Distractions in this hyper-connected world are shortening the attention span. Keep attendees active, interactive and engaged by weaving game design techniques into your meetings and events.
Whether it is to drive registration and participation or bolster brand awareness, gaming is increasingly being applied to the way we learn and network. Just look at the plethora of event mobile apps available in the marketplace.
Palpable synergy
What about physical gaming? Technology may have revolutionised the job of event management, but have we become so comfortable with interaction through our smart devices or obsessed with data collection that we no longer feel the need for physical and authentic connections?
At the recent ibtm china trade show held in Beijing from August 23-24, meeting designer Bo Krüger from Moving Minds said during his keynote speech that a good meeting design should encourage change that creates more value.
While the competitive nature of gaming is being to events, he said that it should not create tension and conflict. After all, highly engaged and motivated participants who leave the event happy are crucial to a successful event.
"Implementing rewards should also be approached with caution, as it can kill attendee motivation," shared Krüger.
“The best games are so intrinsic motivating that you never want to finish them. To play the game is a reward in itself and both quitting or winning the game are equally unsatisfying outcomes because you had to finish playing. If you have been caught up in Tetris or absorbed into Angry Birds you know what I mean.”
For ice breakers, there are two kinds: the good ones and the awkward ones that no one wants to be a part of. To demonstrate, delegates at his keynote presentation had to partner up with someone we have never met to do a quick and simple game of hand gestures. He also recommended networking bingo to help participants to know each other better and find common qualities, ideas and interests.
To encourage sharing of knowledge and solve difficult tasks at meetings, he recommends developing board games or card games that involve various scenarios. This video explains how.
Activities should be designed to build up excitement like in a movie, according to Krüger. Start with the simple ones before moving on to those that require more action. For example, when it was time for a Q&A session, everyone had to write their questions down on a piece of paper, crush it into a ball, walk to the front of the stage and throw it at him. He then picked questions at random from those thrown at him and answered them.
What other gamification techniques have you tried for your events?
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