August 29, 2026
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gsummit

undiscovered territory autodesk

Case Study: Autodesk’s Great Tutorial Game to Convert Trial Users

Ivan Kuo02 mins

For software company Autodesk, the 30-day software trial period offered to customers is critical. Trials are a key part of the customer’s purchase decision and account for a significant percentage of the company’s website traffic. So when the 2013 version of the Autodesk(r) 3ds Max(r) software released, the company turned to digital marketing agency Resource to create a fresh and innovative way to increase trial conversion. Known for consumer research and innovation, Resource developed an online game called “Undiscovered Territory” that took customers on an entertaining and educational journey. The result was a significant increase in trial downloads and usage and the campaign earned a Forrester B2B Groundswell Award.

In this session from GSummit SF 2013, Dan Shust, VP of ResourceLAB at Resource and Dawn Wolfe, Sr. Manager of Integrated Marketing Programs at Autodesk will share insights on what made “Undiscovered Territory” such a hit and why gamification is a marketing approach they will continue to use in the future.

Be sure to also subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of this presentation by downloading it here.

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james gatto

What Are the Legal Issues with Gamification?

Ivan Kuo22 mins

Gamblification is a term that we have adopted to describe the intersection of social media and gambling. Although it may not seem like it at first, many Gamification systems walk a dangerous line, giving users the option to gamble with currency in their system. Given the complexity of the legal issues around this concept, it is not always easy to ensure that one does not cross the line. When is gambling in gamified systems ok, and when isn’t it? What are some of the risks you should consider, and what are the basic legal considerations and concerns affecting gamification in general? Join legal expert James Gatto for this fast-paced, crowd-favorite session on some of the key legal issues every gamified system operator needs to know in the video below.

Be sure to also subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Jim’s presentation by downloading it here.

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Social Selling: How Gamification Supports Sales Productivity and Performance

Ivan Kuo02 mins

Needle CEO and founder, Morgan Lynch, has created a remote online customer sales chat platform that implements gamification to encourage remote workers to excel, using social influence to sell. He is an expert in using game mechanics in a non-game context to incentivize remote workers to achieve success by clearly defining benchmark performance goals – creating healthy competition as they compete for points toward free products and more. Needle’s system is proven to help brands boost their online sales and strengthen the online customer experience.

During this session, Morgan explains how using gamification with his untraditional online sales support platform has improved productivity and performance, while driving millenial workers in unique and unprecedented ways.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Morgan’s presentation by downloading it here.

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Join the Global Gamification Tour with GSummit Global

Gabe Zichermann14 mins

gsummit global 2013

GSummit Global to Arrive This Fall At:

NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, and Sydney 

As the gamification movement continues to grow, we’ve been looking for better ways to connect the global community.  Our big conference – GSummit – attracts a good number of global attendees to SF in June, but not everyone can afford to come to San Francisco. Also, we wanted to find a way to help the local community form while providing training and certification opportunities. So we’re trying something entirely new: GSummit Global – a virtual event series that brings together the best of live and virtual events into one affordable, accessible package. I’ll be traveling around the world this winter – and I’d like you to join me

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john reynolds for restaurant.com

How Restaurant.com Creates Loyalty with Gamification

Kevin Shane01 mins

Restaurant.com is the largest source of dining deals in the nation. Despite the huge inventory of amazing offers, the company needed a way to create, sustain and socialize customer loyalty. So they turned to gamification with amazing results. Along the way, Restaurant.com learned some of the best — and worst — ways to create customer loyalty with gamification.

Learn from their lessons as Restaurant.com CRM Manager, John Reynolds, and Badgeville Producer, Zachary Bodnar, walk us through some design principles and lessons learned for achieving loyalty success in ecommerce.
Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of John’s presentation by downloading it here.

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myvegas

Meta Gaming? MyVegas Gamifies Sin City

Kevin Shane01 mins

What’s the best way to talk about the gamification of gambling and gaming? PlayStudios CEO Andrew Pascal took the stage at GSummit SF 2013 to talk about MyVegas,  a partnership between MGM Resorts and PlayStudios to bring gamified loyalty and rewards to the Las Vegas audience.

Watch his talk below as he details the unique challenges and opportunities associated with creating engagement in this challenging environment.

Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of Andrew’s presentation by downloading it here.

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stella grizont

How Playing Can Unlock Your Mind and Inspire You with Stella Grizont

Ivan Kuo32 mins

How would you react if a truck showed up outside your door and you were told to scream inside it for a team-building exercise?

Stella Grizont is the founder of WOOPAH and she believes positive psychology and play are the keys to unlocking our creative sides. She took the stage at GSummit 2013, to tell us about how her studies in psychology led to this revelation and how we might be able to leverage these techniques for ourselves.

She explains

  • Core principles of positive psychology and its perspective on engagement.
  • What is play? What is a game? And what’s the difference?
  • How to use play to spark transformation

Check out the video below to see how play can help you and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get all the latest updates as they come.

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gsummit sf 2013 videos

GSummit SF 2013 Videos Are Coming Out to the Public!

Ivan Kuo22 mins

If you joined us for GSummit SF 2013, then you’ve clearly seen how awesome our community is, amidst of sea of brilliant experts, food trucks, and a gamified conference experience. It is our job here at Gamification Co to proliferate the latest and greatest knowledge about the gamification industry, so we’re finally going to begin releasing all of our videos from GSummit SF 2013 over the next few weeks.

We’ll be posting each of the new releases on our blog but if you want to get each of them immediately, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get each video as they come.

To kick off the first video we’re releasing, we want to share a story about engaging audiences with a real sense of purpose. Jeremy Heimans, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of…Purpose, shares his story about using narrative storytelling to transform engagement for corporations, non-profits and citizens with integrity and purpose.

Stay tuned as we release more videos every week! Also, if you’re interested in seeing a particular speaker on GSummit, sound off in the comments below!

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One Player’s Journey of Gaming Memecube at GSummit SF 2013

Taavi Lindmaa015 mins

Maybe you noticed my Twitter feed blowing up over 2 days in the middle of April. I didn’t count but I’m told there were well over 100 tweets in that brief period of time. While my followers should be used to booms when I hit a conference, this was definitely another level.

The reason for my tweet-binge was Memecube. Memecube is an interesting twist on the usual session hashtags; a conference exclusive Twitter tool. Only attendees were told the URL needed to access the system; in it was the conference schedule. After checking in to a session, you only see tweets from others who are also using Memecube and have checked in and new tweets auto-populated with the speakers’ Twitter handle & the GSummit hashtag. This meant, despite GSummit becoming the #1 trending hashtag on twitter during the conference, we did not see the usual assault of the bimbots. Additionally we didn’t have to try to separate our session from all the others to tweet or retweet something relevant, and the overall system was just easier to use. I cannot think of something the DreamForce Conference needed more.

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My Gamification Birthday Wish

Gabe Zichermann44 mins

Today is my 39th birthday.

When we started on this crazy gamification journey in 2010, I could not have predicted how large an impact our community would have in just 3 short years. What began as a shot in the dark (“I think there are some people out there who think that game concepts can improve business and the world”), has mushroomed into a real movement. Collectively, you have worked to design change in marketing, human resources, product development, strategy and business process. You’ve brought the best ideas from games, loyalty programs and behavioral economics to health, finance, education, government, loyalty and travel…just to name a few industries.

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GSummit SF 2013 Recap with Jessie Rogers

Ivan Kuo02 mins

The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts.

This past week’s guest was GSummit veteran, Jessie Rogers. Jessie has been working with Gamification Co and has GSummit since Day 1.  In this week’s episode, Gabe and Jessie discuss how the gamification landscape has changed in two years and what it means for the future to come. We also get some insights about some of the speakers and behind-the-scenes information.

Check out the video below for the full interview.

Be sure to catch tomorrow’s Gamification Revolution episode at 1PM EDT with educator Lucas Gillispie as he discusses using World of Warcraft as an education tool in his classes as a part of WoWinSchool.

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Why It Doesn’t Matter What “Gamification” Is Called

Ivan Kuo117 mins

There were many brilliant stories of successful case studies and tactful use of engagement techniques at GSummit 2013 but a common qualm about the concept of gamification was made clear in a number of presentations:

People really don’t like the word “gamification”.

Various high-profile speakers, including 2 of the top 10 speakers at GSummit 2013 (Schell and Werbach), explicitly mentioned their displeasure at the g-word and offered a number of alternative names like “motivational design” or “human-focused design”. From what I understand of the complaints, the g-word has negative connotations to it and provides a limited scope through which it can be understood. Many of these complaints are valid but the fact is, if you’re someone who is interested in gamification and/or is working towards implementing it in your own organization, it really doesn’t matter and here’s why:

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Top 10 Gamification Presentations at GSummit 2013

Ivan Kuo33 mins

GSummit 2013 was an absolute hit this year and every one of our knowledgable speakers brought some brilliant content to the stage for everyone to learn. Many people have been asking where the slides for each presentation are and I am happy to announce that we finally have all of them uploaded and ready for viewing at gamification.co/gsummit-2013-slides

However, some speakers resonated with our audience more than others, which was very evident through the use of our conference Twitter client, Memecube and generated huge amounts of buzz. See which GSummit speakers got the most attention according to Memecube:

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