In Molly St. Louis’ lastest story for Adweek, she extensively quotes Cramer’s Brent Turner, senior vice president of solutions, on the benefits of gamification.

Getting your networking game on

The benefits of gamification even extend to networking events and contact building, with wearable technology taking the lead. Badge-style wearables for event attendees engineered by companies like Klik, have unlocked a range of new interactions, from booth visiting to session attendance. Their location-centric features encourage better networking by essentially gamifying expo-floors.

Brent Turner, svp of solutions for Cramer, says, “with this type of wearable technology, you can “like” (or check-in) to specific locations, and create point scales and reward systems that gamify nearly all aspects of a live experience.”

This leads to a much more productive outcome from events and trade shows, ensuring that attendees actually take in all the key points they’re meant to and make as many meaningful contacts as possible, rather than just hanging out in the lobby.

“Furthermore,” says Turner, “each action can be assigned points, with different actions worth more than others, and more points can be unlocked by accomplishing specific actions.”

Gamification can be tailored to the type of actions that are more valuable to a given business. “In a sales meeting, for example, there may be greater value in learning and exploration—so we give more points for attending sessions, taking quizzes, and visiting expo booths,” says Turner. “For a user conference where community building is valuable, there may be greater value in networking and meeting new people. So, in both cases, we would weigh the points to the specific actions we are trying to drive.”

Gamification is not just the “spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down,” it allows leaders to clearly show their team what their objectives are, leading to the desired result.