ER Champ 2025

Next year marks the 10th anniversary of ER Champ, providing an opportune moment to reflect on our journey and key learnings. This presentation will summarize our history, analyze our experiences, and unveil exciting plans for the future evolution of ER Champ.

Bio:

Bartosz Idzikowski, co-founder of ER Champ and Lockme (an online escape room marketplace), is also a board game designer renowned for the Escape Tales and Side Quest series. As an avid escape room enthusiast with approximately 800 rooms played, Bartosz is dedicated to fostering connections within the escape room industry.

A journey of fearless creativity, bold ideas, and reinvention in the escape room world.

What if innovation wasn’t about choosing between being first… or being the best?

What if the key was daring to try the impossible?

In this energizing, TEDx-style talk, Nataša Potočnik—founder of Enigmarium® and trailblazer of the escape room industry in Slovenia—shares bold, unconventional projects that challenged the status quo, broke new ground, and even melted a few igloos along the way.

From the first gamification of an actual castle (allowing six groups to play simultaneously), to transforming a national museum into an immersive experience (and winning Slovenia’s top museum award), to escape rooms in nature without electricity or gamemasters—where goats and cows became part of the story—and to Sensperience®, the best Slovenian game, a groundbreaking blindfolded adventure where you navigate the story, guided by sound, scent, and touch—Nataša proves that when creativity meets courage, the limits disappear.

But creativity alone is not enough.

It’s not just about creating something once—it’s about nurturing it, refreshing it, and continuously pushing boundaries to keep it alive and stay ahead.

And that is the secret to lasting success.

This is not promoting Enigmarium’s projects.

This is a call to action.

To never stop dreaming.

To never stop creating.

To never say: it’s impossible.

Bio:

Nataša Potočnik is an experience designer, co-founder of Enigmarium®, and president of GIZ ER.SI, the Slovenian Escape Room Association. A pioneer in the immersive entertainment space, she has spearheaded internationally awarded projects, from snowy igloo escape games to nationally recognized museum exhibitions. With a passion for storytelling and bold innovation, she’s redefining what escape rooms—and creativity—can be.

How performance, passion, and bold ideas can turn a game into an unforgettable experience.

Bio:

Verone is the founder, designer, and creative mind behind Verone Live Action Escape Rooms, operating two venues in Greece with a total of three games. As one of the most talked about creators in the Greek escape room scene, his work constantly challenges the boundaries of traditional game design, favoring performance, emotion, and immersion over conventional puzzles.

His game Don't Take a Breathe was ranked #8 in the world in both 2022 and 2023 by the Top Escape Rooms Project (TERPECA), earning global recognition for its raw realism and intense actor-driven gameplay. He is also the creator of Cocaina and the provocative Fifty Shades of Pork.

Verone has been an escape room player for over 9 years and an in-room actor for 8 years, having played more than 500 escape rooms. For him, escape rooms are not just entertainment. They are an addiction.

As a designer, he has built 7 games in Greece and one in Germany, and has contributed to many others through story consultation, game flow, and special effects design.

Driven by passion, Verone creates experiences where players forget they are playing and fully live the moment. He constantly takes bold creative risks, pushing his audience to feel, fear, laugh, and question everything within the walls of his immersive worlds.

They read the reviews. They saw the awards. They came for the thrills. They expected Hollywood sets, mind-blowing puzzles, and maybe a dragon. Instead… they got a locked chest, a suspiciously sticky prop, and Dave, their game master, dressed as a pirate against his will. In this talk, we’ll dive into the hilarious (and sometimes painful) gap between what players think escape rooms are and what they actually experience. We'll explore how expectations are formed, how they crash and burn, and how we, as creators, can either feed the fantasy or lovingly crush it with style.

Bio:

Vasilis accidentally became one of Greece’s first escape room creators when he thought, "How hard can it be?" — a thought he now deeply regrets. A decade later, he’s the twisted mind behind Lockhill, a multi-award-winning escape room company, with a room voted as the best in the world (yes, really). He’s survived thousands of players, countless prop malfunctions, and major emotional damage. Known for mixing dark humor with immersive horror, Vasilis now shares the hard truths of escape room design — especially what happens when sky-high expectations meet real-life limitations (and players seriously thinking you actually want to harvest their organs).

This talk explores how modern software can transform escape room businesses—from seamless booking systems to powerful control panels and integrated social management. Discover how the right tools can streamline operations, enhance player experience, and give owners more time to focus on creativity and growth. Whether you're running one room or ten, it's time to bring your backend out of the dark.

Bio:

I'm a developer with a deep technical background and experience working with some of the world’s biggest companies — but my true passion lies in escape rooms. I’m not just someone building tools for the industry from the outside. I’ve been an escape room owner, builder, consultant, actor, and an avid player with over 200 rooms across Europe under my belt. I’ve helped design rooms that were sold internationally and even had projects nominated for TERPECA. My mission is to create software that truly understands the heartbeat of this industry — because I live and breathe it.

Many escape room owners are stuck in the daily grind, managing staff rotas, solving tech issues, replying to every single review, leaving little time for rest, let alone a proper holiday. This session explores how to break that cycle. With smart structures, clearly defined roles, and a healthy dose of trust, even small teams can become self-sufficient. Learn practical strategies to delegate with confidence, empower your staff, and build a business that can thrive without you being on-site 24/7. You can leave the country (and your inbox) for a week. Here's how.

Bio:

Zoli is the founder of Zolitopia, a consulting service for escape room owners, and the co-founder of clueQuest, the UK's longest running escape room. With over a decade of experience in the escape room industry, he has consulted numerous business owners across the globe on organizational structure, marketing strategies, and long-term business development. Zoli has also been a featured speaker at major industry events, including Game On, Transworld, ERIC, and Up the Game.