The organizers of the March of Dimes 2015 staff conference decided to use GooseChase for all attendees as a fun way to help staff get to know each other, and to engage with the mission. I volunteered to assist from the administration side of the game, and below are some of my observations.
Lessons Learned
Mission setup
GooseChase recommends 30+ missions for a successful game. When creating a mission a title, description and identifying the number of award points are the only required fields, although you can also add a photo and link to website.Regardless of the duration of your event, you can continue to add and edit missions. Our game was setup for 3 days, and we added 7 events each day. There is NOT a way to pre-program when new missions begin (nor am I suggesting there should be), so we added new missions nightly.
While adding new missions certainly keeps the game motivation/excitement alive for a multiple day game, I think that starting with 7 missions was limiting. My recommendation would be to take the GooseChase advice and start with 30+ missions from the start, and if you want to add more later, go for it!
One bit of advice I picked up from a YouTube video was that when you have >30 missions it can become difficult to scroll through the list. One tip they offered was that if you do offer a lot of missions, to consider printing out a list of them, and numbering them so teams can quickly find them in the app's mission list.
Teams versus individuals
The pro's of this approach are that it makes the app registration process less confusing, and allows the organizers to identify individual contributions.
The con's are that you lose a lot of the team building benefits that could otherwise be achieved, and more importantly you have to pay for significantly more licenses.
We opted for individual registration.
Who is winning?
The leaderboard section of both the app and the desktop site allow you to see who has earned the most points. The catch is that the only thing that displays is the team/individual name. As an admin it would be helpful if you could see a full list of user information such as their email address, but I couldn't find that capability.While doing a corporate event we assumed folks would use their names, instead we ended up with completely random gibberish which prevented us from being able to identify who was playing. In hindsight, it would be well advised that you ask your users to adhere to a certain naming convention so that you can easily identify who is who (this goes for both team and individual games!).
Examples usernames from our challenge that proved unidentifiable:
- GFN1906
- ChicagoBabe3
- GloryDaze
- TrackyRed
Inclusion of those not in attendance
As mentioned, our implementation of GooseChase was for an invite-only staff conference, which is typically attended by around 35% of our organization. Since the conference is not streamed and doesn't offer any remote participation, there was a suggestion that the game be modified to provide opportunities to include staff that weren't invited to the conference. Ultimately it was decided that the GooseChase be focused on on-site participants to keep it as interactive as possible, but it might be worth considering how to include off-site participants in the future.Screenshots
The GooseChase app only allows you to utilize the camera from your mobile device, NOT your photo gallery.Communication, promotion, participation
The March of Dimes staff conference attendees received a binder of conference materials upon registering. Since I didn't attend the event, and wasn't involved in the promotion of our GooseChase event, I can't say what they received that informed them about the game, instructions on how to participate, or how much it was promoted in other ways (general sessions, posters, management, etc).Out of 350 conference attendees (and an enterprise/unlimited license), only 40 attendees download the app, and 18 of those completed at least one mission.
Missions
Below are the missions we used and the number of participants in each. Why am I providing this? When constructing our GooseChase we struggled to find ideas for what would be fun - so consider this us paying it forward!| Mission | Participants |
| Adaptable: Is your glass half full or half empty? Take a picture of both, | 8 |
| Bold: Embracing change takes courage, get bold. Visit the tech bar before 3pm and write on the courage wall. | 6 |
| Circle of Champions: Download the Circle of Champions logo, print and wear it proudly. | 3 |
| Ding ding ding! We have a winner!: Put a dollar in the March for Babies bucket. | 8 |
| Enable breakouts: ABT getting you down? During your morning breakout session, share a picture of your success during your beach task. | 4 |
| Entrepreneurial: Create a new breakfast food or beverage idea and encourage others to try it too. | 4 |
| Externally aware: Did you embrace the 30 day challenge and meet someone new? Share! | 4 |
| Feeling Floridian?: Ask the hotel waiter for the Tipsy Turtle Cocktail or key lime pie dessert at dinner tonight, share a picture of your treat! | 8 |
| Find a friend: Make a new friend on your dine around tonight. | 10 |
| Going, going, gone: Get ready to win big! Find out about Mobile bidding for auctions and download the link to our 2015, 24 hour silent auction at the tech bar. Once you've received it send a picture of your screen. | 9 |
| Home improvement: On your water taxi ride to dinner, take a picture of the house with the best story. | 6 |
| I <3 technology: Technology getting you down? Take a picture of yourself having a drink and telling us about it the tech bar at 6pm. | 9 |
| I like turtles: It is sea turtle nesting season here at the Marriott Harbor Beach. Find the 2 different nesting areas on the beach and take a picture of yourself in awe. | 9 |
| I spy with my little eye: Where's FRED? Find him and take a picture sharing a cup of coffee at the tech bar. | 11 |
| Long term focused: reflect on your time at the conference | 4 |
| Look at me now: Search yourself in CRM | 8 |
| Macro planner: Visit the tech bar and search within FRED to find out about the macro planning program. | 8 |
| Mobile giving: (no description was provided) | 4 |
| Nimble: team pyramid? leap frog? take a picture being in the right position for change. | 3 |
| Paparazzi: Find in your program and document the NICU Family Support photo of the year. | 9 |
| Publix: Find someone wearing an I Love Publix button | 4 |
| Research: Look in your programs and take a picture of the 2014 National Ambassador, Aidan Lamonth. | 12 |
| Say hello: Introduce yourself to a new volunteer and show it by photographing your two badges (should definitely be from different states) | 4 |
| Spread the word: 1 in 10 US babies is born prematurely each year, pass a note to a hotel guest or employee and take a picture. | 8 |
| Surgeon general warning: Find a picture of a smoke free zone/no smoking and take a picture. | 7 |
| Whip it good: from 4:30-5:30 get inspired for your next Signature Chef auction and see what the hotel is cooking in the lobby. Take a picture of yourself and the chef. | 6 |
| You gotta be in it to win it: Use the tech bar and donate $1 to marchforbabies.org. Then take a picture of the screen. Note: You will NOT be able to donate from your mobile device and submit a screenshot that way. | 9 |
No comments:
Post a Comment