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Pete Jenkins is an international speaker, adviser and trainer in Gamification. Pete took the number one spot on the “Gamification Gurus Power 100” in February 2016. Pete founded his company GAMIFICATION+ LTD and has since advised and trained companies of all sizes, both in the UK and internationally, on the use of gamification. He is also Chair of GamFed (the International Gamification Confederation), where he helps spread the use of gamification best practices to benefit as many people and businesses as possible. Pete has been Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Brighton for 9 years. As well as researching gamification for HR, he lectures on gamification and entrepreneurship at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Over the past 15 years, Pete has built and sold two businesses. Pete is also an Ambassador for Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce.

Pete Jenkins started in gamification when he got fed up with having the CRM projects fail! He realized the problem had more to do with the engagement from users than with the quality of the software, and since he saw Kevin Werbach’s course on Coursera, hasn’t looked back!

Gamification Europe was initially meant to be a national conference in the UK, but when Gamification World Congress seemed to not come through, he decided, with a short notice, to host the large gamification event of 2017! Besides, when you run a conference you can get the speakers you want to listen to there. So we can expect to have some of the best speakers and practitioners of gamification! We’ll have talks, lots of networking, long lunches, workshops and the gamification awards. Have to say it looks like my kind of conference.

What can those interested in education and learning find? There are many speakers in the area: Sylvester Arnab, an escape room by Michiel van Eunen, How not to run a gamified classroom by Bernardo Letayf, Horst Streck from the Dutch games association with The power of play in Higher Education and of course Professor Game will be there with Death by badges: how superficial gamification turned my project into something else! An Coppens will also be talking about What I learned designing gamified learning experiences, and Professor Karen Cham’s Bankrupting Gamification – When a Method Becomes Mythologised. Also, Jeff Gomez is a keynote speaker with cross-platform storytelling, talking about what’s next after the hero’s journey and how it is not the good thing for now!

The Hero’s Journey is the topic of the conference because Pete feels narrative and story is not talked about enough. Also, initially he wanted to talk about just failure, but it might have been taking it too far, with this spin the positive side can be present from.

This year the conference is in Brighton because… That’s where Pete is based! However, future years will hopefully move around the continent. Also, Brighton is a city full of conferences, amongst which there is a game developer one, whose organizers are also participating in the organization. Brighton also is a pretty place for tourism, e-learning and much more!

The conference will happen the 28 and 29 of November (if you want a special discount, click here and follow the instructions!). For any further information go to http://gamification-europe.com

Pete would love to have Dan Ariely interviewed in Professor Game, he’d like to know what they’re working on now. Some other great suggestions would be Nir Eyal and Jesse Schell.

Random question from the audience: Which design elements take priority over others? Said another way, are there design fundamentals that matter to most experiences, without which the experience doesn’t work at all?

Well, to start it really depends on the audience. The research will say what motivates them. But if I had to pick one, I would say rewording. Normally we add gamification something that is already there, we explain why we want people to do something. Perhaps phrasing something like a challenge instead of what was used before can change the setting and motivations.

Pete would say to those starting, start small and experiment a lot. Also putting some effort into actually designing, can really make a difference. Here we know for sure Pete is also an entrepreneurship professor!

@PeteJenkins is the best way to get started, LinkedIn could be a good place but tell him in the request where you’ve met him or why you want to connect.