All of our preparations have paid off and now, the big day has arrived. With 350 delegates expected, the Jewish Heritage Museum in the Battery neighborhood of New York City looks gamified and ready to go.
Today’s events are beginning (a little late, but happily none-the-less) with an introduction by Gamification expert and GSummit Chair, Gabe Zichermann. Zichermann, my co-author of Game-Based Marketing (Wiley, 2010) and Gamification by Design (O’Reilly, 2011), is also a board member of StartOut.org and facilitator for the NYC chapter of the Founder Institute.
Zichermann began by welcoming our sponsors, Bunchball and Badgeville and then telling the audience that the reason we are here is DRUGS. (It got a laugh.) He meant of course, Dopamine, whose release promotes desire and engagement and leads to mastery. It is incentive. It is this behavior loop upon which games and gamification are based. Because of change, and the pressure it evokes, it is necessary to look for ways to motivate changes. (He points out President Obama who has first hand knowledge of how hard it is to change a system)
We are going to see how gamification can and does promote change and how it can make even the most mundane of tasks fun and engaging. The best way to do this, as any five year old will tell you, is to turn it into a game.
He shows research data that includes that a projected 1.6 million dollars will be spent on gamification by 2016. Almost half of all companies implementing gamification are using it to promote customer loyalty. A quarter is using it for employee motivation.
He announces the Engagement Alliance (see previous post) and offers info about how to get involved.
There is a basic run down of the schedule and where to go for the additional sessions and where to go for the after party (of course!). GSummit.Com contains info about the summit. The hashtag is #GSummit. The speakers and contributors are playing a game– to win approval– they have to be the most tweeted about at the summit and they will win $20,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.
Zichermann ended by welcoming the Key Note speakers. Stay tuned!
