I recently attended the 8^th Annual Games for Health Conference in Boston and have several takeaways I wanted to share. The first is that this “movement” is picking up steam and that the role of games in health and other useful endeavors is becoming increasing clear and accepted. The breadth of conditions, scenarios, and locations where gaming is being applies is staggering. The promise of near-term breakthroughs in thinking and results is on the horizon.

While companies have been trying for years to engage their employees in health, wellness, and well-being with little success, games and gaming provide the first real opportunity to give these efforts a fighting chance. Accepting the fact that employees have free choice and will undertake the activities that are most rewarding to them will lead more and more people to make sure that engaging in healthy behaviors is rewarding. Gaming can provide many types of rewards, many of which don’t cost a dime. This gives games a significant advantage over programs which attempt to pay people to be healthy for long periods of time by providing only financial rewards.

When employees are given a choice between traditional approaches: brown bag lunches; health assessment surveys; intrusive nurse coaches; and the opportunity to play games and compete with their peers, we think the choice is obvious. People like to compete, people like to socialize, and people like to win prizes, recognition, and rewards. Our challenge platform allows companies to find out what will motivate their various teams and to create events that will attract and motivate large numbers of employees.