SmartyPantz

To make your way out of one of the artfully-designed escape rooms at SmartyPantz, it will take more than your mystery-solving skills you perfected playing Clue, successfully accusing Colonel Mustard, with the candlestick, in the conservatory. To be victorious at this totally immersive adventure game you'll need to rely on teamwork, strong critical thinking and your puzzle-solving prowess to escape before time expires.

Before opening SmartyPantz, business partners and co-owners Dan Civiero and Chris Ricard were long-time friends with varied professional backgrounds. Chris worked in small business development and Dan, a tax consultant. The friends tried out a couple of escape rooms in Richmond; intrigued with the idea, they were inspired to develop their own. "The ones we checked out were pretty blasé," says Dan, "and we knew we could be more creative." They opened SmartyPantz in Vancouver in March 2015, followed by additional locations in Edmonton and Calgary.