Event gamification is a great way to get your attendees more involved and ensure they have the best possible experience. But what is event gamification, and how do you do it? 

Gamification at events became possible with the advent of smartphone apps. These apps allow attendees to score points by meeting goals like completing a post-lecture quiz, networking with other attendees, visiting exhibitors’ booths, and more. Gamification features like live polling, social media feeds, and leaderboards can improve attendees’ experience. Learn how to get the most from your event gamification app.

Level Up Engagement with the Event App Leaderboard

What is event gamification?

In the past, events such as seminars or conventions may have been nothing more than speeches or booths showing vendors’ products and services. With smartphone apps, event organizers can create gaming systems that work to enhance the participation of attendees.

Event Gamification

Everyone loves playing games. We have entire television networks dedicated to sports and game shows. Every newspaper has puzzles and quizzes – the puzzle section of the Morning Brew daily newsletter never disappoints. Event organizers have found that using games in event apps increases attendees’ satisfaction. But how do you gamify an event?

There are many ways to gamify an event with an app, such as:

• Give points for pictures made with other event attendees from states other than the attendee’s home state
• Give points for each verified interaction with a vendor
• Give points for correct answers on quizzes after each speech
• Points for finding items on a scavenger hunt

Later in this article, we’ll dive deeper into the many features you can put into an event game and how each feature enhances your attendees’ experience.

App Gamification

You’ll need an app with great features to create the best app gamification experience for your attendees. Some features to consider are:

• Live polls
• Interactive social feeds
• Points and leaderboards.

We will discuss each of these features in the sections below. As a brief preview, you need a feature that allows tallying points with displays of who’s leading in the game. Not having this feature would be like attending a football game with no scoreboard!

What are the benefits of event app gamification?

You want your attendees to be involved in your event and to get something positive out of attending your event. You don’t want them sleeping through your event or scrolling through their personal social media feeds.

The best way to engage your attendees is through an interactive event game. Designing these games to promote competition, collaboration, learning retention, and more is a good idea. Your imagination is the only limit to what you can achieve with event app gamification.

Boost Attendee Engagement

There’s no better way to engage your attendees than through their phones. The internet is full of statistics about smartphone usage, such as:

• People check their phones over 80 times a day
• Approximately half of all people admit to being addicted to their phone
• Over 40% of people admit to having anxiety when they don’t have their phone

Depending on the study, you’ll get different statistics, but they all point to the same conclusion: people love their smartphones. Of course, you already know this. It doesn’t take a study to confirm what you’ve seen with your own eyes.

As an event planner, engaging your attendees through their phones is an obvious choice. But when you add event app gamification to the mix, you harness your attendees’ natural desire to compete and win. This is the recipe for maximum involvement by people attending your event. 

Drive Networking Opportunities

One of the best ways people benefit from seminars and conventions is to network. Your event app gamification system makes networking easy for everyone. Your app can help attendees find the people they most need to connect with based on their profiles. You can gamify the networking process by giving points for each new networking contact. For example, your app could give points based on pictures taken together with networking opportunities.

Enhance Learning & Retention

You want your attendees to remember what they learned at your event. Try adding quizzes after each speaker. Make it so that results from quizzes impact your attendees’ point totals. App users will retain more information by having a quiz covering all sessions at the end of the day. You want your attendees to remember what they’ve learned, and there’s no better way to achieve this than to assign points based on their quiz results. They all want to win the game.

Key App Features for Gamifying Events Like a Pro

So, you want to gamify your event app. You’re going to need the right features to build the best game. Here, we’ll look at live polls, interactive social feeds, and leaderboards.

Live Polls

Do you remember attending an event where a speaker seemed to go on endlessly until someone finally raised their hand and asked for a break? You don’t have to do that anymore. With live polls, you get instant feedback from your audience. Your attendees will appreciate the opportunity to provide input without waiting for some bold person to raise their hand and ask for a break.

Live polls can do so much for your event. In the past, a speaker might ask for a show of hands on how many attendees have experienced a certain scenario. With live polls, attendees can see exact numbers and review these statistics later.

Are you ready to plan your next event? The data from your live polls will show you precisely what you need to improve so you’ll ensure the best possible attendee experience at your next event.

Interactive Social Feeds

Interactive social feeds provide a way for your event to have its own “mini social network.” You want your attendees to enhance their network. Networking requires communication. Over the past 10 to 20 years, we humans evolved to communicate through apps seamlessly. Networking through the app is often a prerequisite to the first face-to-face meetings.

Connections facilitated by these interactive social feeds create a sense of community within event attendees. This sense of community often carries over after the event through an enhanced business network.

Points & Leaderboards

You can’t have a game without assigning points for desired accomplishments. And you have no game unless there’s a way to see how well the players are doing. That means we need leaderboards. Otherwise, you have no way for competitors to see how they’re doing.

Examples of event gamification through apps

You’re ready to create your event game, but how will you design it? Let’s look at a couple of proven strategies to help you design your best game.

QR Code Scavenger Hunt That Guidebook Builds For You

The QR Code Scavenger Hunt is a type of game that can be built into your app. A Guidebook team member will take care of the work for you! All you need to do is email us the game details at least one week before you need the game ready. 

How a QR Game Works for End-Users

So, those QR codes you see around? Well, imagine them being part of a game! Whether you’re at an event, wandering around a building, or even chilling on a virtual platform, these codes can be scattered around, waiting to be found.

Here’s how it goes: when you spot one, whip out your phone, open the QR Scanner in the game folder, and give it a scan. Boom! You’re directed to the Game Progress page, where a piece of the puzzle gets filled in. Keep hunting until you’ve scanned all the codes to reveal the complete image or phrase.

Now, the real kicker? There are rewards involved! Completing the game could snag you a little treat or even put you in the running for a bigger prize. It’s all about the thrill of the chase and the sweet satisfaction of winning.

Curious to see it in action? Check out this video to get a glimpse of how a QR Code Scavenger Hunt rolls for the everyday player.

Gamified Learning Modules

Gamified learning modules are the best way to ensure your attendees are learning from your event. Take, for example, a continuing education seminar for professions like lawyers or accountants. Rather than have your attendees daydream through endless lectures, help them reinforce their knowledge through quizzes.

Attendees are more likely to return to the seminars where they not only learn the most but also retain the most knowledge. Quizzes are the way to reach this goal.

Engage Event Attendees with Guidebook’s Gamification Features

Event app gamification increases attendee engagement and promotes team building, collaboration, networking, and learning retention. So, what reason could you have for not creating your gamification app? If you’re like most event organizers, the answers are simple. Creating such an app costs $50,000 or more, right? Maintaining the app is sure to be highly complex, right? Wrong!

Guidebook has you covered with our drop-and-drag creation model. There’s no need to hire an expensive developer. Also, Guidebook’s apps integrate with the software you already use. You can drop attendee data from the app into your CRM program. 

So, what are you waiting for? Crank up the fun at your events with exciting app-based gamification. Request a demo with Guidebook today to get started!