After my attendance in the Global Peter Drucker Forum 2014 event in Vienna, I reflected on what I can do to keep the spirit and the outcomes of the conference alive in my business moving forward. Many professionals struggle in doing so as it requires self-discipline and commitment to turn the event into something more than just a great event in itself.

One thing that has proven really helpful is to think of conference attendance as a game. In the game, I am learning new things, challenging myself and making bold decisions.

The moves in the conference attendance game could be introducing yourself to people you normally would not approach, sharing insights with strangers and following up with attendees and non-attendees via social media. There are many things to follow-up with, including sharing ideas, book recommendations and new contacts.

As a livestream attendee, you can still play the game, although the possibilities for engagement and new opportunities will appear more distant. Attending a conference live will always provide a more intimate experience with plenty of opportunities to challenge yourself. If the livestream event is supported by a live forum you may use that to enhance your learning, challenge yourself and make bold decisions to keep the momentum from the event.

The point is that the game does not end after the conference. Social media and forums allow it to continue. It can even help you define the new board for your next conference game.

By following others, you can continue to be inspired by people from the event. When posting your thoughts and learning points, you will also be in a position to inspire others who are attracted to the same areas of interest as you. By doing this, and leveraging the contacts and opportunities from the conference, you can build your own following as an advancing leader. This occurs as an obvious, yet often overlooked and under-utilized opportunity to nurture long term relationships that support your ambitions as a leader.

As an advancing leader, you have the opportunity to use the conference game approach to make an impact on matters of importance to you:

1. Stay connected to the conference community of speakers, participants and followers via social media and communities offered.
2. Share ideas, search for collaboration and integrate new learning in your daily life.
3. Look for opportunities to co-create with people in the community and make note to yourself of any ripple effects.

In order to embrace the notion of a game for any conference attendance in the future, you should ask yourself some key questions to make the most out of your game:

• When is your next conference coming up? Can you build on any of the ideas from the last event?
• What would you do differently next time? Which opportunity did you miss this time that you would like to seize next time?
• What can you do in the mean time to prepare and improve your own experience for a great conference outcome?

On a personal note, I am levelling up my game for my next conference and have already joined communities to prepare for a great outcome. After attending the recent Global Peter Drucker Forum, I have decided to nurture my new contacts in both the event forum as well as social media in general. As soon as the conference admission board sends out the invitation, I will submit my contribution to an article expanding on the learning points from the conference and including my ideas for next year’s conference. I expect nothing less than the unexpected from the contributors and attendees.

Let me know which reflections and comments you have on the conference attendance game approach below. Game on!

The post How Well Are You Playing The Conference Attendance Game? appeared first on Katy Caroan.

Virtual Leader Conference 2014: “Empowering the Advancing Leader in You”

The notion of playing a business game might either intrigue you or make you hesitate. Why do we claim that you will succeed as a leader when playing games? We are approaching the end of the learning game component of the Virtual Leader Conference 2014 (#vlc14) and I want to give you a glimpse of what is going on in this real life business game so you can make an informed decision on how you feel about playing business games yourself.

The #vlc14 game is aiming at enhancing the learning experience for the conference participants through a variety of gamification elements and game design techniques. The game is structured by exercises and challenges based on our conference sessions and contributions from our speakers on a LifeVille game card where each player generates points.

All players are distributed into teams to co-create solutions. The players may access the game cards of other players and provide feedback. When sharing occurs, both the giver and the receiver will get extra points. Players may engage in full transparency or privately to share their findings. The challenges are launched gradually during the game and spontaneous play may occur. All players will appear on a Leader Board with their current score, and the team’s performance will also be visible.

Simply following instructions is not really a game as it doesn’t have the aspects of fun and spontaneity that a true game does. According to LifeVille Game Creator Carina Kindkvist, a key success factor when creating a real life business game is to reduce the number of instructions to an absolute minimum. Instead, we are looking to motivate the players to explore, experiment and have fun doing so by sharing their experiences with the other players.

There are benefits as well as challenges in creating business games:

Benefits of playing business games:

Some of the benefits of playing games are obvious: It is fun going on discovery! Great real life games create opportunities for unexpected results as the players are combining their own learning with feedback and inspiration from other players.

There seem to be certain characteristics that are common to those who are engaged and playing well. They are motivated by visible results and feedback, and they are open to demonstrating vulnerability when playing.

One of the #vlc14 top players so far, John Rasiej, shares his experience:

“I am half way through the #vlc14 game and have experienced that it’s a way of creating another motivation to get more engaged and perhaps even listen more closely to the content since you will have more reasons to share what you have heard.  It’s also been gratifying to get added validation seeing people’s comments that they have gotten a lot of useful ideas from my webinar.”

Challenges of playing business games:

Some of the challenges of playing games are found in our attitudes about what is acceptable behavior among professionals. It can be uncomfortable and different than how professionals normally learn or solve problems, it might even be perceived as childish.

Specifically, it is challenging to professionals who are looking for “perfection” as the game pushes them to share with strangers and take imperfect action. One of the #vlc14 players who were reluctant from the start, Marie-Claire Hermans, shares her experience:

“’I don’t have time to play games!’ That was my first thought while reading the announcement that all leaders and participants of the Virtual Leader Conference were invited to play a game. Games are serious. You have to win them. They create pressure. We didn’t play games at home because they were a ‘waste of time.’ So my perception of ‘playing games’ is not one of being ‘playful.’ Nevertheless, playfulness is a characteristic I own despite my reluctance to play games.

I needed to unlock my mind to enter this game. It was a challenge. But… I love challenges so I did enter. Hesitating. Not feeling like it at all. A waste of my precious time as a busy professional. I started playing while sighing, exploring what “they” wanted from me. Then I answered one question. Wow, what was that?! Fireworks! Hm, that’s nice. Let me answer a next question. Fireworks again! Yesterday I was answering questions just to see the magic of the fireworks pop on my screen.

I am enjoying playing after all. I am counting my hearts. I am engaging. Of course, being used to always winning in competition when I was young, that old fire arose inside of me too. But then something occurred to me. We are all winning this game. Because we are learning, picking up the content and rephrasing it. And I have to say that, as an eternal student, I always love to learn. It’s fun to see all these leaders and adult participants play the game, interact, give hearts and connect.”

According to Game Creator Carina Kindkvist, not all players will engage fully in voluntary games. Compared to e-learning though, the engagement level is significantly higher and in fact exceeding 50%. Are you curious to check it out for yourself? There is still time to join our game until September 21!

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If you like this topic, you will love the last days of our #vlc14 Virtual Leader Conference game running September 15-21, 2014 where other speakers and attending Advancing Leaders are playing to inspire, learn and implement success strategies in pursuit of their next big thing as a leader. You are welcome to join us in the game on demand and free of charge via http://vlc14.katycaroan.com

The post Why Leaders Succeed When Playing Games: Lessons And Confessions From An Online Conference Using Gamification appeared first on Katy Caroan.