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Rotterdam

#RotterdamExperiment 2 – The best gamification is gamification that is unnoticed

‘The Rotterdam Way involves embracing innovation. The Rotterdam Experiment is an accelerator of change and our contribution to the recovery of our industry.’ Catherine Kalamidas, Account Manager Congresses at Rotterdam Partners Convention Bureau opened the second edition of The Rotterdam Experiment about gamification, which took place on 18 February. 

Yuri van Geest gave an insightful presentation and then Catherine welcomed experts for a roundtable discussion to delve further into the topic of gamification in an attempt to answer the question, ‘What will your event of the future look like using gamification.’

According to Catherine, ‘Think about your own youth and the life lessons you learned playing games. Perhaps you gained knowledge about how to make a deal playing Monopoly, problem-solving by playing Clue, strategic thinking by playing Battle Ship, collaborations and creativity by playing Dungeons and Dragons or developed a sense of timing and dexterity by avoiding ghosts in Pac-Man. Examining these learning experiences, you have sufficient insights to implement gamification successfully for your event.’ 

The past year has forced us to reassess our personal and organisational priorities. Some of the analysis areas include the need for wellbeing, mindfulness and self-awareness, values that weren’t as widely present pre COVID-19 but are now entering our working culture going forward. This new set of values brings significant opportunities for the gaming industry and events. 

My takeaways from Traverse Conference – tips for MICE professionals to step up the social media game

End of May I attended the Traverse Conference in Rotterdam, an event for bloggers, content creators, influencers and PR professionals. This was my first Traverse event, after attending their blogger sessions at the World Travel Market. This conference was aimed mainly at travel bloggers, and about 400 people attended the week-long event. It started officially on Monday the 21 May with mid-week events and the main conference took place on the weekend of 26 – 27 May. Additionally, there were co-working spaces for those who arrived earlier and wanted to get some work done. I arrived on Wednesday night, and stayed until Monday morning and that was the right time to experience the host destination Rotterdam and make the most out of my time there.

I think that the MICE industry can learn from what travel bloggers are doing as there are many overlaps. Bloggers are not only content creators, they are digital marketers who’ve build strong personal brands and communities. Similarly, event planners travel a lot; post photos from hotel rooms, food, incentives, so why not do it more strategically with the aim to sell their services or build a personal brand?

Therefore, I decided to share this post here with you to help you to showcase your work better online. As the lines between leisure and business travel blur, MICE suppliers should be paying even closer attention to what their leisure counterparts are doing when it comes to influencer marketing. The consumer journey begins early on social media, and the discovery starts. Social media plays an important part in how people will then interact and book their trips (business or leisure) and how they will spend their time at the destination.

But now let’s get to the content part. The content was excellent! It ranged from inspirational and creative tips for improving the blog to practical seminar sessions about how to improve technical aspects such as SEO, Adobe Lightroom, and perhaps the most exciting part for many bloggers, how to make money. There were four education streams simultaneously, and sometimes it was very hard to choose one!