The Story Behind The Engagement Advantage

33 years. One belief. Engagement is a superpower.

WHO IS ROGER HASKETT?
(The Short Version)

This is

THE REAL STORY

It started with a disaster

In Grade 9, Roger was chosen as a “young leader” and asked to stand up in front of teachers, students, and community members to talk about himself. He froze. And in the panic, he stole his best friend’s joke just to avoid looking like an idiot.

That moment cracked something open. Roger realized that under enough stress, his character didn’t hold. The person he wanted to be disappeared, and someone else showed up — someone he didn’t like.

That question — who am I when the pressure is on? — became the question that shaped everything that followed.

Two worlds, one obsession

“I wanted to do magnificent things, but I found it hard to do regular things — like breathe. Maybe you’ve had that experience.”

Roger became a teacher and an actor at the same time. He earned a Master’s in Education and a BFA in Acting, then spent nearly two decades in Vancouver’s film and television industry — over 150 productions including X-Files, Stargate, Supernatural, and dozens of commercials.

Both careers were about the same thing: walking into high-pressure situations and finding a way to do something extraordinary instead of just surviving.

In classrooms, he learned how to read a room and create the conditions where people could learn and grow. On set, he learned that preparation, presence, and play were the difference between a forgettable take and a moment that lands.

The fourth wall problem — and why Roger started his own company

Studying theatre was three years of the hardest, most demanding, most rewarding training Roger had ever experienced. Twelve hours a day at the school. It was the best.

But one thing drove him crazy.

In theatre, the people you were there for — the audience — you pretended didn’t exist. You stood on stage behind an imaginary fourth wall and never interacted with them beyond hoping they laughed, or got invested, or cared.

Meanwhile, the other side of Roger’s life was teaching — where every single moment you’re reading your audience, judging what’s landing, adjusting in real time. Your whole job is engaging directly with the people in the room.

Roger wanted to create a performance experience that worked like teaching. Where you could see moment to moment what was succeeding and what wasn’t. Where the audience wasn’t something you performed at — they were something you performed with.

Nobody was in any hurry to give him that job. So he made it himself.

How murder mysteries revealed The Engagement Advantage

Roger found what he was looking for in an unlikely place: murder mysteries.

In the theatre world, murder mysteries were considered a step down. But for Roger, they were a revelation. Because in a murder mystery, you don’t just perform for the audience. You perform with them. You interact directly. You see what’s landing and what isn’t. You craft a one-hour, five-hour, or three-day experience that keeps the participants — not just the audience, the participants — fully engaged, totally invested, totally present.

That was the real gold. That was where the focus should have been all along.

He called the company Murder Unlimited. And that’s when he discovered he was an entrepreneur.

From Murder Unlimited to Engagement Unlimited

Murder Unlimited grew into Actors Unlimited as the company expanded into game shows, hosted events, and interactive entertainment. And then Roger recognized something that changed everything.

What they had been building all along wasn’t entertainment. It was engagement.

Every show, every event, every moment where a room full of strangers suddenly became a team — the common thread wasn’t the game or the mystery. It was engagement. The act of getting people actively, joyfully involved.

Actors Unlimited became Engagement Unlimited. And that wasn’t just a name change. It was an epiphany.

The one thing unifying all three names? They were all Unlimited. Because ultimately, creativity is unlimited when you approach life through engagement.

What happens when engagement is the focus

“Engagement is a superpower. When you put it in the room, everything else gets better.”

Roger discovered that when you put engagement into the room, everything else improves. Bonding gets deeper. Relationships strengthen. Learning happens faster, better, deeper — and it retains. Laughter increases. Energy expands. Ideas multiply. The room becomes potent.

Because engagement was the focus.

He called this The Engagement Advantage — the measurable lift that happens when a room shifts from passive attendance to active participation. It’s not just a feeling. It’s an advantage. And it’s a concept that’s gaining in power as organizations realize that the way people experience meetings, events, and each other is one of the most underutilized competitive advantages they have.

Our clients told us what we’d built

The turning point wasn’t a business plan or a strategy session. It was the words that started coming back from clients.

Clients weren’t just saying “that was fun.” They were saying “that changed something.” Teams that had never connected were suddenly collaborating. Conferences that expected polite applause got standing ovations. People who walked in as strangers left as something closer to friends.

Roger had already decided that engagement was the thing — the throughline connecting every room he'd ever worked, every audience he'd ever moved. He dove deeper into the science and practice of engagement, determined to understand not just how to create it, but why it matters so much. And when clients started reflecting that same truth back in their own words, it landed differently — not as discovery, but as confirmation.

Roger’s Rules — a system for performing under pressure

ENGAGEMENT UNLIMITED TODAY

Today, Engagement Unlimited is a full-service corporate engagement company based in Vancouver, delivering The Engagement Advantage to clients across Canada and beyond.

The company works through six “Doorways” — each one a different way to create real engagement:

Roger leads the company alongside his brother Michael, who runs sales and client relationships, and his partner Jeni, who handles operations and client care. A talented roster of performers delivers experiences across the country.

The team runs 100+ events per year with a 92% client rebooking rate. Clients come back not because they have to, but because their teams ask for it.

That’s The Engagement Advantage in action.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION