Hello game lovers,

It's slated to be a dreary day in Chicago, with rain in the forecast all day - perfect weather to rally around the table and play your favorite board and card games!  I just received word from Brad at Out of the Box, makers of such popular games as Squint and Apples to Apples, that they are running a special promotion.  I call it the "rainy day discount" - if you use discount code 87565 when you check out, you'll receive FREE SHIPPING... and yes, I am such a big fan of free shipping that I feel it warrants CAPS.

Always have fun,
Jacob

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.

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

Thanks to the wonderful folks at CafePress.com, the artful stylings of Kalin and the computer graphics skills of Roberto, we have an official merchandise store.  We've currently got four designs stocked, two pertaining to the racial implications of chess, one to tout your skills as a poker master and one whimsical design that makes light of developing in the game Settlers of Catan.  You can check out all of the designs at the official GameTime 24x7, Ltd. Merchandise Shop.