Technology is responsible for the creation of new and emerging trends. From AI advances to augmented and virtual reality, tech is changing the way we communicate. And in the events industry, we’re starting to see innovative ways to engage attendees. One such way is through gamification, specifically gamification through event apps.
With gamification, you can educate your event guests while immersing them in an engaging virtual and physical environment. Here’s the rundown of how app-based gamification can be used at events and conferences worldwide.
Gamification integrates gaming and rewards-based structures into non-gaming environments. If you’ve ever played ‘Words with friends’ or ‘Candy Crush’ before, you know that you’re rewarded for your success and progression within the game. These rewards come in the forms of points, badges, coins etc.
This same philosophy applies to engaging event attendees. In the context of an event app, it’s about finding activities, games and goals – backed by various incentives – to encourage your attendees to engage positively with the app and learn something or achieve a ‘reward’.
Through gamification, you can create incentives for attendees to encourage event participation. This is done by giving prizes, coins and badges for the completion of specific tasks. For example, you could have your attendees:
By using badges
With a game-like events app, you could make your guest’s time more enjoyable and fun. And badges are one way to reward achievements during events. For example, badges help encourage social networking interaction, participation in EventStream, and provide recognition for attendees who visit a certain number of exhibitors.
By using prizes and coins
At the heart of gamification is encouraging audiences to participate in aspects of your event. One way to do this is by awarding points and coins for completing different tasks. You might consider:
There have been many good test cases of gamification, and it has benefited many industries, from large corporates to start-ups. One particular success story of note is that of global financial advisory, Deloitte. Deloitte started incorporating gamification into its training programs. The results of which were a 50% reduction in the time employees took to complete training, as well as a marked improvement in engagement levels*.
As learners completed each online learning program, they received a badge to mark their achievement. The impacts were widespread; it encouraged employees to engage in a range of organisational processes, which in turn increased learning and development.
Gamification helps provide a value exchange – allowing attendees to participate by meeting people they may not have met otherwise.
To see how you could increase engagement and interaction, and have a bit of fun on an app for your next event, get in touch with the event experts at Impact Events today.
Source: Gamification: The Hard Truths, Huffington Post, accessed 7 February 2019.