Do games have a place in the future of the meetings industry? I don't mean pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or icebreakers, but really integrating aspects of gaming (particularly those that make online games so addictive) into a meeting's agenda.
I started thinking about this a few years ago when I attended a session at ASAE led by Susan Fox of The Forbes Group on how online gaming would affect the future of associations. It came up again at the 2010 Global Alliance for Medical Education meeting in a session about how mobile online applications based on gaming are infiltrating the world of continuing medical education (in a good way).
More recently, I read on the Interactive Meeting Technology blog about how the Green Meetings Industry Council used gaming to spark learning at its meeting. Then, in another piece of serendipity, I finally got around to reading my latest issue of Wired and came across an article by Clive Thompson on how games can re-energize the work environment.
Is anyone else getting really excited about all of this? Maybe it's just because I can get a tad competitive (ask my sisters!), but I think the intersection of gaming with education may just be an important new tool in our educational kit.
What do you think? And do you know of any other good examples out there?