Feminine gamification viewpoint: energy
In most games energy levels for players are an important success factor, they allow a team to push through and often makes the difference between winning and losing. This is the case in sports, e-sports and equally in work or at conferences. I have just come back from a conference about corporate universities in Amsterdam and by the end of the 2nd of conference and you include the workshops the third day people were attending, the energy levels were well exhausted.
Death by powerpoint presentation came to mind at some stage. Each speaker had valuable information to share and prepared in advance, yet most speakers stuck to the same style of presenting energy, professional, informative but not overly engaging and interactive. The irony being obviously that most work in learning and development. Now energy management is not just about the presenter, who has to keep their energy up but also about managing the energy in the room. Having been in the position of having to manage energy levels in training rooms, it was something I was always conscious and observant of.
Simple things like standing up and changing body position can assist, interactions from a hands up where you in the front exaggeratedly demonstrate how you want people to respond to you, to the massage train where you get the whole audience to give a quick shoulder massage or if you are me get people to dance a bit to energise. The key to managing energy is to start where people are at and at a conference it tends tone low key and easy and then build up to incorporate power poses where the hands are up in the air and the body is extended.
As a moderator and presenter it takes planning and judging of the openness of the audience to get the balance right. I was tasked with moderating one stream of presentations and I have to say I could have done more to keep the energy flowing better. People have said to me in the past that making people move, dance or do thing is just entertainment, which I fundamentally disagree with. In gamification it is part and parcel of the role of the game orchestrator, to keep the flow at peak state. I have attended a lot of events where neuroscience was the core topic and reaching optimum peak state was actively part of each sessions. In video games you will have a natural ebb and flow of activity, difficulty and tension.
No matter how interested you are in a topic it is the energy of the speaker and the energy in the room that also has an impact.
What do you do to keep energy levels high for yourself and the audiences you speak to?
So true about the energy! I think that the state of mind is what matters. When you are passionate about the topic you present, your words and body language represents that. Also you have to be in a state of "I have something valuable to share". Not "I am afraid to speak to these people"… The passion and sharing the value attitude opens the inner flow of energy. And people sense that.
Indeed Vaida as a speaker you can influence, but managing the environment and dynamics in the room is also essential. It is why game environments are so appealing and the pace (fast and slow) can often play an instrumental part.