Using gamification – education, fun or both?

One of the biggest challenges for event organisers at the moment is how to improve engagement at their conferences, meetings and events. Gamification is increasing being used, but what are the benefits, particularly in this hybrid world that we now find ourselves in?

As always, objectives need to be set and the programme designed accordingly, but why not make learning fun and different. The goals need to connect with the content and collect relevant data, as well as improving the user experience.

One organiser who tested their audience’s knowledge before the event and then afterwards, found that 97% of people who started the gamification session finished it, and 30 days later 90%+ of the knowledge was retained. This was far higher than when gamification hadn’t been used.

Particularly successful examples of the use of gamification are for sales training and product launches.

The gamification element can be played individually or in teams, so attendees connect and network with other people. It could be used to encourage attendance at future or recurring events as an ongoing competition or ‘re-match’ if scoring is used.

Planners who have introduced gamification say that there are many advantages to using a game format that is designed specifically for the audience:

• Improved learning experience
• Higher attendance
• Different learning environment
• Measurement of impact
• Interaction, either face-to-face or via online comments and discussions
• Instant feedback of data
• It can be used as an incentive or booking discount tool

Measurements can be in place to assess the success of introducing gamification:

• Any increase in participation
• Knowledge on a specific topic
• Response rates
• Improved post-event assessments
• To identify new opportunities

The data that gamification can provide:

• Who participated
• How they participated
• Educational gaps
• What they liked and disliked

And this can be used for:

• Future programme design
• Using profiles to target the right people appropriate marketing
• Encouraging post-event feedback

Considerations

• The presenter or moderator needs to be happy and confident to use gamification, which can be done by using a previous example, showing audience participation, their response and the data gained.
• Different cultures may prefer individual or team exercises
• Some groups will be happy with a competition, but others will not be comfortable with a public scoring system or leader board
• Think about whether the results should be published at the time or afterwards, or whether individuals should just receive their own results

Introducing gaming strategies and techniques to conferences, meetings and events does have advantages, particularly data collection and insights in to delegate behaviour, but the key is that it has a well defined strategy behind it and it improves the user experience.

For more information about planning your conference, please call 01780 484051 or email [email protected]