Over the past six months, you may have noticed an uptick of coverage in technology media of a new trend – Gamification. Wikipedia defines it as “The use of game play mechanics for non-game applications.” Game theory is beginning to be widely used to influence customer engagement, behavior and even employee productivity. Click here for a BusinessWeek article with examples of use of game theory at a broad range of companies: SAP, Hilton, Siemens, UPS, Nissan, Target, etc. Gartner has recognized the trend and issued a bold statement: “over half of innovation will be gamified by 2015.”
Click here for a ZDnet story covering Gartners’ report in detail. Gartner is advising that “Enterprise architects, CIOs and IT planners must be aware of, and lead, the business trend of gamification, educate their business counterparts and collaborate in the evaluation of opportunities within the organization”. In addition, Venture Capitalists are beginning to fuel the trend. For example, on June 13th it was reported that: “Bunchball has raised a round of $6.5 million to expand its investments in gamification”. The CTO Roundtable sensed the trend early and organized our Summit on “What CTOs should learn from Gaming?” This CTO Summit featured two leaders in the emerging field of gaming and entertainment technology, Don Marinelli and Alan Gershenfeld.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Executive Producer, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University
Donald Marinelli is a tenured Professor of Drama and Arts Management at Carnegie Mellon University and is also the Executive Producer of the Entertainment Technology Center. Professor Marinelli is currently leading the expansion of the Entertainment Technology Center internationally with ETC branch campuses in Adelaide, Australia; Silicon Valley, California; and Osaka, Japan. Here is an interesting bog-post about Marinelli’s “Mini-Museum”
Founder, President of E-Line Media
Alan has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of entertainment, technology and social entrepreneurship. He is currently Founder and President of E-Line Media, a publisher of digital entertainment that engages, educates and empowers, with a core focus on computer/video games. E-Line works with leading foundations, academics, non-profits and government agencies to harness the power of games for learning, health, and social impact.
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