While attending the 2019 Synod meeting for Victoria and Tasmania I discovered that there was game built around the app containing all the reports and information for the 4 day meeting.
The app used was called AttendeeHub by CrowdCompass and was a wonderful way of collecting all the information such as reports, proposals, and maps in once place. Gamification came in the form of a tutorial which awarded points for successfully navigating the various features of the app. A very satisfying star twinkled on the screen with the number of points awarded each time a new part of the app was explored.
There were 19 achievements in four different categories and a possible 23,300 points on offer. The essence of competition was introduced with a leader board showing the progress of the members if synod in the game. The first player to reach the 19 achievement was awarded rank 1 and so on and so on. I was pretty please to get there second and be awarded rank 2.
Once the victory conditions were understood it was fairly easy to complete, although it did involve sharing on social media which might have been difficult for those not connected. As games go it was simple and enjoyable, it gave me a sense of the workings of the app and urged me to explore it further. Those who liked game found themselves in the top 10 others either ignored the game or opted out.
There was another less recognisable form of gamification introduced during the Synod meeting. Its aim was to get us to investigate, learn, repeat and recall a specific piece of often forgotten cultural identity. It placed upon each person speaking to make the following statement before the important matter that they had risen to declare. This statement which was to precede the burning issue they wanted to speak about then became a moment of contemplation for the speaker and all who listened that would set the tone for the information to follow.
Some may balk at the idea that this was gamification, however as it contains rules, rewards, participation and at some points competition, it meets the criteria.
The statement was
Moderator, my name is insert name, I am from agency/location.
I live in the land of the First Peoples Nation
The words in bold are obviously exchanged for the relevant information. The afore mentioned app provided a map of the Nations of First Peoples so that information could be easily found. This gamification of mindfulness provided the synod an opportunity to investigate, learn, repeat and recall a significant issue as a lens for all matters before the meeting.
