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Applying Game Design for Business Success

Applying Game Design for Business Success

Date:Wednesday, Nov 25th 2009 (6:00pm - 8:00pm)
Location:The Wosk Board Room Seventh Floor
Address:Vancouver Public Library
register now

How to apply the well-proven principles of game design to make your business (marketing program, application) more engaging, and to produce concrete measurable business value.

Regardless of your product or industry, the job of a marketer is to motivate customers to act. There is no denying that games command incredible loyalty and mindshare. In this talk, we'll explore the principles of game design for inspiration we can apply to dramatically increase the effectiveness of our own marketing programs and applications.

Speakers Michael Fergusson of Ayogo and Selma Zafar of Openroad Communications.

Ayogo is best known for its technology platform that enables the rapid development and distribution of games across channels by managing user authentication and sessions, metadata, currency structures, prize trees, micro-transactions, virality, community engagement, and social network feature integration with mobile platforms.

OpenRoad Communications is a technology consulting firm located in Vancouver, B.C. We design and build custom software to help companies decrease operating costs and solve critical operational business challenges. Our solutions are designed to specifically suit the unique needs of each of our clients.

 

What you'll learn

Are you rewarding, or punishing your customers for engaging with you? In this talk, you will learn:

  • How play is essential to how we learn, socialize, compete, consume
  • Examples of where game design principles have been applied successfully in business applications
  • The underlying human instincts that makes play engaging, and how to trigger them
  • Practical techniques you can use to get results right away

Michael Fergusson

CEO of Ayogo Games Inc., Ayogo Games Inc

Michael has founded several technology and internet companies. The most recent was Enfolding Systems Corp., which was founded to develop a unique (and now patent-pending) web-based collaboration technology. ESC was acquired by Blast Radius in 2002. In 2004, he helped Blast Radius acquire the XMetaL business (the company formerly known as SoftQuad) from Corel Corp., refresh the product line, multiply revenues, and put the business back on a profitable track. In spring of 2006, supported Blast Radius to sell their Software Products business to Just Systems of Japan. 

In between these projects, he was considered the go-to guy for social networking, and was brought in to offer expertise and insight at the senior management level for many of Blast Radius' most important clients, NAU, Electronic Arts, and Nike. From 2006 to 2008, he led Kinzin, which built a network of nearly a million members, and was a 2008 finalist for a Canadian New Media Award, for Producer of the Year.
 

Selma Zafar

Senior User Experience Designer, Openroad Communications Ltd.

Selma Zafar has over 10 years experience in designing innovative and usable software and hardware.  She ensures that the needs of the end-user remains at the heart of the research, design and development process.  Selma has lead the usability and overall user experience for products and websites for Nokia, Microsoft, Telus, Tourism British Columbia and Ronald McDonald House Charities.  Prior to joining OpenRoad, Selma was the Director of User Experinece with Fjord Interactive.  Selma works to promote and integrate user centered design philosophy into existing design and technical processes. With OpenRoad, Selma continues to  contribute to the user centered design practice and philosophy by bringing a breadth of experience and knowledge from a multitude of industries.  Selma holds an Honours Bachelor of Human Kinetics from the University of Windsor.  As of Fall 2008, Selma was the latest instructor with the Langara College Communication and Ideation Design Program teaching courses in Human Factors and Information Design.

Ticket Info

Register Here: 

Register now

event sponsors

  • The International Internet Marketing Association