An Interview at the Laser Quest Home Office

I had a wonderful opportunity this past weekend to meet with Laser Quest North America president Theresa Stairs and vice president Jeff Morris at their home office in Mississauga, ON, Canada.

After driving about five and a half hours from New York I was really looking forward to seeing what the atmosphere was like inside the office building.

Theresa met me at the door and we made our introductions before being joined by Jeff and as they showed me to their conference room where they had such a nice surprise waiting for me…

Seeing this banner up on the wall just left me speechless! What an amazing welcome!

I’ve been communicating for awhile now with marketing manager Colleen who helped to coordinate the various parts of this visit so it was wonderful to meet her and Catherine as well.

We took some time to talk about my tag journey that had brought me here as well as the plans for my upcoming visit to Laser Quest in North Richland Hills, Texas. I’ve not yet revealed a lot about the trip I’m planning, but stay tuned for a BIG announcement about how I will be completing my journey to play laser tag in all 50 states…it’s happening soon and coinciding with International Laser Tag Day! And I want to thank Laser Quest for all their support with coordinating the celebration and event that will be taking place.

Theresa and Jeff were kind enough to take some time to talk about Laser Quest and do an interview to share a bit about this company that is one of the oldest laser tag manufacturers in the industry.

Thank you to Theresa (aka Firecracker) and Jeff (aka Showtime) and the entire home office staff for such a nice welcome and tour of your office. I also thank you very much for the tag swag!

When we had finished our visit at the office Colleen confirmed the afternoon arrangements which were for me to go take some pictures and video for promotion at the Laser Quest Mississauga arena. So off I went to meet with manager Chris and photographer Ramy to take some pics in between the afternoon games. When I arrived at the arena there was another really nice surprise waiting for me!

Laser Quest certainly knows how to make a person feel welcome! The staff there was terrific and I particularly want to thank Ramy for doing such a great job with the photography.

And here are just a few of the pics from that day.

We also took some video footage which I will share a little closer to the announcement, but let me just say it was such a cool experience to be playing laser tag while having a photographer following me all around the arena! Many thanks for making my visit to Mississauga so memorable and productive!

That evening I met up with my friend Ilana for dinner. And the next day I was ready to get out there and play some laser tag!

My first stop was to Laser Quest Whitby. This is a great site with nice, new packs.

In fact, manager Jen told me that this is the newest Laser Quest location in the Greater Toronto Area, built only about three years ago. It looks and feels new and fresh and there was a really upbeat vibe about the whole place. I joined the group going in and played an enjoyable game taking note of how that was the feel all throughout the arena. I had a great time and really appreciated Jen hooking me up with a few tag swag items I had not seen before.

Laser Quest Whitby was awesome!

Then I made my way over to Laser Quest Richmond Hill.

What most impressed me about this site was the scene I walked in to find in the lobby. While getting ready for their next game a young woman was leading a group in a dance contest in front of mission control. Everybody was loving it! It was obvious that this site was all about the fun, both inside and outside of the game. I bought one of the holiday themed gift cards from manager Saf (who also hooked me up with a printed LQ Arena tag so I would not have to use my phone data while over the border).

And then I went into the next game. This game was actually full of kids, so I did not want to play hard and spoil their fun. Instead I asked the staff member in the briefing room to snap a pic by the arena entrance because this one was so distinctive with a glowing tunnel leading you into the arena.

This sparked a discussion about my tag adventure and what led me to Laser Quest this weekend, so rather than actually try to play a serious game I spent most of the game time walking around in the arena and chatting with game master Natalie (who was also the one leading the dance contest out front!) and she told me that they are doing a lot more of those kind of lobby games because the parents really love them and they’ve gotten such great feedback. She noted that laser tag is so much better an activity for kids to engage in than sitting around playing video games at home and I absolutely agree with her. In the last 30 seconds of the game I took a few shots just so that I’d have a score on the screen and then I took a pic with Natalie who is a real asset to this center.

My final stop of the day was to Laser Quest Brampton.

I did not realize it at the time, but as it turns out I was there for one of the final games at this site. I went in to play a real game as the participants were far more evenly balanced this time. I’m so glad I made the decision to drive a little further out of my way so I can say that I played here. Brampton marked my 24th Laser Quest arena played and my fourth this weekend. I had an amazing time getting to experience so much Laser Quest while in Canada!

And I ended my weekend hanging out with “Team Toronto” (not a laser tag reference) at Insomnia before heading home with some great memories. This was also a great opportunity for a visit with friends. :)