Event gamification has completely changed how we organize events and evaluate their effectiveness. It increases audience participation and aids event organizers inefficiently and quantitatively in achieving their objectives. So it makes sense why it has become one of the most well-liked advantages of event platforms.
Most event platforms on the market include live and virtual event gamification solutions. There are various ways to immerse your attendees in the experience, from missions and challenges to competitions. Games can always restore a spirit of optimism, cohesion, and healthy competition to our activities, no matter what is happening in the world.
Since gamification has become an important aspect of today’s marketing world, we created this guide to help you understand it in detail. Let’s start with event gamification!
What Is Event Gamification?
The idea behind event gamification is straightforward: it entails adding rules and components from games to non-game contexts. This could entail providing options for participants to complete challenges, uncover hidden objects, and more. It may involve giving awards to winners, although it need not. The use of event gamification might help you involve your attendees in the event and encourage them to participate more actively.
Why Gamification?
Gamifying an event is not just about having fun and making wonderful memories. According to studies on gamification, these techniques greatly increase event engagement, productivity, and profitability in both corporate and educational settings. The same is true for events.
Event gamification should not just be implemented to play a game; it should be done strategically. Gamification should assist event planners in achieving their objectives. For instance, organizers may want to increase chances for networking, exhibitor and sponsor participation, session attendance, or brand recognition. Gamified challenges can also be used to advertise to your sponsors or demonstrate to your audience what is important to you.
You can urge your attendees to concentrate on what matters by implementing event gamification. For instance, offer incentives to encourage attendees to stop by as many exhibitor booths as possible to improve lead generation. Similarly, create goals focused on meeting new people if you want people to network.
Ways To Gamify Your Events
Any event may be gamified in a few easy steps. Consider implementing these event gamification ideas for quick wins, whether you are organizing in-person, online, or hybrid events.
- Interaction Points
A point system is among the simplest ways to gamify any event. The event organizer would have to specify the branding for the event, the rules and mechanics of the game, the point system, and the objective of the game. Then, guests would gain points for pre-defined behaviors.
- Participants could earn points by interacting with one another at exhibitor booths or by responding to questions during sessions. Make it obvious to your attendees what they might win if they reach a specific point total.
- Incorporating input into the points system is another option. Alternately, offer guests a discount if they offer feedback following the session.
- Reward For Early Check-in
Gamification can help planners, attendees, and other stakeholders; it’s not simply for their benefit. And we’re not simply referring to all the useful information that enables them to calculate the ROI. For example, attendee conduct that facilitates event management, such as arriving early, might be rewarded by event planners.
This can be especially helpful for virtual events where the demand for tech assistance might quickly increase if everyone joins at once. In addition, by allowing attendees to arrive on the event platform early, they will have time to explore your virtual space and become acquainted with its features.
- Involve Exhibitors
Give your exhibitors what they came for: lead generation, and watch their faces light up. Give your attendees points, credits, or badges for each booth they visit. Additionally, sponsors and exhibitors can advertise themselves in distinctive ways and offer their own gamified raffles and competitions as a way to thank attendees. Gamification is extremely useful for exhibitors in hybrid and online events.
Benefits Of Gamification
Gamification has many benefits, whether your event is an educational conference, a training seminar, an industrial convention, or a sizable internal gathering.
- Sparks The Winning Drive In People
People have an inherent need for competition. However, it doesn’t have to be a competition with other people; it may also be a competition with a problem. In either case, when individuals are presented with a challenge, they naturally want to succeed. Because of this, giving participants a mission as part of your gamification can encourage them to participate more actively, even if no awards are offered.
- Boosts Audience Engagement
Engagement is a key objective for almost any kind of event. Even if your ultimate objective is something else, like sales income or data collection, if attendees are more engaged, you’re more likely to succeed in achieving it. In addition, your sessions and discussions will be more fruitful for everyone when you incorporate interactive components into your event through gamification. This changes attendees from passive listeners to more actively engaged participants.
Wrapping Up!
Gamification is a fantastic idea, even when you’re new to the event scene. It’s simple to incorporate a gamification strategy into your plans if you collaborate with an event planner or organizer, especially with an event software that supports gamification!