Maybe you’re a traditionalist. There’s a chess set in your living room and Boggle tucked under the stairs.
Or you’re a Trouble-loving kid with a matching Frustration!, Headache and Double Trouble in your game stack, ready and waiting for mom to finish up the chores and sit down for a match.
No matter you’re fancy—Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit or Clue—there’s no denying a board game is one of the only universal ways to set the stage for a great hangout with girlfriends, beer night with the boys, family evening or even first date.
The only way to make it better is to take it out into a room full of other groups enjoying the same—at least this is how the masterminds at the Streaming Café and Digital Okanagan see it.
“We’re talking about playing old fashion, straight board games,” says Michael Donley, one of the creative-types evolving the coffee house’s cultural community, as he introduces the first of a string of open house offerings.
Building a public board games routine into the downtown core is really quite apropos for this area. Kelowna has served as home to World Scrabble Champion, Jesse Matthews, and the city’s top business success story in the last few decades is arguably the online game Club Penguin.
Many in the business community will know Nick Kellet as a social media pusher, but the business that put him on the map is a board game called GifTRAP. And there’s a new duo out of Kelowna trying to follow in his footsteps. Dave Phelps and Derek Hodgins are developing a Monopoly clone called the Trailer Park Boys Board Game, merging an iconic game with a love-to-hate-it trashy show, and earning themselves a fair amount of press in the process.
Digital Okanagan is already doing board game nights, but has decided to take the endeavour to the Streaming Café for a monthly showdown in which players can come out single, with or without a game, or with a whole crew of people.
Dubbed Meeple Board Game Night—a Meeple is a merger of “my” and “people” and refers to the people-like game pieces on a board game, as named by Carcassonne fan Alison Hansel—it’s part of a three-day Streaming Café showcase this month.
The Streaming Café has built its name on a previously untouched frontier, offering independent Canadian artists a place to perform in a coffee shop venue, while live streaming over the Internet so that anyone can watch the concert.
But it’s grown into a meeting place for creative types opening the doors for visual artists, songwriters’ circles, networking events, think tank sessions and more.
This particular event includes the OK Think Tank two-hour trouble shooting session running at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, the same evening as the new Meeple Board Game Night launches at 6:30 p.m. One can follow the game night on twitter at #GameNightKL
The next day, on Friday, April 19, Streaming Café regulars Nikki Balfour, Leanne Spanza and John van Der Woude will have an opening for the visual art pieces they will hang in the space for the month.
And on Saturday, three popular Streaming Café musical acts, Vancouver’s Prairie Dance Club, JJ Shiplett and Vernon’s Raquel Warchol will play in an extra-long Saturday night music evening for a $5 cover charge. All of the other events in the weekend are free.
