Yu-kai Chou: Gamification Guru of the Year 2015!

Yu-kai Chou: Gamification Guru of the Year 2015!

The Biggest Gamification in Europe

Every year, the biggest gamification conference in the US is the GSummit, hosted by Gabe Zichermann. In Europe, the biggest event is the World Gamification Congress, hosted in Barcelona Spain and had 1300 attendees this year.

I was invited to do a Keynote and Workshop at the Gamification World Congress this year regarding Octalysis Gamification, along with my Managing Director and Partner Joris Beerda who also did a Keynote.

WGC2015 Gamification Joris

My main focus was to teach the attendees at the workshop a deeper level of Octalysis Gamification Design, and to teach the Keynote attendees how the gamification industry needs to mature in order to not reach a crash.

I was delightfully surprised that, on a show of hands, over 60% of the audience had learned about my Octalysis Framework before. Many people also wanted to take selfies with me and have me autograph random items, as well as my book Actionable Gamification.

Octalysis Gamification Workshop

High interests with my book: Actionable Gamification – Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards

For my book, I shipped 100 books to Europe, thinking that it would be enough for the audience at the conference with many left to disperse to the other countries I visited.

Shockingly, all 100 books were sold at the Gamification World Congress, with many people deciding to order the book on Amazon instead.

Many people walked up to me and told me they have already finished my book and loved it. All extremely flattering and I could only humbly thank them for enjoying my work.

Book with AttendeePicture with BookPicture with An CopensBookBook SelfieActionable Gamification Book

Deeply honored to win the Gamification Guru of the Year Award1

The climax of the event was at the end of Day 3, where the Gamification Guru of the Year award was given out. This award is based on the Rise.Global algorithm and community voting.

This year I honestly wasn’t optimistic on winning the award since I haven’t been doing that hot on the Rise leaderboard throughout the year. Also, I felt that it would more interesting to the audience if there is a bit more variety for who the winner is. After all, there has been tons of other folks in the industry that are doing great and inspiring work.

For the official press announcement on Yu-kai’s election (also elected in 2014), see: https://gamification.world/awards/gw-awards-2015/gamification-world-awards-2015-winners

 

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