April 21, 2026
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Case Study: Air Canada’s Gamified ‘Earn Your Wings’ Program

Natalija Knaidele03 mins

In late 2013, Gabe traveled to 15 cities worldwide for GSummit Global, a series of full-day workshops and meetups to bring GSummit closer to gamification fans. As a part of GSummit Global, we also released 10 new webinars and videos by gamification and engagement professionals. We will be releasing them publicly as we keep counting down to GSummit 2014.

First up, a webinar by Ian Di Tullio, the Director Loyalty Marketing of Air Canada. This fast-paced webinar will lead you through the basic features and characteristics of airline loyalty programs, with a neat case study of Air Canada’s own loyalty promotion, Earn Your Wings.

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Crowdsourcing Global Expertise with Daniel Green of Wikistrat

Natalija Knaidele12 mins

Last week, Gabe Zichermann go the chance to talk to Dan Green, co-founder and CTO of Wikistrat, the world’s first massively multiplayer online consultancy (MMOC). Wikistrat unites subject-matter experts on politics, economics, climate and the like from all around the world to participate in producing crowdsourced forecasting scenarios, war games and simulations for customers worldwide.

Watch the full video to learn about:

  • Solving the problem of groupthink in strategy and recruitment
  • Sourcing opinions from experts in diverse fields worldwide with a revenue-sharing model
  • Engaging experts with gamification (immediate feedback, healthy competition)
  • Online recruitment – credentials and interviewing
  • Protecting the integrity of online community

You can read more about the MMOC on Wikistrat’s blog.

Check out the video below and be sure to also catch our next episode of the Gamification Revolution next Wednesday, March 26 at 1 PM ET with MIT Media Lab!



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Spotlight Gamification Expert: Kevin Werbach

Kevin Shane02 mins

As we move into our next installment of GSummit (June 10-13 in San Francisco), we look at our past GSummit speakers and experts that have helped shape the user engagement space. This week’s spotlight Gamification Expert is Kevin Werbach–Associate Professor at The Wharton School at UPenn and teacher in the massively successful online Gamification Class on…

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barry kirk bill hennessey

Evolving Loyalty Using Persuasive Design with Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Last week we featured two loyalty gamification pros from Maritz Motivations: Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey, to talk to us about the proper way to gamify loyalty and how strongly immersed the gamification is in this long standing industry.

Want to increase your knowledge on persuasive design? Be sure to sign up for Barry & Bill’s full-day Workshop at GSummit SF 2014 (June 10 in San Francisco)–Persuasive Design Workshop for Next-Gen Loyalty Marketing.

Watch the full interview below to learn about:

  • How loyalty can’t get past a P.B.L. design philosophy
  • The conservative nature of loyalty practionioners
  • Keeping loyalty members past the onboarding stage
  • “Grinding” vs “Rituals” for influence habits
  • Using randomized prize distribution
  • Using emotions for True loyalty and Cult loyalty

And much more! Check out the full 3-man special on gamified loyalty below. Be sure to also catch our next episode of the Gamification Revolution this Thursday at 1 PM ET. Also, learn more about Barry & Bill’s Persuasive Design Workshop for Next-Gen Loyalty Marketing at GSummit this June 10th.



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sascha goto

Guiding Gamification Through Management with Sascha Goto

Ivan Kuo02 mins

Sometimes when you want to gamify in a large organization, the hoops and hurdles you need to surpass may seem daunting. Sascha Goto is an Senior IT Manager at McKinsey who was able to successfully implement his own low-tech gamified system and was able to share some wisdom for us all on how we might approach doing the same thing.

He joined us on our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow with Gabe Zichermann and talked about:

  • Implementing gamification for IT management
  • Getting employees to participate with gamification systems on their own time
  • Demonstrating success with products
  • How to get approval for gamification
  • The effect of competition in an organization
  • Using low-tech proofs of concept

Watch the full interview below and catch this week’s special double-guest episode on gamifying loyalty with Maritz’ Barry Kirk and Bill Hennessey this Thursday at 1 PM ET.



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victor manrique

Victor Manrique on Teaching the World Gamification Design

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Victor Manrique is a prominent gamification community member, author of EpicWinBlog, and professor of Iversity’s Gamification Design MOOC (also free!) who joined our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow to talk about teaching gamification design to the masses. He is joined by Gabe Zichermann to talk about his experiences teaching and discussed:

  • Differences between game design and gamification
  • Philosophies behind teaching a gamification Design MOOC
  • Learning other disciplines to strengthen gamification
  • Balancing game design

And much more! Watch their full interview below to get all the talking and be sure to join us this Thursday for our next episode featuring Sascha Goto of McKinsey to discuss his work in bringing gamification into IT Management. Click through to get show reminders!

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monica cornetti

Low to No Tech Gamified Training with Monica Cornetti

Ivan Kuo02 mins

We often like to say that sometimes good design and creativity can trump technology, like in the case of Amy Baskin’s grammar olympics or David Hunter’s zombified geography curriculum. Most people want to use gamification solutions with fancy apps and SaaS solutions but what if you simply don’t have the resources? Monica Cornetti is a gamification expert specializing in using some creative designs for training purposes and we invited her to speak on our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow.

She walks us through her methods for low to no tech gamified training and shares her knowledge on:

  • Using story narratives for engagement
  • Using avatars without technology
  • Getting people excited to use no-tech solutions
  • 5 Step Solution to low-tech training
  • Measuring progress without tech

And much more! Watch her full interview with Gabe Zichermann below and be sure to watch Victor Manrique join on our gamification show this Thursday at 1PM ET:



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brian burke

Gartner’s Latest Gamification Research for 2014 with Brian Burke

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Brian Burke is a Gartner analyst specializing in enterprise architecture and gamification. His research led to the infamous prediction stating “80% of gamification initiatives will fail by 2014 due to bad design” and Gartner thinks that prediction is still on track for 2014.

We wanted to get more information on this topic so we were lucky enough to have Brian Burke himself join our weekly Gamification Revolution webshow to discuss his observations on gamifying organizations, new research, and information on his upcoming book. Watch the following video to learn about

  • Transitioning from using gamification as a tactic into a strategy
  • How organizations can  go beyond just jumping on the gamification bandwagon
  • Using gamification to discover underlying business problems.
  • How have we seen organizations balance between fun mechanics and presentation for maximum work space efficiency?
  • And the evolving pathos around gamification in the enterprise

Check out the full video below and be sure to see our next episode this Thursday at 1PM ET featuring Monica Cornetti, an expert specializing in low-tech training gamification. Sign-up and get show reminders!



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gabe zichermann

Gabe’s Gamification Office Hours Review

Ivan Kuo01 mins

After a long hiatus going on a massive trip around the world for GSummit Global, Gabe Zichermann returns to our weekly Gamification Revolution show to give readers some updates on our online gamification certification courses and to answer some questions from the audience.

Learn more about:

  • How to find gamification-related jobs
  • Gamifying work “offline”
  • The potential danger of “over-gamifying” and desensitizing users
  • The danger of making systems too fun and distracting
  • Approaching CRM gamification

Check out the full video below and be sure to watch the Gamification Revolution every Thursday at 1 PM ET. Catch Gartner Analyst Brian Burke this week to discuss his finding and research on gamification future and ask him questions.

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nir eyal

The Ethics and Tenants of Habit-Forming Design with Nir Eyal

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Speaker, author, entrepreneur, and GSummit Alumnus Nir Eyal joined us last week on the Gamification Revolution weekly webshow and discussed some of the ideas he presents in his Hooked Model on creating habit-forming designs. We review Nir’s thoughts on the ethics of creating these designs, the emotive effect of engaging experiences, and how the evolution of technology evolved user-experiences. Watch the full interview below:



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If you’re interested in learning about Nir’s work, you can visit his blog at NirAndFar.com

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amy baskin

Low-Tech Gamification for Students with Amy Baskin

Ivan Kuo01 mins

Educators are some of the hardest working people out there with some of the lowest budgets to do their jobs right. It takes ingenuity, creativity, and passion to achieve real engagement with students, which is why Amy Baskin’s Grammar Olympics and other game concepts for grammar really demonstrate the power of fun for teaching.

We invited Amy to come on our weekly webshow to tell us more about what she’s been up to and she shares some of her secrets and successes from her gamified endeavors. Check out the full video below for the interview



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Be sure to join us this Thursday at 1 PM ET as Nir Eyal comes on to talk to us about designing habit-forming products. RSVP and sign-in to chat and join the conversation!

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knack wasabi waiter

How Playing Games Can Discover True Talent

Ivan Kuo12 mins

Recruiting games are some of the most exciting applications for gamification today. We’ve seen it applied everywhere from the Air Force to big data analytics startups and now a new company has emerged to create games for talent discovery.

Knack is a startup that deeply believes in the mantra “you are how you play” and makes casual games to unveil player traits, soft skills, and behavioral qualities.

Essentially — the games by Knack serve as a medium for behavior observation and will pair you with appropriate recruiters and companies based off your revealed traits.

We invited Knack founder Guy Halfteck to join our Gamification Revolution show to explain the company’s vision and what Knack is capable of. Watch the video below for the full interview.



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If you’re interested in trying out these games, check out Knack.it to request an invite.

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will wright gsummit

Will Wright on Gamifying the World: From SimCity to the Future

Ivan Kuo22 mins

One of the most phenomenal experiences of GSummit SF 2013 happened with Will Wright’s keynote talk. As the creator of SimCity and countless other games and simulations, Wright’s talk goes deeply into games’ and their effect on us as humans in society and what that means for gamification in the grand scheme of things.

He touches on the lessons can we take from games — and decades of experience designing for fun — to create engagement for large audiences with complex models and issues? How can we make simple everyday interactions more compelling and use them as teachable moments to energize society? Can everything really be fun — and what are the secrets for balancing detail and simplicity? Check out Will Wright’s full talk as he re-imagines how the world becomes a more fun and engaging place, sharing his vision for the future and powerful design insight.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get our latest gamification videos and talks. You can also download a copy of this presentation by downloading it here.

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gsummit global

Achieving Customer Engagement with Gamification – GSummit Global Webinar

Ivan Kuo31 mins

As a part of our ongoing GSummit Global event, we’ve been having webinars with our esteemed speakers about gamification and engagement! A few weeks ago we were joined by Livecube co-founder, Aaron Price, Air Canada’s Director of Loyalty, Ian di Tulio, and United Capital’s Vice President of Strategy, Gail Graham to have a panel discussion about their thoughts on designing an effective gamification system.

We also have two upcoming webinars with our speakers on November 18 at 1 PM ET and December 3 at 10 PM ET – please visit gsummitWEB.livecube.com and check it out!

It’s a full-length video, so grab a snack and watch the full 1 hour discussion below:

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john hendricks boombox

Boombox’s Approach on Designing Gamification Campaigns at an Agency

Ivan Kuo11 mins

We first heard about digital agency Boombox when we attended Adweek’s Science of Gamification panel to hear what prominent agencies had to say on the efficacy of gamification. We decided to invite Boombox CEO John Hendricks to come back on our own show to circle back on some of his ideas and to tell us about how he approaches gamification design for his agency. This is a great episode for anyone looking to offer gamification consulting and design services at their own company.

Check out the full video below and  Be sure to catch our next episode on Thursday, November 14 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature Livecube Co-Founder Aaron Price as our next guest.



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