In an unspectacular way, gamification is moving into spaces that not short ago you'd have considered too conservative, or too serious for stuff like that. But this is not your grandparents' world anymore and the benefits of approaching serious problems with serious tools like game design start carrying fruits. Be it solving quantum physics problems, engaging patrons in a gym and employees in a work place, but also addressing bureaucracy in government, those are all valid fields where gamification can be applied. After all, gamification is nothing else than modifying people's behaviors in a playful way. And making their lives more fun. Read the insights in the following articles:
Gamification
Platform Report
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Sales Gamification
Platform Report
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MEETINGS MEETINGS MEETINGS!
An Australian Healthcare provider is looking for meetings in the Bay Area with companies and startups in the medical and wearable technology space that are interested in expanding business to Australia. If you know anyone who'd like to meet with them beginning of June, let me know. Thank you!
A few days ago after I had given several talks in Europe conference attendees approach me and some started with "I know it sounds bragging but there is not much yet here, but what I do is..." I stopped them right here. "Why," did I ask them, "do you apologize for dreaming big?" People have to start with a dream and only by talking about it, they will find support, get their ideas improved, and accelerate them. This helps with getting the idea of the ground and get it somewhere. One of these founders really changed his body posture: from a hunched to a straight upright body and the words "Thank you!" And we started a pleasant conversation about his dream with the right mindset.
The famed startup accelerator YCombinator published a pretty interesting blog of startup trends. They went through all the startup applications that they received since 2008 and analyzed words used in pitches and many more things. The result is a pretty good Startup Zeitgeist that shows past and future trends. What was hot, what is hot, what is on the brink of becoming hot? Very very insightful read!
If you are in the Bay Area and want to meet cool startups, then the Startup Conference in Redwood City may be a good start. Taking place on May 19th with 2,000 entrepreneurs attending. You can register here with a 20% discount code Garage2016.
I think knowing about Artificial Intelligence and its ramification becomes one of the most important tasks of humans. After reading Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near and Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence, I come to the believe that we are at a watershed moment for humanity.
To make a deep dive into Artificial Intelligence, a conference in SF end of May will help you get a clearer picture. The one-day conference includes speakers from Uber, Airbnb, and Bloomberg. Here is a 20% discount for the conference.
To experience yourself what the Silicon Valley does right about innovation and what the latest trends are, join our Silicon Valley Inspiration Tours that give you multi-day deep dives into the San Francisco Bay Area. See more tour details here. Here is also a list of preparatory steps for your visit.
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NSFW - Magnetic Marble Run
Today's NSFW - internet lingo for Not Safe For Work - brings me back to my childhood. If you don't know, I was a master marble run builder. Two and a half meters high and 8 tracks going down in parallel. All made out of cardboard papsr. Until one fateful day...
So you can imagine my excitement, when somebody posts a cool marble run video online. And the following one is brining it to the next level. Marble run means tinker show. Watch for yourself.
