Ep. 79: 'ACTIVATE' Play at MOA

[00:00:01] It's home to world-class shopping, great dining, and amazing attractions and events. And these are our stories presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Welcome everyone and welcome to this new episode of So Much More. I'm your host today, Dan Jasper, and I am joined by my friends and my colleagues, Chris Scropp and Sarah Johnson. Hey guys, how are you doing? Hello, hello. Good, Dan. This is good. It's good. It's going to be fun. Happy to be here.

[00:00:28] Actually, a couple of days ago, Sarah, Chris, and I had an adventure in a new tenant. And we're going to get to that in just a little bit because that's the focus of our show. But it's January. It's cold outside. It's Minnesota. Where do people go in Minnesota, in the Twin Cities when it's cold outside? Where do they go? Ball of America. They're all here. They go to all of them, especially families with kids, right? It's a great place to burn energy. It's a great place to have fun, to be warm.

[00:00:55] We have things like we have Adventure Bay in Nickelodeon Universe for those with little ones. It's a great place for them to, besides the rides, they love Adventure Bay with all the characters. Great way to burn off that toddler energy. It's awesome. Adventure Bay, yes. And it's fun to watch them, to be quite honest. And up in Crayola, our Crayola experience, there's a fun play area there and a lot of fun activities for especially the younger kids.

[00:01:18] Newer tenant, SJ, we have Cocomelon located on Level 3, right? Tell us a little bit about that. You've been up there and seen it. I have. Cocomelon is so fun. So open during the holiday season and it's an experience for younger kiddos. So ages 0 to 6. Yeah. It's a full experiential space where you can spend 2 to 3 hours in it and it's great for not only the kiddos, but also the parents and then they have a retail space as well. So you can buy some lunch.

[00:01:44] And we have activities and great events for families with young kids as well throughout the year, but it's especially popular during the winter months. But we also have a new tenant that is popular for those over the age of 6. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Our special guest today is Blake Telshaw and Blake is with Activate. Welcome, Blake. Thank you. Glad to be here. Thanks, guys. What the heck is Activate? Tell us. For those who've never seen it or been there, how would you describe it?

[00:02:13] Yeah. We try and describe ourselves as an active gaming experience. So we have game rooms where people come and play. I've got multiple game modes within each game room, so there's lots to do. Each game has up to 10 difficulty levels as well, so you can really take a light workout or really challenge yourself. I mean, that's like the corporate business-y talk. What it is, is it's entry-level Tron. Yeah, it is. It is what it is. You're inside a digital element, right?

[00:02:41] Exactly. It's a video game come to life. You're the main character. Absolutely. That's a better way of saying it. A video game come to life and you are the main character. Right. It's so much fun. Where in the mall is Activate located? Yeah, we are located on the third floor on the east end of the mall. We are actually right next door to Cocomelon. So for those younger kids that can't play Activate, Cocomelon's right next door. But for six and up, we're right there, third floor. It's wonderful. And what is your website before I forget to do any of this? How can people find out more information?

[00:03:11] You can find us on playactivate.com. It'll show all the different locations there. You can book specifically for the Mall of America. We also have a Roseville location here in Minnesota, and then we're all across the US, Canada, and we're starting to branch out across the world as well. And origins in Canada. Correct. Winnipeg, yes. We found that out. We'll talk about it in a little bit. We did. How we realized that it was Canadian. I'm going to ask Sarah, we all walked up and went into this space together.

[00:03:40] What was your impression as we turned the corner and entered into the play area? I was blown away. I won't lie. We talked briefly about this. When you walk up, it feels like it's a little low key. There's not a lot going on in your sitting area, if you will. And so by the time you turn that corner and it's all dark and the lights kind of, to your point, it's like a video game come to life. It blew my mind. Right. I was so excited to see what more we were going to find.

[00:04:02] Yeah. It's kind of mysterious almost. Very dark, but the LEDs are really cool and I think that kind of captures people's interest right away, right off the bat. And then we've got just a bunch of screens lining the hallway so you can kind of get a sneak peek as to which game room you're approaching and get an idea of what you're in for. Well, it's nerdy, but from an experiential design standpoint, it's a tonal shift. Yeah. Like you create a threshold that somebody goes through and you've changed the expectation.

[00:04:29] And I think I'm a big fan. These guys know this. I don't want to show people what's in the box ever. Yep. You have to pursue that and you do that multiple ways. So you turn the corner from the waiting area, getting into it, but then you have to discover what's behind each door as well. Yep. Super fun. It's very fun. And even the floor is fun, right? Yep. It's cushioned. It is. Yeah. It's nice when you've been playing for a little bit and your knees and your back are sore. No, it's gotta be.

[00:04:59] It has to be. Well, and let's go back just a little bit before you actually even get to that tunnel where all the rooms are. What do you do when someone first shows up at your space? How do you get them enrolled or signed up? Absolutely. So they come in and check in with our front desk. We do accept walk-in bookings, obviously with the Mall of America. Walk-in traffic is a pretty common thing. So check in with our team up front. And then after that, the fun begins. You get to fill out your player profile,

[00:05:27] get to create a unique username, which I kind of liken to a gamer tag for those video gamers out there that like to come in and play. And that nickname is going to follow you throughout your games and it'll show up on our leaderboards. And would be throughout multiple locations as well. Exactly, yes. So if you play it anywhere, that same tag will follow you. And it does have to be unique. So if someone else is taking it, you gotta be a little bit more creative. But yeah, you check in, create your player profile. We've got lockers provided for people.

[00:05:54] So if you've got loose items or clothes you want to change out of, everything can go in the lockers on site. And then once we've got you all checked in, then it's time to head to the back. Any limit, sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, that's a good point. If it's an intentional visit, prepare. Yes. Wear the correct clothing. I was going to say. If it's a walk up, okay. Like you may be sweatier than anticipated. Sarah, what kind of shoes should you wear to this experience? Tennis shoes. Tennis shoes. Make sure there are laces. Do not wear boots.

[00:06:24] I would recommend. I did not show up properly. I had to go buy tennis shoes very quickly. And I was sweaty. It was a workout. Some people went in the hard way. That's all right. Yeah. The people that book ahead of time, a lot of times they come prepared. We've got changing rooms on site. We've got lockers on site. So if you bring workout clothes, that's what's recommended. We do require close toed athletic shoes in order to play. But I mean, just be prepared to sweat. And I tell people if you're not sweating at the end, you didn't do it right. So that's the way to go.

[00:06:53] And bring a bottle of water. I was dying for a bottle of water about halfway through. It was like, what are we doing here? I thought this was fun. It was fun. It was amazing, by the way. It's a workout in disguise. It was awesome. So I have to ask, Chris, do you remember your username by any chance? Yes. Awesome X. Yes. Sarah, do you remember yours? No, I don't. I wasn't creative enough. Yours were 8 Wedge or something like that. Yes, that's right. That might've been one of the generating. Yes, it was. But there's a button for name generation. You can get a random name.

[00:07:22] Some of them come out really funny. Oh, I thought it was like the size of a shoe. Well, oh. I was, well, I did try chicken nugget first and it wasn't creative enough. Chicken nugget. That wasn't created enough. I've never taken it already. I love it. Chicken nuggets out there. And that was taken. It was. Chicken nugget 417 was taken too. It was. Mine was Flynn Rider 21, of course, right? You gotta have a character name. So we do walk in and Chris, like you were explaining, when you walk into those game rooms, it changes your perspective and it changes the entire experience.

[00:07:53] What was the first room game we played? Was that the floor one? Uh, yeah. We started, we started you guys in press actually with all the buttons on the wall. That's right. Yeah. And then we went to grid after that. So explain press a little bit what the room looks like and how you play it. And then we'll talk about how we did it. How well we did it. So press is a big cylindrical room filled from floor to ceiling with a bunch of NeoPixel buttons. Uh, a lot of those games are what I call more of like a thinking game.

[00:08:23] It's a little bit less of a workout in that room, a little bit more mentally challenging. Uh, we started you guys off with some gems and that one you're just kinda it's by liking it to where's Waldo. You're trying to look for a specific combination of colors on a button and match it to the only other one in the room. Uh, that looks just like that button. So, uh, we did a little bit of that. Then we moved over to mega grade, which is probably our most tick tock famous room. Yeah. Um, that one. Well, let's stay in the first one. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:53] Because in our, in our videographer, Kevin joined us in these rooms as well. Yeah. Um, who pretty much solved every puzzle in that room? Um, you know, there's someone at the end of the table here who I think found maybe 90% of the buttons. I was there for emotional support. We were cheerleading. The ones I didn't find is cause the bodies of my co-players were blocking the view, but it's okay. Exactly. We were more of an option. We were a problem. We were a problem. Get over here. No, no, no. That's great. We supported you. No, no. That's honest.

[00:09:23] There's more than once when he would like run around us to try to push the button. Yeah. Um, so. Because it is hard to explain too. It is. It is deceptive because it's simple, but it's very challenging because you're facing hundreds of them. Yes. So many. And you're looking for a certain combination of colors. Exactly. And there's maybe only three or four colors that are up at any given time. Right. But it's, yeah, that one was, that was interesting. It was a lot to look at in that room. Yeah. It's hard to find. That was a fun one. And there are different levels.

[00:09:51] So even I could see kids six, seven, eight, nine, 10, really having fun in there. Right? Because it's at, they can actually go far higher levels than I did. I'm guessing. Right. But then we went to, what was the next one called? Mega grid was the next one. Explain that room what it looks like. So that room is just a huge room covered with floor tiles with LEDs and pressure sensors. So the entire room is sensing where you're stepping the entire time. You guys played Mega Grid the game within Mega Grid the room.

[00:10:20] And that particular game is very similar to the childhood game of Floor is Lava, where you're trying not to step on red tiles. You are stepping on all the blue tiles, pressing all the blue buttons on the wall and returning to the green safe zone. So yeah, you're jumping around trying to avoid the lava in essence. There's buttons on the walls too. Yep. And there are buttons on the walls. In that one, I feel like, because you said that could be up to five players? Yes. Yeah.

[00:10:46] You can have up to five and that's one of the few rooms where the game doesn't necessarily scale to the amount of players. So actually having five players in that room might be more beneficial than having two. Really? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So... And we had four because Kevin was doing that one with us. Yeah. It was the four of us doing there. I was exhausted. I loved it. Halfway through, I kind of stopped running and I just hit buttons on the wall. Yeah. Fair enough. But it was interesting how fast it happened from like, this doesn't feel like a big room until you have to do things within it. And it's like, oh man, this is a big space. Yep.

[00:11:16] There's a lot going on here. But it was fun. And we went up, I think we did like three different levels, didn't we? We did. Yeah. And they got significantly harder each level. Yeah. You can imagine what levels eight and nine feel like. I can't. I mean, it's... I can't imagine. It gets intense. It was as an adult reverting back. The floor is loud. I loved that game. So getting, I felt a little defeated on the first one because I was like, ooh, am I going to have this problem in every single room? Yeah. This mental stimulation. But by the time I got to the activity in that perspective, loved it. I was in. I was sweaty.

[00:11:47] I'm a big fan. It was fun. I think that's a great thing too is that there's different things for everybody in the game room. So if one of them is not your thing or not getting the hang of it, there's always something that you can do in another room that might be more up your alley. Totally agree. Yeah. Because the variety of games and the time commitment to learn if you like it or not is not significant. Yep. It's okay. If it took a minute and you're like, this is not for me, you're onto the next thing. Right. So it's interesting that it was built that way with that much diversity.

[00:12:17] And also I don't think you could play a lot of these games longer than that time. Yeah. When you were explaining it at first, I'm like, well, only a minute. Yeah. But after a minute, you're like, okay. Yeah. I mean, it is nice. It's rapid fire one to two minute games and it really allows you to customize your experience in that way. Sometimes people will spend half their time, maybe like a half hour of their experience in one single room. Other times you got people bouncing from room to room that want to try a little bit of everything.

[00:12:45] And I think that's really the cool part of it is you get to customize your experience to whatever you want it to be. Absolutely. And it is fun. There's a leaderboard, a big digital leaderboard. So you can see who has the all time leaders at this location. Exactly. Yep. And my goal is to be on there at some point. It's going to take me a long time. But that's another thing that's really cool too. It's gamified on multiple levels. Yes. So it can be cooperative, it can be competitive, the variety of games within it. Like it is really well thought out and designed, super well curated.

[00:13:15] And I was just impressed with how deceptively simple the tech is too. And it was a lot of fun. It was really good. Can you talk about the wristband? I felt like that was such an interesting part for me. I'm actually wearing my employee band right now. So everybody gets a wristband just like this. We have wristbands that help with the lockers. You got your key chain too. I love it. Okay, Eric, he's ready. So, and you get, yeah, we trade in your wristbands for key chains at the end.

[00:13:44] So it saves all your progress, your profile, your information on the key chain at the end. And so bringing that back with you on your second visit makes everything a lot smoother. But yeah, the wristbands are a really awesome way to basically be your ticket into each game. So this is how you sign into the game rooms. This is how you log into the game hub where you're going to pick which game you're going to play in each room. And yeah, all your information follows you with it. It felt like such an introductory piece for each room.

[00:14:13] There was a touch point for me mentally that it was stimulating almost of like, okay, we're about to do it. You have to check in and then you go and do the experience. And it felt so fun for me personally to do that. But also simple enough that there is a low barrier to entry. Like you're right, six years old and up can do this. People can grasp these games quickly and have fun doing them or learn that they want to try something else. And I think that's a big key to the success of something like this as well. Yeah.

[00:14:41] Have you found here at Mall of America's location or some of your other locations, who are your customers? Are they couples out on a date night? Are they work friends? Who comes? Honestly, it's a little bit of everything. And I think that's what's amazing about it. We've got, you know, we've got school groups. We've got corporate outings. We've got birthday parties, dates, like you said. I think those are some of my favorite, especially when they get into the competitive modes.

[00:15:08] I had a couple that I remember that actually went and played only competitive modes through their entire time. And the winner had dinner bought and paid for by the loser. That's amazing. That's a good concept. I really like that one. Yeah, but I mean we get... It's the newest version of natural selection. We're going to play activate to see if you're a worthy partner. I mean, as long as your relationship is strong enough to survive that kind of competition. You're good for 30 years, baby. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:35] So I mean, honestly, it's good for everything. I mean, we've had all sorts of different groups come through. We get a lot of regulars coming through. And we've even seen a lot of people start to kind of replace their gym membership with playing activate. I can see that. It's a more engaging experience. You don't realize sometimes how much you're exercising until the very end. And you get a good workout in, but you're having fun doing it.

[00:16:01] Whereas I could see the gym being a little bit of a boring approach to exercising. This gives you a little bit more interaction. Well, and I guess I would just clarify too. So it's not intimidating to a listener or a viewer. It is fun. And we've talked about sweating and it is active, but it's not intimidating at all. It's really fun, very easy to get into. And it is deceptive in how much you actually end up working and do.

[00:16:29] I want to, before we go on to some of the other rooms we visited as a team, as a group, I want to hear from Sarah and Chris because A, we laughed a lot. I mean, we were laughing throughout the entire thing. But how did you, because it is exercise, right? How did you feel during and after? And I'm going to ask Sarah first. How are you doing? A little sore. I won't lie. We were on the ground. We were rolling around. Yep. And what was that last room? The lasers. Yeah.

[00:16:58] We're going to get to that. We'll get to that. Okay. Oh, it was so wonderful. I would say during, I was perfectly like stimulated. I feel like I was sweaty. It was definitely getting a little bit of a workout, but it felt so fun. Yeah. And like child's play in that perspective that didn't think anything of the sweat that was pouring down my face. How about you, Chris? Well, I've recently been plagued by injury and illness, so I haven't worked out in a couple months. I would say this was my first like active workout in a couple months.

[00:17:26] And I was like, okay, yep, we've got to build back here. Yep. Because I've been bested by the floor is lava. Yes, exactly. That is not right. But yeah, it was, I talked about it, I think with both of you as we were talking about it after, I will come back and I will be prepared. I will too. Yeah. And it's like in my head, like I know what I do differently. I know what I want to try next time. Yes. And see what waits beyond level three.

[00:17:54] Well, and that's the, and for everyone who's listening or watching or walks by Activate, you may not really understand what's in that space. So have the courage to walk in and try this because it is an experience. As I recall our conversations, the three of us, we left there saying, this is one thing all of us would highly recommend without hesitation. Yep. I think I surprised some coworkers with my rave review as well.

[00:18:22] Apparently I'm highly critical of things, but I am. I mean, I've seen and done a lot of things and a lot of people rely on technology in a way that is cumbersome or people feel uncomfortable engaging with it. But the simplicity of this and the variety of it makes it like an instant recommendation to anybody. Like you said, date night or you've got nieces and nephews or big brothers, big sisters, like whatever.

[00:18:49] Like this is a fun way to play with friends and family. So Blake, walk us through a couple of other rooms. I remember we did a trivia thing. Yes. Yeah. We played hoops trivia, which is it's involving basketball hoops, but also kind of a mentally stimulating game where there's five hoops in the room and it's a multiple choice question offered to you and you have to shoot the ball in the right hoop to answer the question properly. And you guys did great as a team.

[00:19:18] I think we aced that one, didn't we? I think we did aced that one if I remember right. We did. I think so. And Kevin was a part of that too. Kevin helped us. And that's when we figured out that this was a Canadian company. Yeah. A lot of hockey questions. A lot of hockey metrics. Zero basketball questions in the hoops game. Yeah. There's some hockey. But it was fun. So be a hockey fan and you'll love that one. Absolutely. And then we also did, what other room did we do before we get to the, I wanted to save the laser for last. We did strike, which is probably my personal favorite.

[00:19:48] Loved that. Strike is a good one. I think anybody that, like myself, I've got a baseball background, so I just, I love throwing. But if you want to get a little anger out maybe. Were you judging us? Were you judging me? I mean only a little bit. I feel like maybe, okay. You guys actually got further in that game than any other one. So you guys did real well. The baseball background. Yeah. Until the satellites came in. And that was a room, that was a room where we were competing against each other, right? No. Weren't we? You guys weren't working on that one. Okay. That was a cool, yeah. That was a cool, yeah. That was a cool, yeah. We all won together. Yeah, yeah. It's all good.

[00:20:18] That was really fun. But we ended it up in, what is the name of the final room we ended up in? Laser was the last one you guys went to and that is by far the fan favorite, I would say. Explain it to someone who's never been in that room. So laser is a good combination. We've kind of got that broken down into half the games being laser blasting games where you are shooting at targets on the wall that move constantly. And then half the games are laser dodging games where you get to kind of live out your dream

[00:20:47] of being a secret agent or a jewel thief and you get to navigate a laser maze without trying to trip laser trip wires. So those are far and away our fan favorites, I would say. But just a little change in that room because you have to use the lasers, it has haze in there. Yes. So immediately the environment is just a little bit different and we played two different games in there. Yep. We did one where we were trying to laser shoot some different colored rings.

[00:21:15] But yeah, then it was, what's the name of the game where we- You guys were playing laser relay. So you guys were going one at a time trying to navigate the maze and it really puts the pressure on because you only have five lives as a team. So if one of you messes up, the rest of you are kind of out of luck there. Right now. I don't know. I loved it so much. I describe it as it's kind of a secret agent jewel thief trying to climb over and

[00:21:41] under between these laser beams without hitting them, right? I definitely did not look like Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment navigating the lasers. It was a bit more cumbersome. It was close. We were trying. Tried real hard. But you're down on the floor, you're rolling around, right? Yeah, yeah. Down. I love the Oceans movies. So I feel like all I could think about was those. So to your point, I was not looking strategic in any way shape or form. We weren't cute. I would love to see some footage actually if you have it available to us please submit. Yeah, well I would not. I'm good.

[00:22:11] So really quickly, so our experience was amazing. This was a fun, fun time that we had. I'm going to ask my two co-hosts and then Blake, I'm going to go to you. But when you come back, not if, but when you come back, who are you going to bring with you? Chris, who are you going to take to this? Sarah and Dax for sure. I love it.

[00:22:41] I need to see the footage after that. I'm going to wind it up. This is my good for you. I think I'm going to bring some of my colleagues, my co-workers, I think that'd be fun. Blake, so groups, companies, birthday parties, they can all contact you. All of the above, yeah. Set all this up. Your website again. Playactivate.com. And I want to ask you, go ahead Chris. I'm sorry, and a distinction, this location in Minnesota has more rooms available and some

[00:23:09] different games or one different game? So yes, this Mall of America location has a total of 13 rooms as of right now. Three of those are duplicates. So we have two strikes, two hoops, two grids. And we have room for a 14th. So at some point we will have a 14th room. But we do have SCAN here at the Mall of America, which our Roseville location does not have. Roseville's got 10 different games, so they share a lot of similarities. But SCAN would be the unique one here that you can play.

[00:23:38] We don't talk about Roseville on the podcast. Okay. Well, I'm sorry. No, I'm just kidding. And January is when everyone thinks about, oh, I've got to get fit this year. I've got to get fit. This is a fun way for people to get fit. Yeah. I think we see a lot of people doing that New Year's resolution of working out, exercising more. This is a great way to do it and to have fun at the same time. And it's an entertainment concept, so it's a little bit different than your typical gym membership.

[00:24:04] And I think for that reason, I always tell people it's a sneaky workout, so you're not even realizing that you're doing it. And I think that's the biggest struggle that most people face when they're working out is just that mental like, oh, I have to grind through this and do this. So this kind of eliminates that factor. Love it. Two final questions. Do you have something you want to add? I was going to say, I think also the way that it's designed, even when you fail at a task, it doesn't feel like detrimental. You still won. There's no anger. Yeah.

[00:24:32] Because it was still fun to do the thing. Yeah. I agree. I agree. What is your favorite room that you love doing? I got to say strike. Just with that baseball background, I love throwing stuff. That's right up my alley. Yep. That's fun, isn't it? Oh, it's great. And then do you have a fun story? What's the weirdest, funniest, strangest thing you've ever seen at Activate that you've experienced? Weirdest thing I've seen, man.

[00:24:57] You know, I would say that we've seen some people get really intense about things. We've seen just, I would say probably a kid one time was getting super intense about his celebration and he just flung his shoe off and it disappeared behind the wall. And so we had to kind of take our wall apart and go retrieve his shoe after the fact because his celebration was so intense. Okay. Yeah. Well, and the really good thing here at the mall. Partner with a tenant.

[00:25:27] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or if you lose a shoe here. We have lots of shoe stores. That's all I'm saying, right? You lose a shoe, 10% off at DSW. Yeah, exactly. It's so much fun. Yeah, you should do a partnership with one of our shoe stores here. Exactly. That would be awesome. Finally, let's remind people where in the mall you're located and your website. Yep. So we are located on the third floor of the mall, East End. We're right between Cocomelon and the Escape Game. Our website is playactivate.com.

[00:25:54] You can go to playactivate.com backslash Mall of America if you want to book specifically here. And it's got our full schedule on there. You can book ahead of time if you'd like to. Otherwise, we do offer different walk-in times as well. We have a 30-minute walk-in rate for those of you that are at the mall just shopping that want to kind of try it out real quick but not get the full 60-minute experience. And then in one word, describe activate, Blake. I would just say amazing.

[00:26:20] I mean, it's something that I, it's so hard to describe until you come and play it and you realize just how truly fun it is. And it's beyond words sometimes. Okay, that was 29 words. Yeah. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Explain myself. Amazing, which is awesome. Sarah, one word. Energizing. Chris, one word. Recommended. That's cool. One word, fun. Yeah, it was a great experience. Blake, thanks for joining us. Sarah, Chris, thank you so much.

[00:26:49] And thanks, and thanks Kevin and Ryan for helping with everything. Kevin for going and playing with us as well. And for everyone who's watching, listening today, you got to go check out Activate, first of all, third floor here at Mall of America. It's an amazing experience. You will love it. I guarantee you that. And we appreciate your watching. We appreciate your listening. We would ask you to subscribe, tell all your friends, give us a review, ask us a question and help us grow our audience.

[00:27:15] And until next time, for my guests, my co-hosts, thanks very much and we'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to so much more, a Mall of America podcast. Subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts. This show is presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism.