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0:00:15.7 Chris Ronan: Hello everyone. Welcome to Inside Geocaching HQ, the podcast about what is happening at the HQ digs in Seattle. I am Chris Ronan, one of the 90 or so lackeys who works at HQ. And today I am speaking with Jason Judt, who is HQ’s guest experience Coordinator. A big part of Jason’s role is to prepare the HQ Visitor Center for the many people who come to see us every year. He is a longtime Geocacher who joined us here about a year ago, and he has introduced a lot of new stuff to the visitor center experience, which we will talk about right now. Here we go.

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0:01:03.0 CR: And I’m realizing now that maybe we should have done this in the visitor center. It would’ve been an appropriate place to do the podcast for this one, since we’re talking about the, the reason we do it in this room is because this is what I’ve found to be the most quiet room at HQ. So normally if you’re recording, I think if you go to like a radio station or something, they have like soundproofing on the walls, which of course we don’t have here. This is just an office. But this, for some reason, this particular room doesn’t have as much air coming into it. So what we’ll also find as a flip side to that is that if we’re in here for an hour, which I hope I don’t think we will be, maybe we will. I don’t know. [laughter], you never know, but, we’ll start you’re dressed better than.

0:01:44.1 Jason Judt: I’ve got long sleeves on. I don’t know what.

0:01:45.5 CR: A little chilly?

0:01:47.4 JJ: Well, it’s raining outside.

0:01:48.2 CR: No, I’m not chilly. I don’t know why I’m wearing this. Now I’m if, but what I’m saying is we have no air movement in this room, so the good thing is for sound, but on the bad side, it’s might get warm.

0:01:58.7 JJ: Yep.

0:02:00.2 CR: So that’s where we’re with that. But with all of that out of the way, [laughter] and that’s how it goes sometimes [laughter] on the HQ podcast, we just kind of get onto other stuff, which is fine.

0:02:08.2 JJ: Yeah.

0:02:09.5 CR: So we’re here to talk about you, Jason, and your role at HQ and the visitor center at HQ. And to me, this is something I’ve wanted to talk to you about for a while here on our podcast, but it seems even more timely given that 2025 is coming. I’m sure a lot of people are making plans to come and visit us here in Seattle. So great time to give them a preview and just kind of wet their appetite about what they’re gonna see when they come here. But to start with, what is your, I guess if you’re just giving just a brief summary to telling somebody what is the HQ Visitor Center and why should you want to come here? What are things that come to mind for you?

0:02:58.5 JJ: Well, when people come to the visitor Center, the primary thing that I want them to have is, think of it as people are coming out here for their trip. A lot of them, it might be that they’re out here for work. It might be that they’re out here to get on an Alaskan cruise, or maybe they just got back from an Alaskan cruise, or this might be the reason they came to Seattle. And I do get people that this is their primary reason they came out here. And so no matter who they are or where they came from or what country they came from, I’m out to give them the best experience that they can have. Think of it as we’re not Disney World, but.

0:03:40.3 CR: I don’t know for a Geocacher.

0:03:42.2 JJ: Yeah, [laughter] Yeah. Yeah.

0:03:42.9 CR: True [laughter]

0:03:44.8 JJ: So yeah, this kind of is like their Disney trip. And so I want them to have the best overall experience have that wow factor. They get off the elevator. I’ve got a, of course, it’s not real. We’d like to think it’s real, but there’s a fire going in the visitor center. So when they come off.

0:04:02.2 CR: Wait that’s not real?

0:04:04.8 JJ: No. Have you tried cooking marshmallows on it?

0:04:07.6 CR: I haven’t, I was planning on it this winter, but apparently now I won’t be, it’s…

0:04:10.6 JJ: No.

0:04:10.9 CR: The fire’s not real.

0:04:13.0 JJ: You’re gonna wait a while.

0:04:15.0 CR: Okay. All right. Fire’s not real.

0:04:16.5 JJ: Fire’s not real, but it’s visually real. It’s the same technology that they use in pirates of the Caribbean on the Disney rides. And so from a distance it looks real. People get off the elevator and they’re just immediately just, wow, check this out. And so from the get-go they get the, it’s like the clouds parting and the… When they get off the elevator and you can see that look on their face. And so that invigorates me, that they’re excited, they’re ready to go. They come in and yeah. And just want to give them that wow factor and just that amazing experience because they made the trip here from sometimes literally the other side of the world. People make that, the pilgrimage to HQ and just want them to have a great time while they’re here.

0:05:06.9 CR: Has it been a little over, I mean, a little over a year? I have no concept of time. How long since you started here?

0:05:12.9 JJ: Well, basically, I was hired a year ago.

0:05:15.3 CR: Okay.

0:05:17.1 JJ: But I didn’t officially start out here until the first week of January of this year. So we’re coming up on a year.

0:05:23.2 CR: Right.

0:05:24.4 JJ: But just a little bit of my background. I’ve been geocaching for about 15 years. I put together, the team that hosted the first mega event in Nebraska, I was on the team for the second mega event in Nebraska. So I’ve got experience from two Megas. I brought Nebraska’s first and only GeoTour to the state. Plus just before all that I was really into hosting events. I’ve hosted, I think to date, I’ve hosted over 200 just everyday events just little meet and greet. So, the community has always been a big part of who I am and my connection to Geocaching.

0:06:09.9 JJ: And I’ve always by bringing those mega events, bringing the GeoTour, I’ve always wanted to give back to the community and give the community something fun that they can do. And so when this guest experience position opened up a little over a year ago I thought, okay, this is my calling [laughter], this is definitely my passion, my fit. And so I wanted to, that was basically going to the next level to give back to the community. And now I can create something right here at HQ that I can give back to the community and give them that wow factor.

0:06:44.0 CR: Yeah. You mentioned your geo tour. So I have to say that I was there not, not too long ago.

0:06:48.8 JJ: Yeah.

0:06:50.2 CR: And it is not in Norfolk, Nebraska.

0:06:54.2 JJ: No, it is in Norfolk, Nebraska.

0:06:57.7 CR: It is. And that’s [laughter] That’s not a huge joke that they’re playing on the rest of us everybody. It really, even though it’s spelled N-O-R-F-O-L-K.

0:07:04.9 JJ: Yes.

0:07:06.1 CR: It’s not Norfolk.

0:07:08.3 JJ: No.

0:07:09.7 CR: And you can always tell.

0:07:12.0 JJ: As you have explain… Yes.

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0:07:12.1 CR: Yeah. When somebody’s a local and when somebody’s not a local, because if they’re not a local, they’ll say Norfolk, or as they say it on the East Coast, Norfek.

0:07:21.2 JJ: Norfek.

0:07:23.5 CR: Norfolk. But you know that they are from Norfolk, Nebraska, if they put the fork in it.

0:07:30.2 JJ: I still felt weird about saying it, even after I’d been there for a full day. I was like, [laughter], is this a joke? Are they just playing a big prank on me? But.

0:07:38.3 CR: No.

0:07:38.8 JJ: It really is.

0:07:38.9 CR: No. In fact, one of the, one of the Tour Cachers even tells you about.

0:07:42.8 JJ: That’s right.

0:07:44.1 CR: Why it is pronounced Norfolk. So we are in the North fork of the Elkhorn River, when the town was settled they were going to call it North Fork. And they decided to consolidate that down to Nor Folk. So they sent the paperwork in to incorporate the town and somebody at the registrar’s office, or wherever they do that, thought it was a typo, or thought it was a misspelling and changed it to Norfolk. Like, Norfolk, Virginia. And that’s how it was incorporated. And that’s how it stuck. And so and that was in the late 1800s. And so here we are 150 years later. And so again, you know who’s local and who’s not by the way they pronounce it.

0:08:31.6 JJ: I was, are we sure that guy wasn’t playing a joke? [laughter]? I mean, maybe he was just thinking I’m gonna pull one, we, we’ll see how far this goes. And he could never have envisioned it would go on for 140 years. Gosh.

0:08:47.2 CR: Something like that yeah.

0:08:48.4 JJ: Long time. So, but hometown of Johnny Carson.

0:08:49.4 CR: Yes. That, yeah.

0:08:50.9 JJ: Which was super cool to read. ’cause I grew up aging myself, but Johnny Carson fans, it was cool to visit his boyhood home. And that’s always been, Norfolk’s claim to fame is the, the boyhood home of Johnny Carson. And I’m finding that as time goes on I even talk about that. It comes up a time or two in the visitor center, and I have to look at the age of the people and say, well, obviously if it’s somebody around our age, then they know who Johnny Carson is. But if you start getting to be like my son’s age or a little bit younger.

0:09:25.3 CR: Yeah. It’s not gonna land.

0:09:26.0 JJ: Yeah. Of course people from Norfolk know who Johnny Carson is, whether regardless of age, just because they’re immersed in it. But anybody else, you get to be about that age and no, some people don’t even quite know who Jay Leno is [laughter] ’cause I’ll ask them, well, you know who Jay Leno is, and yes or no. And usually if I get to Jimmy Fallon, then they’re like, oh yeah, I know who Jimmy Fallon is. And so then I work my way backwards and they’re like, oh, okay, [laughter]

0:09:51.8 CR: Well, it’s a cool geo tour, so I highly recommend it. If you’re down that way, it’s a lot of fun. So, as you said, you brought that experience and experience with just geocaching in general. So, when you came here, you made some updates to the Visitor Center experience. What are the things people can expect to see when they’ve got their hour or so, and trying to pack it all in there? What are the highlights of going through the visitor center here at HQ?

0:10:20.3 JJ: Well, again, you get off the elevator, the first thing you’re gonna see is the big green trees and…

0:10:26.7 CR: And the fire.

0:10:26.7 JJ: And the pop of fire in there yep.

0:10:29.2 CR: It’s not real, despite what I may have. Yeah.

0:10:31.7 JJ: Yeah. No.

0:10:32.8 CR: Don’t bring your marshmallows. No [laughter]

0:10:35.7 JJ: No, no. There’s no s’mores happening.

0:10:35.8 CR: There’s no s’mores [laughter]

0:10:37.2 JJ: All right. So yeah, so that’s your first visual when you get off of the elevator you’re gonna walk in. Typically I’ll be the one greeting you unless I’m in a meeting or on vacation. I do go to a mega event or two, but I will greet you and we’ll chitchat a little bit. I’ll walk you around, I’ll show you. I’ve got a big museum area set up. I added a couple of large glass display cases, greatly expanded everything you can see. So we’ve got all the way back to like the Jeeps. We’ve got the mountain Bikes version one well, all of his geocoins that he has. But all the way back to version one coin.

0:11:21.7 JJ: In fact, we have the first geocoin to go into circulation, which is 002, mountain bike version one. That’s on display for people to see. So just a lot of history through there. Of course, we’ve got the International Space Station travel bug, which is really cool to see, go through the history, of all that go through the history of the APE Cache how that came to be, just a lot of that kind of stuff. Plus, there’s some interactive things. You get to see live logs coming in from around the world. Social media pictures, greatly expanded area from Shop Geocaching. Now we have a lot of the seasonal things right now. I’ve got a big holiday display going on with the holiday coins and everything. But then we have a lot of exclusive merchandise too that you can’t get at Shop Geocaching. So we work with the creative team and with the shop to bring those things in. But you can’t order those online anywhere. You have to get those here at HQ. And for next year, we’ve actually got some new things in the works. So if you’ve been to HQ before and you want some new exclusive merchandise we’ve got a bunch of new things in the works coming out, so should be fun.

0:12:29.2 CR: Yeah. I think that’s one of the most exciting things is that there are things here that you can’t get anywhere else. And I think for me, I still remember when I first came here, it was like, oh my gosh, there’s an HQ Geocoin and stuff like that yeah, there’s lots of cool stuff at shop. And we just had Marty on the podcast not too long ago talking about all that stuff. But in addition to that, to be able to have some stuff t-shirts and whatever other apparel that this is the only place that you can get it is really super cool.

0:13:03.8 JJ: Yeah. Yep. In fact we’re going, I’m working with our creative team right now. They’re working on some fantastic designs, so just some fresh takes on some of the designs that we currently have, but putting a little spin on them and then going to expand that. So you’ll be able to get all those you go to Disney World, you’ll find all the fun little things. That’s kind of what we’re trying to offer here is of course we probably won’t have as much stuff as Disney, but our take on that just to, again, to give people some fun and some variety.

0:13:39.3 CR: And of course there’s the geocache.

0:13:39.8 JJ: Oh, well, yeah.

0:13:43.1 CR: We have to mention the geocache. I mean the I mean.

0:13:45.2 JJ: You come to HQ. Yeah. I mean you’re overwhelmed with all this stuff. So yeah. Don’t forget to log HQ as a geocache on top of that. Earlier this year we unveiled so those that like to do Adventure Labs, there’s actually a 10-stage adventure lab right in the visitor center. And so and that is a great tool to use. People who know what Adventure Labs are and have done them many times it’s gonna be, yeah, it’s, 10 quick and easy finds that you can get while you’re in there, but really what that’s designed is so it walks you around. It kind of reinforces things that we talk about as we do the tour might give you a little bit more information, or if maybe I forgot to mention something it’ll give you a little bit more information.

0:14:33.1 JJ: But really what it’s really great for is those people who have never done Adventure Labs or have never even heard of Adventure Labs. So I get a chance to explain to them what they are, how they can do them. And then of course I tell them generally you’re not gonna find 10 of them crammed into a little room you’re gonna be out exploring, but it gives them a taste of what they’re like. And then if they have questions or something, pops up unexpected on their phone or something, then I’m there to help them through that so that when they go out in the real world and do it, then they have a better experience out there too.

0:15:06.7 CR: I still haven’t done that.

0:15:09.8 JJ: Eventually [laughter]

0:15:10.7 CR: I haven’t done that, and I don’t think I’ve done the virtual out on, out in front of the building at the waiting for the Interurban.

0:15:18.5 JJ: Oh.

0:15:19.2 CR: Yeah. I don’t know what I’m waiting for.

0:15:21.5 JJ: I don’t know.

0:15:22.3 CR: What am I waiting for, Jason?

0:15:23.6 JJ: I don’t know. I actually lucked out. I got to be first to find on that.

0:15:24.5 CR: Wow.

0:15:24.9 JJ: That actually published one night and the next morning I came in and nobody had done it yet. So I’m like, well, I’m gonna go do that [laughter]

0:15:31.2 CR: Wow. That’s amazing.

0:15:31.3 JJ: Yeah. So I don’t know what you’re waiting for. Yeah.

0:15:34.3 CR: I don’t know. I think it’s because there was a time when they were so rare. And it was almost like, and it’s not like they’re on every corner now, but even so, I don’t know if it’s somehow buried in my brain that when I’m saving it for something, I don’t know what it could possibly be saving it for, but I don’t know. Anyway. But I still need to do the adventure too.

0:15:56.2 JJ: Special occasion will come up when you’ll be like, I knew that’s why I saved it.

0:16:00.4 CR: And I’ll be Yeah. And I’ve still got that to look forward to. So, we’ve talked about the geocache that you find, the Adventure Lab, all of the history and it all sounds awesome. So now people hear that and they wanna do it. What are the steps to setting yourself up to come and see the HQ Visitor Center?

0:16:18.8 JJ: So we do have a reservation system, which is kind of a holdover from the COVID days, but it helps us schedule things behind the scenes a little bit. So we’ve kind of retained that from the open door policy that we used to have years ago. So if you go to the HQ Cache page, or if you go to geocachinghq.com, so it’s geocachinghq.com, not geocaching.com the site will give you all the information of how to schedule your visit. Typically, we are open on average it’s Monday through Friday from the visitor center itself is open from 10:00 to 4:00. We book in 45 minute time slots. Generally, we allow the full hour usually it spills a little past that 45 minutes. So basically you get a good hour while you’re in there, which is generally plenty of time for people to get everything and do everything that they want to do.

0:17:18.1 JJ: But yeah, you just go on that site, you book that of course we are closed all holidays. We are not open on weekends, unfortunately, but our building is open from 8:00 to 5:00. So if you cannot get into our visitor center, we do leave the HQ log book out front of our actual doors. So you can get into the building, you can get to our floor, you can sign the logbook if you have not been able to make an appointment. Now, that said, that’s generally how we do things. But if I’m not in a meeting, if I’m out in the visitor center if I don’t have any guests scheduled, a lot of times I like to just, it’s a fun area. I like to just hang out in there and do my work. If I see you come up to the door and I’m out there working and you don’t have an appointment and I don’t have a meeting that I’m stepping into, generally I might, I might razz you a little bit or tease you, but I’ll generally let you in and let you come in and check things out and show you around a little bit.

0:18:11.9 JJ: So if you can’t get an appointment, don’t be afraid to swing on by. At the very least you’ll be able to log HQ even if you won’t be able to come into the visitor center. But like I said, if I’m out there and I see you, I’ll certainly talk to you and if I’m able to, I’ll bring you inside.

0:18:31.8 CR: And I suspect many people are looking ahead to 2025, the 25th anniversary of Geocaching happening next year. And maybe that’s going to prompt them to finally visit HQ for the first time or come back if they’ve been before. Are there going to be any special things in 2025? Anything that you’re working on?

0:18:50.3 JJ: Well, we do have a few things in the works. Of course. Like I said, we’ve got a bunch of merchandise that we’re working on right now. And a lot of that will just be HQ exclusive and not necessarily 25th anniversary exclusive, but we are unveiling that in conjunction with the 25th anniversary. There’s a couple of new additions coming to the visitor center, which I’m not willing to disclose just yet. And then I also have another big project for the community that I’m working on behind the scenes that will not be in the visitor center. It will be out in the real world, but I don’t think I’m quite ready to unveil that just yet either. So.

0:19:33.1 CR: So a lot to look forward to and a lot that’s already there. And so, yeah, it sounds I mean, it’s always been a great place to visit, but it only gets better over time. So even if you had been here before, maybe you were here five years ago, 10 years ago, it’s definitely worth coming back again because you’re gonna see things that you haven’t seen. And gosh, it sounds like even if you were here a year ago or six months ago [laughter] when 2025 comes around, you still have an opportunity to to see some new stuff too.

0:20:01.6 CR: Yeah, yeah, definitely. If you’ve been here before, like you say, especially if it’s been more than a year ago, certainly definitely consider coming back. ’cause you’re gonna have the new merchandise coming up. We’ve got all of the things we just talked about from the Adventure Lab to all of the museum pieces. It is quite an experience out there.

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0:20:25.8 CR: That was Jason Judt, the Guest Experience Coordinator at Geocaching HQ. Go to geocachinghq.com to schedule your time at the HQ Visitor Center. You will love it. If there is something you would like to hear about on the podcast, drop us a line at podcastatgeocaching.com. That is podcast@geocaching.com. We do love hearing from you. From and Jason and all the lackeys at Geocaching HQ, Happy caching.