Virtual Event Gamification Guide

As more of the workforce continues to go to remote or hybrid schedules, many companies are coming to terms with the new reality — in-person meetings and events are out, and virtual events are in.

However, a Zoom call isn’t going to keep your employees engaged. Enter virtual event gamification — learn about this proven tool to help keep your employees excited before the event and engaged throughout the entire process.

Related: Gamify Your Corporate Training 

What Is Event Gamification?

Over the past decades, many companies and employees have realized that gamification is an effective way to encourage productivity, innovation, and engagement. And with so many events going virtual, we’ve seen the difference that gamification can make.

Gamification is nothing new in the training and educational space, but now that we’ve realized that virtual events are here to stay in the corporate field, it’s time to embrace the principles of gamification and level up your company’s virtual events.

Event gamification is all about increasing employee engagement and productivity by incentivizing them to become active participants in a way that’s fun for everyone involved.

How Event Gamification Works

Event gamification involves using game elements, principles, and mechanics — like competition and scoring — in a corporate settings. These elements deliver content and recognition to your employees while supplying you with continuous, fast feedback.

When we get recognized and rewarded, our bodies release dopamine — the feel-good hormone we all know and love. Event gamification provides employees with instantaneous rewards, generating positive emotions and keeping them engaged in the activity.

In addition, getting rewards during these events also contributes to serotonin levels, which affect a person’s entire mood. Even simple actions, like checking your place on an event leaderboard, can provide a much-needed boost.

Benefits of Event Gamification

Do you want your employees to connect with each other, stay engaged throughout meetings and events, and help create growth in your company? How about hosting a virtual event that has your employees talking about it for months or years to come?

Event gamification brings several benefits, including:

• Engaging employees, leading them to participate and connect during the event
• Breaking the ice between participants, fostering a friendly, relaxed atmosphere
• Creating an overall experience where employees leave the event satisfied
• Spreading positivity throughout your company and employees
• Giving each participant a common ground and shared purpose
• Creating deeper bonds between employees
• Promoting interaction between employees of different departments
• Encouraging employees to share their ideas on how to solve challenges

Best Practices for Event Gamification

At Emeraude Escape, we have extensive experience applying gamification strategies to virtual events successfully. Having created and hosted many gamified events, we’ve discovered some of the best practices to help them succeed:

• Be transparent. Let your employees see their achievements in the event (past, current, and upcoming).
• Use leaderboards. Not only do leaderboards help with transparency, but they also increase the element of competition.
• Encourage sponsors. Talk to your sponsors about gamifying their virtual booths or include them in your gamification strategy.

Related: Games for Cybersecurity Training

• Stay social. Include social media elements in your overall strategy to help give your brand recognition a boost before, during, and after the event.
• Create rules. Ensure that your employees know how to interact during the event, what they can do, and the requirements to win.
• Offer prizes. Choose prizes that your employees will actually want to win (avoid boring rewards like gift cards).

Use the Right Resources to Gamify Your Event

Hosting a successful gamified event starts with working with the right partner — a partner that incorporates the best practices listed above and knows how to use the right resources to gamify an event — a partner like Emeraude Escape.

The best gamified virtual events include:

• Ways for employees to interact and motivate each other
• Clear instructions to ensure everyone knows how to play/win prizes
• Genuinely fun games to bring your event to life

Virtual Event Gamification Ideas for Successful Meetings

There are limitless ways to gamify your virtual events to make your meetings successful. Some of our favorite ideas include:

• Virtual Treasure Hunt — This event game is an exciting way to get your employees to work together by discovering puzzles, unveiling clues, and advancing through the treasure hunt with an adventurous, curious spirit.
• Speed Gaming — Forget speed dating; speed gaming is the perfect digital game for corporate events. Two players are chosen at random to work together to solve various challenges in 2-3 minutes.
• Quiz race — Test the knowledge of your employees while they play a fast-paced quiz game. They can challenge their coworkers solo or use teamwork to work together and get ranked on their level of skills and knowledge of your company.

Related: Escape Rooms for Team Building

And then we have possibly the most effective method of gamifying a virtual event: The Metaverse

The Metaverse: The Future of Virtual Events

You’ve likely heard more and more about the metaverse lately.

First, let’s talk a little bit about what the metaverse is: You can think of it like a 3D version of the internet. It’s an all-encompassing digital world. It’s not just a video game; it’s the future of virtual events.

The metaverse still has a ways to go, and we won’t be living fully-digital lives any time soon, but at Emeraude Escape, we’ve found the perfect way to gamify your virtual events using the metaverse and encouraging your employees to participate in a virtual world that reflects your company’s brand, values, and culture.

Engage, Connect, and Play: Gamify Your Next Event With Emeraude Escape

Allow your employees to engage, connect, and play in the metaverse. Gamifying your events with the metaverse can generate engagement between your employees, whether it’s for training, hiring, workshops, meetings, etc., and connect your employees with your brand and each other.

With Emeraude Escape, you can create a custom metaverse for your company and its employees with all of the features you need for virtual events and more, including:

• Customized avatars
• An automated game master
• Multiplayer capabilities
• Integrated A/V and chat
• Player tracking
• Point rewards
• Leaderboards
• Personalized KPIs

The corporate metaverse is the future of virtual events. Engage your employees and take your virtual events to the next level with gamification —See what we can create for you.