our Blog we're going to talk about what we've learned about human interaction when people are put in a new situation. It's funny, we initially thought that Private Escape Room groups would be more congenial or civil towards one another seeing as they are already friends/family but that is not necessarily the case! 

Our Public Group players even tend to be the nicest towards one another. Maybe it's because they're strangers and are trying not to look especially mean but who knows. When players are put in a unique situation they haven't experienced before they tend to also try things they might not have before. It's especially entertaining noticing younger kids or children with their families taking on more of a leadership role as parents try to scatter throughout the room without a sense of direction.

Our corporate partners/clients are also great examples of this when in many cases the central manager or organizer is not the one taking charge where you might find a more typical introverted employee stepping up and showing their skills.

It certainly keeps our time at Lock Chicago entertaining and we always welcome our friends from Evanston, Chicago, and all over to come try it out for themselves!

Best of Luck,

Lock Chicago - Escape Rooms

Lock Chicago/Life Movie Partnership Contest

Hello All!

We're excited to announce a contest we're hosting with the upcoming movie "Life"! We're offering free screening passes to the AMC 21 early screening on 3/22. Visit either of our Escape Rooms from now until 3/22 for a chance to win or visit or Facebook page for contest details: https://www.facebook.com/lockchicago.

We also have free "Life" swag including multi outlet charging cords, metallic water bottles, sunglasses, and more so come check us out!

Good Luck - Lock Chicago

Now Hiring Escape Room Game Masters/Operations Manager at Lock Chicago!

Game Master 
Lock Chicago Escape Games – Evanston, IL 60610 
$10 an hour - Part-time

Do you want the coolest job you've ever had? We are currently looking to add multiple part-time team members to our Lock Chicago team at Lock Chicago - Escape Games.

We are a rapidly growing, team-building, design consulting and retail entertainment company. We are looking for someone with wide ranging talents to work in conjunction with our current Operations Manager and learn the business as we expand to our new location in the coming months.

The positions we are looking to fill will be titled "Game Master". To be considered please submit a resume with the subject of "Game Master Application" to info@lockedchicago.com.

Game Master:

• This is a unique and one-of-a-kind job! You will educate our guests on how it all works. You will inform them of their objectives while in the room. You will work in a control room and coach the guests while on their journey to escape! You will be their guide when they stumble and offer them hints if needed. You will then prepare the Escape Room for the next group of guests.
• You must be fun and enthusiastic as you are a big part of the whole guest experience from beginning to end.
• Prior to applying to this position you must first familiarize yourself with the concept of Escape Rooms and the worldwide phenomenon that is spreading fast across the US. Escape Rooms stimulate the mind, your sense of curiosity and your ability to work with others in an effort to escape.
• Please visit our website at www.lockedchicago.com to learn more.
• If on one hand you like video games, playing chess, and solving puzzles/riddles, while on the other hand you like designing, building and/or fixing things, you have found the perfect job!

This job requires you to be:

• Remotely view and monitor games in progress and assist participants
• Customer Service focused
• Professional, polished and well-spoken
• Hands-on and handy with tools and gadgets
• Game or puzzle-minded
• Creative thinker
• Flexible with regards to work schedule

This job requires the following experience:

• Retail, amusement or hospitality experience.
• Comfortable engaging with both small and large groups of people.
• Public Speaking experiences a plus!
• We'll teach you the rest!

Escape Rooms and Advertising! How Lock Chicago Can Build Your Brand.

Hello Again!

As entrepreneurs who are constantly trying to build our brand presence on and offline we understand the importance and how companies are using escape rooms and other unique methods to increase their presence. We recently had the great opportunity to partner with McDonald's and help unveil their 3 new "Big Mac's" to the world as well as assist in delivering over 10,000 bottles of their secret sauce to the loyal fanbase!

We were initially contacted by a production agency tasked with making it all happen and knew from minute one that this was going to be no ordinary escape room design project. The task seemed simple enough - develop one escape room that could be replicated 3 times to be live streamed across the world on 3 major social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

We worked closely with the props teams to develop puzzles that incorporated McDonald's legacy and culture as well as facts about the new Big Mac rollouts. All in all it was a very unique and creative way for McDonald's to get their message across (with over 100,000 views currently across 3 platforms) and we expect to see many other companies/brands hopping on board with this trend!

Even now we are seeing the video game "Resident Evil" launch their nationwide live escape room tour to advertise and promote their newest version of the game coming out. Companies are getting wise to the way that they can interact with their fans and escape rooms provide the perfect venue to do so.

Us at Lock Chicago certainly support that notion and are here to lend a hand for those looking to venture into this space and those who are just curious to find different escape games coming to their city! Until next time...

Cheers,

Lock Chicago

Who Would You Do An Escape Room With?

Hello Again! 

We've seen hundreds of amazing groups come through our Lock Chicago escape rooms over the years and we love seeing the different compositions whether it's coworkers, friends, family, college/high school students, and more. As escape rooms continue to grow in popularity it's nice seeing celebrities and public figures making headlines as they bring their own friends to take up the cause.

Most recently actress Kristen Bell brought fellow coworker Ted Danson and his wife along to do an escape room which went interesting to say the least! Patton Oswald, Chris Evans, and others have used Escape Rooms to donate money to charities and other organizations while having fun at the same time.

Who's your ideal person to do an Escape Room with? Sound off! 

http://www.contactmusic.net/kristen-bell/news/escape-room-game-was-a-big-challenge-for-kristen-bell-ted-danson_5523967

Happy Holidays From Lock Chicago, Our Escape Room to Yours

With only two weeks away from Christmas and New Years we wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holidays! It's been nearly a year since we opened and been an amazing experience meeting other owners and sharing our love of escape rooms with the community.

When we initially opened Lock Chicago we wanted to create the ultimate experience leveraging puzzles and games no other escape room was utilizing. While it's impossible to know what's being offered throughout the world we have had an amazing time connecting and networking with other owners who share a passion for the industry. 

It is important that all escape room owners help each other out because the last thing we want is for a new room to open and fail causing first time escape room goers to be turned off to the industry. I'm sure it's been a busy year for everyone so take some time during the busy holidays to rest up, relax, (maybe repair your rooms from the holiday madness) and spend time with friends and family.

We know we will!

Cheers,

Lock Chicago