2-Bit Circus Challenges

A story about how the son/grandson of Chuck E. Cheese's founder created an innovative traveling tech exhibition called 2-bit Circus.

"The guy who invented Chuck E. Cheese - his son or grandson created this thing called 2-bit Circus. It was basically a traveling pop-up museum focused on interactive technology. Imagine you're in the year 2050 - you move your hand and lasers follow you, or with one small mirror you can create crazy light reflections, or put on VR and play Dance Dance Revolution in space.

They would take this from city to city, set up a tent, and in one weekend they'd have 60,000 people come through in the Bay Area. Then they'd pack up and hit the road. I thought it was a genius idea.

But according to an exec I knew who worked there, while it was an amazing product, the founders had shiny object syndrome. If Facebook wanted a private exhibit, they'd drop everything to create something epic. If Obama wanted them for a party, they'd forget their systematic process to blow everyone's mind with a show at Burning Man.

I first heard about this idea 7-8 years ago, and I was shocked I don't see more of these traveling circus concepts that leverage science and technology. Parents want to take their kids there, and science naturally makes for great exhibits and demos - like science fair on steroids. But these are hard businesses to do - I would never try to do one myself."